#200: Comparison: 7 Ways to Overcome the Comparison Trap in Your Writing (Breakthrough Series)

Welcome to Kingdom Writers, where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, C.J. and Shelli Hitz.

This podcast is filled with spiritual encouragement as well as prayers to help you overcome the resistance you face as a writer. Your story matters foreign.

Hey, Kingdom writers, this is Shelly Hitz. Welcome to the Breakthrough series. So this is going to be a series of 12 episodes that we're going to dive in deep to the obstacles that you face as a Christian writer. We covered all of these topics in our online prayer meeting episode, and now we're going to dive deep into some practical things and some script scriptures that can really help you. So I hope you enjoy this series. We did record it live on Facebook, and so you may hear us say, you know, comment here or we're gonna have some Q and A at the end. But just know that you can always join us live over on our Facebook page, Christian Book Academy. And we also wanted to provide this on our podcast so that you can listen to these as many times as you want to help you receive breakthrough. And as a Kingdom Writer, have you ever struggled with comparison in your writing? Or have you ever asked the question, how is my writing any different than what's already been written? Or how is my book going to be any different than what's already out there? So we are in the middle of our breakthrough series. I'm Shelly Hitz, and I'm joined here with my husband C.J.

Hey, guys.

And we are just so excited to be breaking through 12 different obstacles. The most common that we've seen in the eight years of mentoring writers and even being writers in publishing for over a decade ourselves. And so what's different about this series is that we integrate the power and the dynamite of scripture and prayer into these trainings. It's not just prayer, personal growth. This is really going to hit a deeper level spiritually. So we're so excited to share this episode with you. And if you're here live or watching the replay, please comment, Interact with us. It spurs us on and encourages us like almost nothing else. So I was talking to one of my academy members recently, and she was telling me this. She said, sometimes I look at the best sellers and see them as what a book is supposed to be and like, the standard of what my book is supposed to be. And then she feels like it shuts her down because she feels like she can never attain the same standards. And so that's another form of comparison. So if you've ever struggled with comparison or comparing your work either to other writers, other books on social media, comparing your platforms or your marketing to someone else. Just type comparison in the comments. This is a very common issue and we really want to give you seven practical ways that you can overcome this today.

Yeah, and many of you are familiar with the quote by Teddy Roosevelt which says, comparison is the thief of joy. And for those of us that have experienced that, we know it's true that many times. That's why we call it the comparison trap, because we can get trapped in feeling like we're stuck in comparing ourselves to everyone else. Woe is me. I'm not good enough or my work isn't as good, or, you know, we're just constantly in this jealousy and envy. And so it really can be a thief of joy. But we want to, we want to talk about, you know, some things that can help us break through, you know, this whole thing. Now, those of you that are basketball fans, I'm going to specifically just mention the NBA, the National Basketball Association. Imagine if all of the players, you know, in the NBA, or maybe even those that are coming up through college who have a great chance of being drafted to play in the NBA. Imagine if everyone just looked at LeBron James, Michael Jordan, and they said, you know what, I could never measure up to them. So, you know, I might as well quit. Imagine. I mean, well, first of all, you wouldn't have a league full of awesome, dynamic players that make up the whole league. And you know, it would be a bummer to fans worldwide. But thankfully, the league is made up of all kinds of talent. There are seven footers, there are six footers, there are point guards, there are forwards, there are centers. Not everyone can be LeBron James, not everyone can be Michael Jordan and the exceptional, extraordinary talent that these guys have. But every player contributes something unique to them. And that's what makes this exciting. You know, you never know who's going to come up through the ranks. You never know who's going to have an incredible day on any given day in the season. So it's not just all about LeBron James and Michael Jordan. And those two would even tell you, wow, we need every single player around us to be the players that we are. You know, we wouldn't be able to shine, you know, in our talents without all of the team around us. And so, you know, it's a good illustration for us and our writing abilities. You know, we may not be, you know, some of the big name best selling writers in terms of Talent. But we each have our own unique gifts. And how many know that your specific book may minister to someone somewhere, anywhere around the world? Even better than someone who is a best seller, your particular book may hit somebody at the right time in history that turned their life 180 degrees.

