Meeting this Saturday

Don't miss our last meeting of the season!

Saturday, June 4, 10 am to noon

High Mountain Church of the Nazarene

Come prepared to share your summer writing goals -

and if you don't have any, we'll help you set some!

Also share the writing challenges you face and a growth plan.

If you bring work to critique, please follow the instructions on our website.

See you Saturday, as we encourage each other to "Write for Him",

Barbara

barbarahigbyhope.com

Last month's Focus Point:

Our Best Effort

In Matthew 25, we find a man who is about to leave on a journey. In preparation for his absence, he gathers his servants & entrusts his property to them. To one, he gave five talents, to the next two talents, and to the last, one talent.

When their master leaves, the first two servants invested their talents. The third one played it safe; he buried his talent because he was afraid to use it.

The returning master was pleased with the servants who invested their talents, but disappointed and even angry with the one who buried his talent.

These are his concluding words: “Everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance.” In other words, those who use what they’ve been given will receive more, to the point of abundance.

This parable underscores that what we are given is an entrustment from God and His expectation is not that we merely protect our gifts, but increase them through investment. That is the goal of NJCWG - to give us an opportunity to invest in and thereby increase our gift of writing.

It is not enough for us to write raw, without honing, editing, and improving our work. As we cultivate our talent, we multiply its value and extend its effectiveness. Like the servants in the parable who invested their talents, we increase our talents’ worth through investment.

To that end, we meet with our writing group; we allow our work to be critiqued; we edit and edit again; we attend writing conferences and webinars; we subscribe to writing blogs; we read about writing and we study techniques.

Let’s be encouraged to learn and grow, spending time and effort to increase our talents.

Next month we will share three things for the summer: our goals, our challenges to writing, and a growth plan. What one investment can you make to multiply your talents?

Take away thought: My talent is a gift to nurture and develop because, as a servant of the Lord, He has entrusted me with the gift of writing.