Writing Reborn

 Hello Readers, 

 I titled this Writing Reborn because I have been feeling the urge to start writing again after a long hiatus. I left off the habit of blogging in 2012 after about a year of blogging regularly. 

I would love to occupy a space in social media that is thoughtful, purposeful, and community centered: enter, Reflections Blog. 

My intentions beyond these things are rather vague. I intend to visit this space after I have commonplaced* something that I have read and would like to explore the idea or quotation further. I hope it will bless others and I am ready to be actively writing again. I just read a quote from Charlotte Mason this morning that has my brain and heart buzzing. She is talking about how we all have an influence on our surroundings and carry an atmosphere around with us wherever we go, 

 "This question of influence is, by the way, very interesting. The old painters pictured the saints with a nimbus, a glory, coming out of them. The saint with a nimbus suggests what seems to be a universal truth, that each of us moves, surrounded by an emanation from his own personality; and this emanation is the influence which affects everyone who comes near him. Generosity emanates, so to speak, from the generous person; from the mean person, meanness. Those who come in contact with the generous become generous themselves; with the mean, mean.

This sort of influence we cannot help using; it is unconscious, and belongs to our nature. We have no business with the influence that comes out of ourselves, and have no right to try to influence other people." 

When I read this quote, I thought of another quote I heard somewhere which was something like, "A Christian is someone who has met a Christian." 

 It's a very hopeful outlook on evangelism and the effect of living out Christ's commands. I would take this concept a step further for I do think that Christianity asks for effort on the part of each individual (or is it that the individual asks something of the Christianity? These things are beyond me). But I love the heart of what I think the idea is getting at, which is that there is no formula to evangelism. Certainly, we have the Great Commission(Matt 28:16-20), but this is not a formula: it is a commission. I believe in baptism, obedience, and loving and choosing God's Word. I believe all these things are powerful and good, and over and above all these things is Love. The Holy Spirit works wondrously, and love effortlessly and mysteriously converts hearts, breaks down walls, and spreads in the midst of the most horrible and hopeless atrocities that this world has known. 


 I will leave today's blog at that, for my reflections seem to have come to an end here. I am also working on the beginning thought process for writing an autobiographical. If that interests you, or if you have experience with this process I would welcome your comments and advice. I am in the note-taking and storytelling phase. I do not plan to actually write the book for a number of years. 


Au revoir ~


*commonplace: a term that refers to putting down in writing something you have read or heard. 






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

To Our Darling Child - Home in Heaven Before Us

Image
2/12/2026  "Said hello and goodbye to baby Ross this morning. Joshua and I spent a good while holding him - a sweet and necessary time for us. I'm so glad that I was able to have him, hold him, kiss him, study his little hands, fingers, toes, nails, face, tiny as he is. The boys were able to come and Christopher wanted to hold him. He was wrapped in a little blanket with name stitched on it by his auntie. "   The grief has barely begun, yet we've already heard from so many people who have walked this path before us. God is connecting our story to others' in a truly beautiful way. I can't tell what the future might look like for us, but right now I feel such a strong sense of peace and hope. I hope that I can encourage others who have been through this dark and heartrending path, or who may possibly be facing it in the future. There is no consolation to the fact that it is a club that no one wants to join; it feels like the biggest nightmare. And there's no...
Read more

Papa John

Image
On Saturday, my aunt texted the family to see if we would like to join them for Sunday worship at their home (The Farm) where they have been taking care of my grandfather as his health has deteriorated. Immediately, Josh texted me saying yes, we could go. I didn't know I was about to witness one of the most beautiful mornings of my life. We arrived at 10am and settled in with other family members, the kids running in between the circle of chairs that had been placed inside the downstairs livingroom. My aunt mentioned as she was leaving to work in the kitchen that my grandmother had requested that some of us should go into Papa John's room during the singing so that he could hear, so Shaina and I filtered in as the hymns began. We sang How Great is Our God and The Old Rugged Cross and I'll Fly Away. His eyes were closed during the singing, but he really responded to the hymns and after the message and the last song, my grandmother came into the room with us and she told him ...
Read more

The Light Princess

Image
 My favorite fairytale picture book in our house is an adaptation of The Light Princess by George MacDonald. I am always looking to collect good fairytale picture books, especially from the Brothers Grimm collection (if the adaptation is bad, I am happy to have the boys hold the picture book while I read from the original), so to have a favorite is saying something - I am typically not one to commit to favorites, but this story is simply too good not to fall for (and not to share with you!). The Light Princess is a spin off of the well known "Sleeping Beauty" story; taking a drastic turn at the beginning of the tale when instead of the princess being cursed with death, she is cursed with losing her gravity. The light princess grows up untethered from the earth and with no sense of gravity about the situation she is in; always laughing and making light of life, the King and Queen try everything to make her see the serious side of things: to no avail. Can anything transport t...
Read more