Yeah. And I always say, like, you have a sphere of influence that I don't. So your books, like you. You know, where I always recommend starting with your marketing is locally, with people who know you and love you. But you have people in your life that. That I will never probably reach with my books. And so we all have an opportunity. And it's really an, you know, thinking of abundance versus scarcity, too.

Yeah. So really, one of the theme scriptures that we're going to look at for this episode comes from Galatians, chapter six, and it's verses four and five. And it just really is clear regarding this whole comparison issue. And it says this. It says, pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done. And you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else, for we are each responsible for our own conduct. I love that. You know, pay careful attention to your own work rather than just looking around and allowing your feelings to run wild in terms of jealousy and envy and, oh, I need to do this or that, because so and so is doing it.

Yeah.

Again, pay careful attention to your own work. And God's going to bless that. He really is. Because you have something unique to share with the world.

Amen. So we're gonna go into seven different ways that you can overcome this comparison trap. And tip number one is just a simple one. You know, we live in a social media world, right? We're on social media right now. And so it's so easy to see everything everyone else is doing and be bombarded. I got this picture earlier today. It's almost like people are always whispering in your ear, but did you see what so and so is doing? Did you see that they just, you know, finished their first draft? Did you see they had a successful launch? Did you see? Did you see? You know, and you're constantly being bombarded with these messages of what everyone else is doing, and it can be really tough. And so I recently had a season where I was struggling with this. There was someone in particular that was just bombarding my feed. And they're amazing. I love them, like, but it was just really hard because there was a little bit of that comparison or even a little bit of the jealousy going on. And it was also the Thing that was also happening to me is it made me feel like I need to be doing that. Oh, they're doing this. Oh, I need to be doing that too. And I need to be doing that. And I need to be doing that. And sometimes we just need to take a deep breath, right?

And say, maybe for a season or maybe for a time, I'm just going to mute this person or unfollow them so they're not always in my feed or popping up. And I did that. I did not unfriend them. I did not, you know, not, you know, follow them on Instagram anymore. I just muted them. You can do that on Instagram for stories and for feed. You can unfollow people on Facebook. And I just needed a breath of fresh air. And I will tell you once because I was feeling it, anxious. And sometimes, you know, if you're feeling a little bit of anxiety or if you're feeling just some negative feelings rising to the surface, especially when you're on social media, ask God, what is this? I couldn't identify it at first. It was just a general anxiety. And then I felt like the Lord's like, it's this person and comparing and jealousy and you need a break. And so I took that break and there was this instant peace. It was almost like.

I can breathe again. And it's not that I don't like the person, it's not that I'm trying to like, be weird. Sometimes we just need to have good old fashioned boundaries.

Yeah. And I had to do this recently myself, you know, I mean, I've been walking with the lord now for 25 years and yet I'm still dealing with jealousy and envy in my heart at times. And it came through social media. I had to actually take the step and mute a few people that I thought, you know, I just could feel some of the feelings rising up in me. They weren't like sort of taking over my whole day, but I just sort of noticed some things cropping up and I didn't want to continually feed that. So what I just decided to do was mute them for a while. And really what happens is, as Shelly said, there's this peace that comes because you're not just constantly bombarded, especially if it's somebody posting on, you know, multiple times a day and you're constantly seeing their stuff in your feedback. Sometimes you do just need a break. And it's not a bad thing to set that boundary. And so we're going to go into tip number two, which this one again, is just simple, but it is focusing on your own strengths. I think so many times we can focus on our weaknesses constantly. That can sort of spiral us downward. We can see the strengths of others and we can sort of have this idea that we aren't measuring up, whatever it might be. But focus on the strengths and the gifts that God has given you. If you have trouble identifying those things, ask some people right around you. They're closest to you. What do you see as my greatest strengths? What do you see as my greatest gifts? And what you're going to find is as you begin to hone those strengths and focus on those things, you realize, my goodness, you know, God has gifted me in a way that I can bless the world with what he's done through my life. And so it's really good to focus on your strengths instead of, it's not a bad thing to want to improve your weaknesses. Of course, we all have weaknesses that we want to improve. But I think what we're saying in this tip is that sometimes we can really focus, focus for a long period of time and spiral into this darkness that, oh, I'm just weak in every area. And yet it's not the truth. Because God has given each of us strengths, he's given each of his gifts. And that even applies with specific types of writing. You know, some of you are fiction authors, some of you are non fiction, some of you are incredible poets.

