The Power of a Word

Hello and welcome! I'm Kris, the author behind this blog. And if you know me, you know that this isn't the first blog I've created and dived into. So why another one?

Well, I've been reading Chrystal Evans Hurst's new book, She's Still There through the Proverbs 31 ministries bible study, and let me tell you, this book is challenging me. (I'd love to write more on it but I'll save that for another time because my reflections could equal another entire post.)

The book challenges each reader to find the person God created us to be. Because he doesn't create anyone by accident, and he has a purpose for each of us. It's up to us to be intentional about finding out what the purpose is. To ask ourselves, what skills and personality traits has he engrained in me?

After much prayer and contemplation, I truly believe there's one thing God has instilled in me that I just simply cannot shake off:

The love of words.

I adore them. I can't get enough of reading and writing. In high school and college, I always excelled at English classes. Math and Science... not so much. But let me write a paper and I'd get that covered easy peasy. Words come easily to me.

And there's so much power in a word! A kind word from a stranger can immediately lift your mood. Just like a song with sad lyrics can leave you feeling wounded and down. Words can make you feel something.

As mentioned previously, this isn't my first blog. In fact, to be perfectly honest, it's more like my 4th or 5th. (But who's counting?) In my prayerful consideration of starting up any sort of writing again, I'd like to dive into my thought process so you can get a taste for my background and what led me to start Simple & Soulful. 

I've always felt God whispering to me to write. Each time I felt the calling, I'd start a blog and dive head first into it. I'd buy a domain, create an About page and tabs, and then reserve all of the social media handles. But each time I did this, it just didn't feel quite right. Like I was pushing myself to do everything because if blogging was going to work, I needed to go all in and find ways to monetize it so I could quit my day job. Like I said, I've done this a few times before getting to where I'm at today. And each time, I'd get overwhelmed and quit, immediately feeling relief. Which would then lead me to believe that maybe God's will for me wasn't to write after all. So I'd give up and move on with my life.

However, this time, I'm doing things significantly different. I've had to really be quiet and listen, and really understand that the call to write is still there. It's a whisper I hear when I lay in bed at night. That ridiculously quiet time of night when everyone else is asleep, and all the lights are off, but my mind is still moving at break-neck pace. The whisper that says Just write....

Notice the whisper doesn't say Just write. Oh, and definitely buy a domain. And start all social media pages. And have your entire blog in a niche with your 1, 5, and 10 year plan. 

No. The whisper says Just write... 

That's it.

So simple, right? And yet I fee like I've been missing it all along. I've been going out of my way to push God's plan and put everything into a nice, shiny, package and timeline.

But not this time. In fact, if you were to stumble upon this blog today, you'd notice all that I have here is a header, and this post. No picture of myself. No "About" section. No social media pages. Not even a photo to go with this post. Just a few words, on a blank page. And I think that's all God's been asking me to do for now.

If my dreams were to come to fruition (and I pray they do someday), I would obviously love to be a professional writer who can help others and even quit her day job to sit in a coffee shop all morning and write.

But for now, I'm going to follow God's simple instructions and just work on writing. That's it. My blog doesn't fit into a special niche, and even though that's what all the professionals say you should do, I'm not going to do it this time. I'm just going to write.

After all, there's incredible power in a word.

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One last thought: I'd like to interject the verse that's been on my head for many years as I've dabbled in this writing thing. Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future."

How refreshing does that sound, right? Some powerful words right there.