Tidings of Comfort and Joy by Annmarie Miles
I hope you are all enjoying the Advent season and are looking forward to special family moments over Christmas. I'm aware that for some, Christmas is a difficult time, and a number of our ACW friends are struggling with illness and pain. I pray that God will bring great blessing and strength from these trials.
2019 has been a difficult year for me. My 'pastor's wife' hat has felt more like a helmet as our church family have battled illnesses and struggles, leaving some of us tired and in need of healing and refreshing. I have been very emotional this year and have cried a lot, not always 100% sure what about... I fell at the end of August and cracked some ribs. I was in so much pain and felt old and weak. My confidence is still fragile four months later. Working on edits for my non-fiction wip about food, weight and God has been difficult and I've been challenged to look deeper at the reasons for my 'chaotic' eating. This is not easy.
In the middle of all the difficulty and challenges, and though it is often hard work, I find writing is my haven in the storm. It brings me purpose and fulfillment - even when I'm complaining about it. I am grateful to God for giving writing to me. I had just turned 40, with no children and no sense of any real calling to anything, I just started one day. The stories poured out of me as if they had been lined up waiting for me to open the door. My three books, the third one, just published a few weeks ago (there's a link in my bio if you want to check it out), are like the children I never had and I'm very proud of them. I find comfort and joy in writing and love living in a swirl of story ideas.
I'm grateful for the inspired writing of others. Last month I mentioned David the Psalmist - imagine if God had not given him those words to write - we would the poorer for it. I'm grateful too for the writing of some of my ACW friends. Every Sunday I am blessed by Abby King's reminder. I didn't realise I needed reminding so often, but it turns out I do. Reminder of what? Go like her FB page and you'll be blessed too :) And I hope you've all been enjoying Amy Scott Robinson's Tiny Advent Poems. Every one of them has me saying, "YES! that's it. That's just what it's like." What a blessing!
That's just two of the many wonderful writers in our group and I am thankful for you all. We are privileged to have been gifted by God to bring tidings of comfort and joy to others. We can bless people with a novel, a tweet and everything in between. I pray that each of us will be inspired in 2020 to continue to do so.
God's richest blessing to each and every reader and writer x
Annmarie Miles is from Dublin, Ireland.
She lives with her husband Richard who is a pastor in the Eastern Valley of Gwent, in South Wales. She writes short stories, magazine articles, devotional pieces for Christian radio, and blogs about her faith at www.auntyamo.com Her first collection of short stories published in 2013, is called 'The Long & The Short of it'. Her second collection, 'A Sense of the Sea and other stories,' was published in 2018 and in December 2019 she published her first novel, Gorse Lodge. She is currently editing a non-fiction book about being an overweight Christian called, 'Have mercy on me O Lord, a slimmer.'
2019 has been a difficult year for me. My 'pastor's wife' hat has felt more like a helmet as our church family have battled illnesses and struggles, leaving some of us tired and in need of healing and refreshing. I have been very emotional this year and have cried a lot, not always 100% sure what about... I fell at the end of August and cracked some ribs. I was in so much pain and felt old and weak. My confidence is still fragile four months later. Working on edits for my non-fiction wip about food, weight and God has been difficult and I've been challenged to look deeper at the reasons for my 'chaotic' eating. This is not easy.
I'm grateful for the inspired writing of others. Last month I mentioned David the Psalmist - imagine if God had not given him those words to write - we would the poorer for it. I'm grateful too for the writing of some of my ACW friends. Every Sunday I am blessed by Abby King's reminder. I didn't realise I needed reminding so often, but it turns out I do. Reminder of what? Go like her FB page and you'll be blessed too :) And I hope you've all been enjoying Amy Scott Robinson's Tiny Advent Poems. Every one of them has me saying, "YES! that's it. That's just what it's like." What a blessing!
That's just two of the many wonderful writers in our group and I am thankful for you all. We are privileged to have been gifted by God to bring tidings of comfort and joy to others. We can bless people with a novel, a tweet and everything in between. I pray that each of us will be inspired in 2020 to continue to do so.
God's richest blessing to each and every reader and writer x
Annmarie Miles is from Dublin, Ireland.
She lives with her husband Richard who is a pastor in the Eastern Valley of Gwent, in South Wales. She writes short stories, magazine articles, devotional pieces for Christian radio, and blogs about her faith at www.auntyamo.com Her first collection of short stories published in 2013, is called 'The Long & The Short of it'. Her second collection, 'A Sense of the Sea and other stories,' was published in 2018 and in December 2019 she published her first novel, Gorse Lodge. She is currently editing a non-fiction book about being an overweight Christian called, 'Have mercy on me O Lord, a slimmer.'
I couldn't agree more, Annmarie. Thank you for being generous with your struggles and being authentic. No such thing as the perfect Christmas. I also find the ACW members such a support. Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteI totally identify with you in your experience of writing memoir. Suddenly there are truths staring at you from the page/screen that you realise are significant, and need looking at. And you think, 'How did they get there?!'
ReplyDelete