We all have something unique that we're gifted in. And so focus on your strengths.

Yeah, and there's a great book called Strength Finders 2.0 that I encourage you to look up. They have an assessment you can take and it will give you like your top five strengths. So that's also a great way. But a lot of times when we're comparing, we're comparing our weaknesses to someone else's strengths. So I think that's the point too of this tip. So tip number three is to focus also on the blessings God has given you in your life, in your writing, for your books.

Rather than the negatives. It's so easy to get caught up in what we don't have, what's not going well, what we're frustrated about.

And it's contagious. If you have negative people in your life and, and you're spending a lot of time with them, it could come into your life as well. But I really encourage you to consider starting a gratitude, a practice of gratitude. So what I mean by that is really making it.

An intentional thing that you're. Every day you're writing down three things you're grateful for, instead of just automatically going to scroll on social media, what if you sat down? You know, you can just use any old notebook, 10 cent notebook from Walmart, you know, whatever. I have my Illuminate Prayer journal. It's a prayer journal CJ and I published. And every day, you know, it has a little section in there for three to write out three things that I'm grateful for. And so it is so powerful for me to start my day reminded. And I usually try to get very specific within the last 24 hours. And I don't just usually say God, family, friends, health, food, you know, shelter. Like I try to get really specific. And so, you know, that is something too. And then to just really thank the Lord and focus on those blessings he has given you as a writer in your, in your writing, in your publishing, in your marketing, all of those things. And I think you'll, you'll see that those things begin to grow.

Yeah. So tip number four is to avoid mindlessly scrolling on social media as much as possible. You know, in my own life, I found that, you know, some of that mindless scrolling has actually led to some depressing thoughts and again, the jealousy. And it's one of the reasons that last year, it's been almost a year now, that I just decided to deactivate my personal Facebook page. And not saying everybody has to do that, but for me, I noticed that I would spend an hour, two hours just scrolling mindlessly, almost. You become this sort of zombie like figure as you're, you know, sitting there, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. And let's say you're connected to 2,3000 people. There's a lot that's going to show up in your feed and it's going to be a constant bombarding.

Yeah.

And what happens is, is inevitably there's a lot of negativity, you know, could be over politics, it could be something even religious. It could be just somebody that says, man, it's a crappy weather day. You know, I mean, just, just reading that does something to you. And for me, I just decided I don't need to spend hours mindlessly scrolling through social media. And again, it's about boundaries. It's about, you know, at times unfollowing or muting, as we mentioned in a previous tip. But that was something that I took a step forward in. And I'll tell you what, when I decided to do that, wow, it was almost like I was lifted out of a social media pollution, so to speak. And Shelly and I have Talked about this. You know, we want to glorify God in any use of our social media and in business and we want to use it for good. But sometimes it's good to set a boundary as well and just say, I'm either going to give it up for a season or maybe, you know, in some cases I need to go and deactivate the this particular account. That has been a bit of a stumbling block. So mindlessly scrolling, try to avoid this as much as possible and maybe even set a little alarm, you know, as you're going to spend a little time to catch up in the day and scroll through your social media. Maybe you set an alarm for 15 minutes and when that goes off, you're done. It doesn't matter if you only made it 10% into your feed. It just means that's the boundary you're setting and then you move on to something else. And I'll tell you, you're gonna feel so much better in terms of the depressing feelings lifting or those feelings of jealousy in comparison.

