Writing: A Gift

A few years ago, I wrote my first book. I say that because it was my first story over 100 pages and it was the best book I'd written yet, which isn't saying much. Also, it was one of the first modern day stories I'd ever written. Before that, I was writing fairytales. The story opened up much more ideas and possibilities to me.

The theme of it was forgiveness. I'd always seen forgiveness as one of the most beautiful things on earth. Forgiveness could bring peace, melt anger, and make the most unlikely of friendships. Jesus had forgiven me and that helped me see the beauty of forgiveness.

Soon afterwards, I wrote another book. For some odd reason, the central idea revolved around forgiveness. Even now, most of my books have something to with forgiveness one way or another. Of course, that's not a bad thing. One day,  my best friend, who I read all my stories to, asked, "Why are all of your stories about forgiveness?"

I really didn't have an answer to that. To be honest, I hadn't given it much thought. I simply thought forgiveness was amazing and I liked to write about amazing things. Back then, I didn't realize the main reason I write about the subject. Now I do.

Because I struggle with it, a lot. Though I see it as a great thing, often times I can't do it.Why? Other than I'm sinner, negative words are easily remembered and extremely hard to forget, if that's even possible. It's probably the worst thing about negative words.

Memories haunt me. Hurtful words come back to me at the worst of times. Not only that, but I lied. I tell people I forgive them and act like it's okay, when I secretly can't bring myself to do it.  That hindered me from succeeding to forgive. It was only recently when I realized the true reason why I always wrote about forgiveness. Because especially then, I was still trying to forgive.

And the sad thing is, I still am sometimes.

But God gives me forgiveness. He gives me grace and mercy, despite my many sins and mess-ups. It's why he gave me writing, to show me the beauty of forgiveness, to teach me how to forgive.

I couldn't be more grateful to Him because of that. To me, writing is more than a hobby, job, or even a lifestyle. Truly, it's a gift, not a talent. It's a gift from God.

So tell me, how is a writing a gift to you?