Psalm 37:39

 

"But the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their strength in the time of trouble."

Psalm 37:39 (NKJ)

Doing the Boring Stuff First

    Lately in class, I've heard of a strategy that supposedly really helps a person get the most out of their day. It's basically looking over one's To-Do List before the day begins, making note of all the most uninteresting and difficult things, and planning to do them before anything else.
    All the boring stuff. Before anything else.
    The logic is that by doing the boring stuff first, a person will be giving their fullest mental capacity to the important task before the mind can get worn out by the rest of the day's activities. This logic is sound, and I really like the concept of getting boring work out of the way first . . .
    But using my brainpower when it's at its peak on the boring stuff? Not doing anything interesting until I've slogged through the mundane? I don't want to do that! I want to wake up and immediately do something fun, not dreary. If my waking thought in the morning is that I have to do something I'd rather not within half an hour, I'd frankly be a little depressed.
    And even if the tasks weren't as boring as much as they were just difficult, there'd still be an issue. Because I (like all other people) am an emotional, occasionally erratic human being. I can't work like a clockwork machine all the time, and certainly not every morning, because I get bored, and then discouraged, which usually results in a complete halt in the work process.
    What I need is an undeterred start; a way to wake up and be eager for the day's activities rather than frustrated at the thought of the first chore. Let me do something fun, even if it's just reading for fifteen minutes; then I'll be happy to start getting boring work out of the way.
    Yet the logic remains: starting in on the boring stuff first gets it out of the way quickest, and probably with more attention and better quality than work that's done right after something far more interesting.
    Maybe I'll adopt a sort of hybrid of the "boring stuff first" technique. Maybe on certain days I'll get the boring stuff done first, and on other days I'll do a few fun tasks beforehand.
    What about you? Do you do the boring stuff on your To-Do List first? Or do you always start the day with something fun? Which do you think is better?

Sylvia Plath and Self Doubt



"The worst enemy to creativity is self doubt."

~Sylvia Plath

    Worst enemy. Huh; what an interesting way to think of it. When I hear "worst enemy," I think of a person bent on bettering, conquering, foiling, and basically destroying their noble opponent. I imagine a worst enemy as a person, or a force of numerous people; not a tendency that one person has.
    But it makes a lot of sense. Especially since the self-doubt a lot of us experience as writers often comes as a little voice in the mind. "Hey! You can't work on that now! You won't get an ounce of quality work done!" "Don't even think of starting a new project; you'll lose interest in it after two days." "You shouldn't even bother powering on your computer; you'll probably get sucked into the Internet anyway." All those positive comments that make a person feel so light-hearted.
    Yeah, that sounds like the voice of an opponent. So if self-doubt acts as an enemy, how do we beat it? Voices like this don't go away easily, if it's even possible to get rid of them . . .
    What do we normally do with people who act like a jerk and say rude things to us?
    Personally, I think the best thing to do in that situation is to . . . well, ignore them.
    So maybe that just might work with self-doubt too. It doesn't help to pay attention to them anyway; it only inhibits progress and makes someone feel crummy. Plus, the self-doubting thoughts often take root in fear and/or bitterness. So why believe a word of what it says?
    Ignoring the voice of self-doubt; what do you think of the idea? Is it best to avoid self-doubt altogether, or do you think there's something good that can come out of it?

Proverbs 1:33

 

"'But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil.'"

Proverbs 1:33 (NKJ)

    The speaker of this quote in Proverbs is a personification of wisdom; which I've heard, though the personification's female, can also be viewed as a representation of Christ, the wisest of all.
    Which gives yet another context to this comforting verse. Viewing the speaker as a personification of wisdom, it would be an exhortation to act wisely, which would keep one out of the troubles that unwise actions provoke. But in addition, if one were to look at this verse as Christ speaking, they would hear the encouraging fact that hearing and believing His words will keep us from having to be afraid of the inevitable problems in life. That absolutely trusting in God gives absolute peace.
    Have you ever thought of Proverbs's personification of wisdom as an analogy of the Lord? Do you think that's what the Father had in mind when this was written?