And I want to emphasize the word mindless. I think sometimes we just sit there in a vegetative state. We're just wasting time. We're just trying to do something to occupy the time and maybe eliminate some boredom, whatever it might be, maybe winding down the evening. But we're so vulnerable in those times when we do just want to wind down or we're tired or we're a little bit cranky or whatever, whatever it is, when we get into that scrolling mode, it's easy for an hour, two hours to fly by just like that. And you realize, what did I just do in the last two hours?

Yeah, and I will admit I had a full blown social media addiction previously, mostly Facebook and Instagram. And it's been almost three years that I've been actually. What would you say in recovery?

That sounds so funny. But it's true. Do we have anyone else that would admit that they have been addicted at some point to social media? Like, we have to start talking about this, guys. It is a true addiction. I've talked about my testimony, I've talked about a lot of things like that had a pornography addiction in the past. God has given me freedom from that. But this was also a full blown addiction in my life. I remember I used to be on Facebook every minute. I would just be checking in all the time. Facebook and email, Facebook and email, Facebook and email. And I now no longer have those apps on my phone unless I need to log in for something. Right now I have the App up just so I can see comments as they're coming in. But I normally don't have my apps on there. I actually block the Facebook and Gmail URLs in my browsers. On my iPhone, you can do that. So that if I go in there, it's like, can't do it. So I have to do another step if I want to. And then I'm like, no, I don't want to do that. Like, I've. I've done all of these steps. I keep my phone in another room at night. So when I wake up, I'm not just grabbing my phone. I used to grab my phone and I would scroll through Instagram for about an hour. Literally. Like, guys, this is a real thing. And when we do this, it's so easy to just be filling our minds with what other people are doing. And that's why it's so easy to get pulled down by the comparison. And I really feel like more than most any other thing, this whole issue of comparison can shut down your creativity, your writing faster than so many other things. And so, you know, you really sometimes have to get stuck serious and make a serious stand and say, I'm going to do this. Recently, God convicted me again. He's like, shelley, I want you to spend more time with me so you can hear from me, receive pictures and, you know, scriptures and, you know, themes that I'm going to speak through you. And I. In order to do that, I need you to have more time with me, more time in deep work. You know, as writers, a lot of times our writing does not come out of distraction. Amen. It comes out of focused deep work. And so there's a book called Deep Work by Cal Newport, and I highly recommend it. It really was one of the things that started my change and the trajectory change three years ago. But I also now have something on my computer that blocks Facebook and Gmail and some other websites. So certain times of the day, and those are my deep work times. So whatever you have to do, I'm not saying you have to be extreme like me, I mean. But I will tell you, if I don't have those boundaries in place, I'll go right back. Like, it's. It's just. It's a hard thing for me.

Yeah. And that reminds me of one of the little things I've been implementing in my life, too, is that first hour after I wake up, I've been trying to not pick up my phone and just, you know, reading through my Bible, you know, certain amount of Chapters I might want to read, you know, that morning, maybe then doing some reading from a particular book that, or author that I'm reading. So I'm really filling that first hour with just time with the Lord, reading, meditating, praying. And then after that first hour at least, you know, I can then maybe pick up my phone. Maybe there's something, you know, on my phone, even a post that I make, you know, on one of our sites, you know, that from something that God did in me during that first hour, you know, or a scripture I ran across. But I really try to even just avoid getting into, you know, checking email, but instead having that be a first hour of the day that's undistracted. Of course, I do have that cup of coffee in my hand. And so that's, that's part of my, my start.

Yeah. So tip number five is we have a couple little phrases that we put on here. Don't compare another person's outsides to your insides. So you want to share a little bit what you meant by that, cj?

