Tag: writer

Are You There God? It’s Me Rachel

faith, Life Lessons, Spiritual Growth

“Tell them to go home and flourish in their planting, in the place where I have planted them, and if they do, they’ll change the world.” – Bobbie Houston  It was a sweltering Friday in July, but I was inside. I was sitting just outside of a hotel meeting room door anxiously waiting for my name to be called. It was my first writer’s conference and I had scored one of the few, coveted appointment slots with a publisher; during which I would pitch my book in hopes they would offer me a contract. I sat quietly, legs crossed at the ankles, my hands in my lap resting on top of the three…

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Promises, Promises

faith

Just shy of two years ago, while holding a completed manuscript in my hands asking, “OK God, what’s next?” (Because I had no idea how to take the three-ring binder full of word documents I had and turn it into a real book). God made me a promise that He would bring “joyful and influential women” into my life who would help champion my book and my message. It was only a week or two after that I received this fortune cookie. For whatever reason God speaks to me quite regularly through fortune cookies, and that might be a sign I eat way too much PF Chang’s.  But the promise was reaffirmed. It’s…

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I Prayed for You

faith

With all the busyness and to-do’s of launching my book, it occurred to me earlier this week I hadn’t actually prayed for the people who will hold my book in their hands in just a matter of days. I had prayed laboriously for guidance while writing and creating this project, I have thanked God at every opportunity for allowing me and my story to be used to help other people, I have prayed for God to bring the people and resources into my life to get it off the ground and into as many hands as possible (and He has SO faithfully delivered!), I have praised Him for how much life change I…

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What makes you come alive?

Life Lessons, Success & Motivation

I’m never so alive as when I’m writing something that has the potential to change someone else’s life. DOing what I was CREATED and gifted to do. I am not perfect. I will continue to get better, hone my craft, improve my skills…. But there’s nothing like living out your God-given purpose in real life. What’s your purpose? What makes you come alive? When is the last time you thought about it? Or acted on it? I know how easy it is to get buried in the routine of every day until weeks have gone by and you haven’t done anything meaningful. Friends, you were not created to work a job, to make…

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Deserts

faith, Life Lessons, Spiritual Growth

Lately I’ve been feeling….dry. And by “lately” I mean for like the last 6 months. And by “dry” I mean a little dead on the inside. Spiritually. I have heard about spiritual desert seasons people go through. When they feel distant from God. And I’ve seen the cheesy church signs that say things like: “Feeling distant from God? Who moved – you or Him?” Thanks for that extra guilt and shame, church sign.  In a time when I already feel lost and confused. The fact of the matter is, I have been marching steadily toward the purpose and the mission to which God has called me. Not away from it or Him. So…

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You Make Me Brave

faith, Life Lessons, Success & Motivation

Jonathan Robert Willis *Photographer snapped this shot at the ‪#‎Unpolished2015‬ conference the moment he was asking me about my book, and i was telling him and his team about how i’m in the editing process now and how editing is WAY harder and more work than writing the book ever was! and then we laughed about it. what i love is that this expression captures so much of what 2015 was for me – that’s an overwhelmed laugh. it’s laughter lined with a layer of uncertainty because i actually had no idea what i was doing. being an author, publishing, speaking publicly…. i know it’s what I’m being called to, but it’s all…

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