Writing with God's Little Pencil

Okay, I have a blog, I have a theme for my blog and I have a few ideas. But you might wonder why I started this? This really isn't my idea.

Now don't get me wrong, I like having people read what I write, I really like when they tell me that I write well and that they enjoy what I wrote. But God told me that this in not what the Catholic Pickle Jar is about. Let me explain.

I do enjoy putting my thoughts on paper, I think I write better than I speak. But I had gotten away from writing anything to get published the past few years. I did some professional writing in an educational journal about 15 years ago, but since then the most creative thing I wrote was our annual Christmas newsletter. However, I occasionally toyed with the idea to write for profit.

Recently I started seeing posts about www.Catholic365.com looking for volunteers to write essays. These posts kind of ate at my heart and I finally sat down to the keyboard and wrote an essay to contribute. The next day I checked and there were over 1000 shares, I don't have that many friends; I am pretty sure I don't even know 1000 people that I could convince to open up a web page, much less to share. Of course my ego goes into high gear and I start thinking about being a rich, well known author and living off the income all through retirement. 

Then God laughed at me. Second article was not nearly as popular and I get a case of writer's block. I start second guessing myself and backing down from my grandiose plans.

Then Saturday comes and I go to the Catholic Women for Christ Conference. I can't tell you what the speakers said, I think the theme was something about setting the world on fire, but I know what I heard. Between the lines God was telling me that I do need to write about being Catholic; I didn't need to worry about numbers of hits or appealing to a broad audience; he would take care of making sure the person who needed to see my message would. By the lunch break I was in a cold sweat and my heart was pounding in my chest. I wasn't actually crying, but felt like I was about to start. I told the ladies I came with to not wait for me for lunch and headed for the Adoration Chapel. I sat down and asked God what did He want of me. It only took me about ten minutes and I had mentally committed to writing from a Catholic viewpoint, not plan on being a financial success, know that even if my audience is small, God will help the people that need to see my page find it. (If this whole scene sounds weird to you, imagine how I was feeling.)

I went home and by the next day had www.theCatholicpicklejar.blogspot.com set up. I still am not quite sure how this all came together. If anything on here ever inspires you, please share with others. I promised God that I was going to do my best work and not just throw just anything up there to increase traffic or boost my ego.

I was thinking while I was driving to work today that God is asking a lot of me, I go to church, I raised my kids pretty well, I try to be a good wife, I even work at a Catholic homeless shelter. How big a piece of me does the Lord want? But I know the answer to that; He, who gave me all, wants all of me. I guess I will just have to see where this ride takes me.

“I am a little pencil in God's hands. He does the thinking. He does the writing. He does everything and sometimes it is really hard because it is a broken pencil and He has to sharpen it a little more.”

Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta

P.S. to the Catholics who keep track of feast days, note the date. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray for us sinners