Yeah, it's, it's really, you know, we see this projection, you know, on their social media page, whether it's Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, so we see what they're projecting and all of a sudden we compare that to some stuff we have going on inside that nobody else sees. And it's just not fair because as we all know, we can project any image we want on social media. And many times, unfortunately, it's, it's not the full truth. It very rarely is. We like to put our best foot forward and so we've also said something.

Yeah, so, you know, I'll kind of go on from there.

Of.

So the next one for tip number five kind of goes along with this. Not to compare your someone else's highlight reel to your blooper reel. Right. Oh my goodness, we have so many bloopers in our lives. So many slip ups or mistakes or you're just like bad hair days or whatever. And it's so easy to compare someone else's highlight reel. They're not showing you all those things that they've done wrong or mistakes they've made, typically. And then the third one is not to compare someone else's middle or even their end to your beginning. So someone else who's much further along, like C.J. and I, have been publishing books now for over a decade. And so if you're a new writer and you start comparing yourselves to us, that's going to send you down a dark path really quick, you know, I mean, if we would, you know, compared to someone else that's much further ahead of us. You know, there's always someone that's going to be further ahead. There's always going to be people further behind. And I know for me recently, I went through a phase where I had talked about it earlier, where I had to, you know, begin muting people and was just getting kind of focused on what other people were doing. And I distinctly sense God say to me, shelly, I have you on a path and on a journey that is different than anyone else's. It's not going to look like a typical guru or online marketer or other business owner. It looks so different. And I want you to keep your eyes on your own paper, and I want you to just keep listening to me for what I have for you to do. You. Instead of always looking and comparing to others.

Yeah. So that leads to tip number six, which is to be intentional about celebrating the success of others. And that can be hard at first, because sometimes the very first thought or feeling that comes to mind is a little bit of envy or jealousy that crops up. But imagine if we got into the habit, the regular practice of immediately just celebrating. And that could be maybe putting a comment, you know, on their post saying, congratulations, I'm so happy for you, and really asking the Lord to help us really mean that, you know, not just to say it, but to actually really mean it from our hearts. And God can do that. He can totally transform hearts to eliminate that jealousy and envy and replace it with just a spirit of celebration and excitement and encouragement for those people. Because isn't that what we want? You know, when we're excited to share something, don't we want others to come on board and celebrate our successes and encourage us, like, hey, good job. You're on the right track. You know, we like that feedback. And so imagine if we were the people that were making that a regular practice.

Yeah. And that's one thing I love about our academy. It's just an amazing community where people celebrate each other and there's not that competition or, you know, all of that. And it's just. I love that. And so our final tip, our seventh tip, is what if you, you know, right now, I want you to think of at least one person that it's very easy for you to compare yourself to in your writing or in your publishing or your business, whatever it is, think of who that person is right now. You got that person. Now I want you to think about how you can pray for that person.

Changes the Perspective a little bit. Right. It's hard to be kind of upset or have negative emotions towards someone when you're at the same time praying for them. So just start praying for them. God, I pray that you would bless you them. Lord, I thank you for them. I pray for their family and for their marriage. And a lot of times, guess what? You don't know what's going on behind the scenes in their family or their marriage or other things. But God, I just pray for this. I pray for that. Just start. And every time you see them on social media, if it brings up that feeling, start praying for them. You can also mute them or unfollow them for a season. But what if we would start praying for them and God was just even speaking to me before we got on today and just gave me a picture of like being out in the woods, you know, when we are always on social media and connected and seeing what everything and everyone else, it's like we can get a busy mind. But like sometimes when we get out into nature and out into the woods, I have some solitude. We can take a break and a breath. And I want to encourage you, what if sometime this week you took some time intentionally to get away from everything and somewhere in nature to spend time with God and say, God, what is it you want me to write? How is it you want me to publish this book? What kind of marketing is going to be most effective for my books? And ask him and pray and ask him for those God ideas instead of always looking at everyone else and comparing to everyone else and maybe even trying to copy other people or do what they're doing. Ask God for his unique assignment for you. What is it that he has for you right now in this very season, and then go do it.