Some Thoughts on the Book of Jeremiah

    I've been reading the book of Jeremiah in the Bible lately. Fifty-two chapters seemed like a lot at first, but it's gone by surprisingly quickly.
    And man, is it an interesting read! A divine call, prophecies about an invasion, prophecies about the Messiah, various reigns of kings, betrayal, promises of redemption. These are just a few major things about the book, and there are lots of others as well.
    -Jeremiah himself is an interesting factor to begin with. Sometimes called "the weeping prophet," we get to see other shades of his personality and his emotions as he goes through a 20+ year-long ministry. He grieves for his nation, yearns for his people to turn back to the true God, but he also gets really angry once or twice when persecutors seriously wound him. But even when he seems to be seething with humiliation and pain, he doesn't lose his temper at the people or yell at God. Instead, when he goes to the Lord with his problems and pain, he respects Him and asks for help (Jeremiah 18:18-20 and Chapter 20 are some instances of this). It's a nice example to follow, taking our problems calmly and faithfully to the Lord, "casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7 NKJ).
    -The way God protects Jeremiah and the few people who help him is also a really cool thing to consider. Basically everyone in the country had him in their crosshairs; rulers, religious leaders, even his own neighbors. Jeremiah's life was threatened numerous times, he was thrown into prison for a crime he didn't commit, and he almost starved to death there. But throughout it all, he lived. And so did Jeremiah's scribe Baruch (Jeremiah 45:5), and Ebed-Melech, the man who saved Jeremiah's life by getting him out of a waterless cistern (Jeremiah 39:18), because God was protecting each of them. I just think it's a really great reminder of how He protects and guides us through whatever craziness we might face in life.
    -It was also very enlightening how the book of Jeremiah talks about what happened after the Babylonian invasion. It explains why the remnant that was left behind and their descendants weren't around when Zerubbabel and the people he led came back to the land. The after-invasion chapters also show what happened to Jeremiah after his immediate prophecies came to pass, which answers a couple other questions.
    -And of course, there are a lot of good verses in this book. Personally, Jeremiah 1:5, 1:8, and 20:9 in particular stuck out to me. They're beautiful statements that comfort and inspire, and encourage us to keep witnessing for the Lord.
    What do you think of the book of Jeremiah? Is it your favorite of the prophecy books in the Bible?

Writing Out Daydreams and Sticking to It

   
    Some people have the incredible gift of always being able to write at a considerably swift pace. I am not one of them.
   However, like most people, I can daydream with the ease of snapping my fingers, and the rapidity of blinking my eyes. And since I daydream quite a bit, I try to write some of them down as stand-alone scenes or short stories.
    But it doesn't always work out very well. I've found myself abandoning the effort on more than one occasion, (sometimes just after the first few sentences) because it's become boring. I can't type as fast as I can picture something, which makes the scene go a lot slower than it did in my mind, and that gets frustrating. I end up losing interest in the whole story and just move on to something else.
    This isn't horrible, but I'd really like to be able to stick to writing goals like it, so developing an effective solution would be nice.

To me, daydreams are kind of like blurry pictures of a scene;
they're legible, but a tad blurry (like this shaky picture I took),
and writing can make it much more clear and detailed.

    Daydreams are great creative exercises, sources of great story ideas, and it's just plain fun to do. But if I only focus on daydreaming as something fun, that's probably all that will come from it: momentary entertainment. And if I've already had fun with the daydream by the time I sit down to write about it, taking the extra time and effort to recreate and translate it into words would just feel pointless. The entertainment purpose has already been fulfilled, and without another motivation, there'd be  no reason to stick to writing it down.
    So there's got to be more than one purpose in daydreams that are intended to be written; something aside from having immediate amusement. Something that'll keep a person committed, determined to finishing it on the page. Writing the story for another person to enjoy could do the trick, or wanting to write the scene because it illustrates a point/cause really well. Or writing it down so that the daydream could be preserved and re-experienced without any alterations or missing events. These motivations can make good purposes, right?
    What do you think? Do you daydream a lot? Do you try to write them down? Have you ever had trouble doing it?

Psalm 19:14

 

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my redeemer."

Psalm 19:14 (NKJ)