Yeah. That, you know, brings us to another scripture that I love, how the Passion translation puts this. It's Hebrews 12, 2a, which is the first part of that verse. But listen to this. This is just, you know, it adds freshness, you know, to how we see this scripture. It says we look away from the natural realm and we fasten our gaze onto Jesus, who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith's perfection. And so again, I love that, you know, we fasten our gaze onto Jesus. We fasten our gaze onto Jesus. That's the key right there, I believe, to helping even break through further into this, you know, from this comparison trap, is when you fasten your gaze upon Jesus. The things that so often have held us captive, the chains or the Ropes that have held us as we fasten our gaze on Jesus. The very work of breaking free is being done within us. God is doing the work as we keep our focus and our gaze upon him. Instead of just looking around and becoming discouraged or woe is me, we look to Jesus as another translation says, the author and the perfecter of our faith. And as you do that, God is going to birth originality in you, your unique creation. I remember somebody once saying, you know, you and I are. I'm unique just like everyone else. You know, we're all unique in our own way. God has made us in such a way that each of us has something unique that will shine forth that he wants to do through us.

Yeah. So if you're listening to my voice right now, I want you to hear something. You have been given gifts by God to be used for the kingdom of God.

Amen.

You have been given gifts. I want you to just, if you can right now, just repeat, repeat after me. I have been given gifts by God. No one has been left out. You have not been left out. Have you ever thought, oh, but everybody else, that she has this, she has that he has this. What about me? God, I want to tell you right now, we're breaking that. In Jesus name, you have been given gifts to be used for the kingdom of God. Remember the story of the talents one person received, 10, one person, five, two and one. Everyone received something. Right. And it doesn't matter how much or whatever. I mean, there's, you know, to whom much has been given, much is required. Right. We were praying before we got on this. We were praying for you. We were praying for this time where I was like, God, it is a responsibility that we have and we do not take it lightly. When we get on here to share things and to speak, we want it to be God's words. But everyone has been given something. You have not been left out. And so we just encourage you to focus on how you can use your gifts for the glory of God.

Yeah. And, you know, it's good to remember too, that in the kingdom, there's no competition.

Can I get an amen?

You know, we're all on the same Tim team that fall under the banner of Jesus. There's no competition. And when one person succeeds, the whole body succeeds.

We're on the same team, guys. Like, if we're believers, especially other Christians, we are on the same team. And so I have to remind myself of that too. It's like of kingdom collaboration, you know, and to let of that competition.

Yeah. And there's a quote that I think, Shelley, you found this one that says a flower does not think of competing to the flower next to.

Just blossoms. And that's Zin Xin. I'm not sure where the quote comes from, but it's kind of an Asian, you know, proverb. So again, you know, you see flowers in the field that bloom, they're not looking at each other like, oh man, you know, I'm not quite as beautiful as this one. They're just all glorifying in radiance their Creator. And that's what we want to do as well as God's instruments, as God's authors, we want to glorify him in the unique ways he's gifted us.

So right now we just encourage you to even. I want you to picture this. I want you to picture like you're shedding this comparison. You're shedding this weight of comparison. And you're just saying right now, I choose to bloom. I choose to bloom with the gifts that God has given to me. Not looking to the left or the right or worrying about like, you know, how some flowers are still in process, they're not fully opened, another flower might be in full bloom. Not worrying about if they're in full blown bloom. But I'm not being willing to stand in the midst of a field of flowers and to embrace who you are, who God has created you to be, the gifts he has given you. And choosing to stand there in the midst of talent all around you and say, I choose to bloom.

Yeah. It actually even reminds me of another quote. And I can't remember who quoted, quoted this, but it's simply God laughs in flowers.

Yeah.

You know, and this is the time of year here in Colorado. We are seeing lots of incredible wildflowers that are coming out in the mountains of all different colors. And I almost envision God laughing through all of our gifts. You know, your gifts, my gifts, anything that we create and write for his glory. You know, God's laughing in approval, like, oh, look at my son, look at my daughter. They're living out their calling, the things that I've put on their hearts. They're living that out in radiance.

Amen. And so we want to close each of these in the breakthrough series with a truth. So John 8:32 says, Then you will know the truth and the truth will, will set you free. So we can give you every tip in the world, we can give you every strategy, we can talk till we're blue in the face, but ultimately we truly Believe it's through God's truth and then through prayer that you'll really receive that breakthrough. And so that's why we want to focus on that. So the truth scripture for today, you can write this out, put it on your mirror. If you struggle with comparison, carry it with you on a note card, whatever you need to do. It's Galatians 6, 4, 5. Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done. And you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct. And I think that's new living translation.

Yeah, new living, yeah.

And so CJ's going to close us in prayer.

All right, well, let's just come together in prayer. Lord, we just thank you so much for this time that we're able to.

Hash over this topic, this whole issue of comparison and falling into the comparison trap. And right now we are proclaiming freedom and breakthrough. For any of us that have struggled or are struggling with the comparison issue, we just come against that. In Jesus name, we ask that you would give us freedom and breakthrough. And Lord, I just pray that each of us would be able to fix our gaze on Jesus. And as we do that, we see this work being done within us as we go on the journey. It's being done, it's being worked out, things are being refined. And Lord, I just pray that we would tap into the things that God has for us, not getting caught up in envy and jealousy. We come against those things in Jesus name, and we just. We ask for a spirit of encouragement and celebration and being able to be teammates and team members that actually lift one another up in prayer. Lord, I pray that you give us a heart that longs for the success of the body of Christ. I pray you would just eliminate all competition in terms of, you know, trying to one up someone else within the body of Christ. Lord, may we come around each and every member that we have been placed around, and may we be an encouragement to them in our circle. And I just thank you for each and every one of those who are watching, who are going to be listening later. And we ask, Lord, that you would bring freedom. Let freedom ring in this area, and may we be people that don't fall victim to comparison. We thank you in Jesus wonderful name. Amen.

Amen. If you receive that, just say amen.

That's right.

So if you're here live and you have any comments or questions, just leave those for us. We're willing to stay on a few Extra minutes. Sabrina says the praying for people tip is key. You know, Sabrina, I think we saved the best for last, right?

Yeah.

I mean, that is so key. And Deborah says good stuff. We need to help each other. And yeah, it's about stuff celebrating one another and being able to realize we're on the same team. I just want to also mention if this Breakthrough series has been blessing you, I encourage you to download our free PDF. It's a PDF that I put together that gives our five biggest tips to overcome writer's block for Christian writers. So specifically, if you're a Christian writer, you'll want to get this and you can download it for free free@trainingauthors.com breakthrough and we're also working right now. CJ is working hard to get the transcript of the prayer meeting that we did edited. So we're working on that. So if you sign up for that list, when that transcript script is ready, we'll also be sending that out to you as well. So we would love to have you to get that resource and love it. So I thank you guys all for being being here. Not seeing any more thoughts, comments or questions. So we'll just go ahead and end it out here for today. But we love you guys and we're praying for you. And remember the rest of the series, we're going to be live here on Facebook Wednesdays and Fridays at 3pm Eastern. So make sure to set your alarms, set your calendar reminders, and we will see you next Wednesday. All right, bye bye Bye bye.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you, as a Christian writer, have a specific role to play in the Kingdom of Heaven to impact lives for eternity.

And because of this, we choose to pour out our lives into encouraging writers like you to not only tell your stories, but to take the courageous step of self esteem, publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by Christian Book Academy where we help you give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom writers.