#334: Mentoring Moment: Embrace the Tulip in You

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 Shelley 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.

I just felt like when I was asking the Lord what to share with you today, I got a picture of tulips. This is spring, right? And have any of you seen tulips around yet? Or, you know, and it's like, C.J. and I were just talking the other day, and he's like, man, I just love tulips. Weren't you. Weren't you sharing that, cj?

Yeah. You begin to see him in neighborhoods sometimes. I saw a couple houses that had them planted all around the edge of their yard, and there's really neat to see that. And tulip time, I guess, in Michigan. Yeah, it's a big time of the year this first week.

So I was like, lord, what. What is that? What does that mean? Or what. What is the. The context of what I want to share as encouragement with you today? And I just felt like. He said, you know, tulips are unique as a flower, right? They stick stand out. They have these bright colors, but they. They only bloom at certain times of the year for a short period of time, you know, And. And just like each flower, just like the tulip, each flower is unique, has a different season that it blooms, has different attributes. Like, what do you think of when you think of the tulip? I think of Holland. Right. You know, there's just different things that a certain flower bring mind or whatever. Each one of you, as a kingdom writer has your unique characteristics. You have certain seasons that you're in bloom, right? And you might not be in a blooming season right now. You might be in a fertilizing season or, you know, whatever it is. But there's different seasons, but there's also different gifts and different characteristics that God has given you and your books and your marketing. And it's easy, right? It's easy to look at another flower.

Another writer, and start comparing your tulip to their rose. But people are using the rose for, you know, weddings and, you know, Valentine's Day. They don't typically give me, you know, tulips. But, you know, this morning I was actually chatting with an entrepreneur friend, and she was telling me how her salary has continued to grow over the years and, you know, God's blessing this and da, da, da. And, you know, I just want to, you know, cheer her on and encourage her. And yet there was part of me, here is this tulip that was looking over at her and like, my salary hasn't increased. Just being real.

You know? And I'm like, but, Lord, you know, why has that not happened for me? And have you guys ever had those thoughts? You know, you see somebody else doing something or something happening for somebody else, and you're like, I put in the work, I put in the heart. You know, I've been doing this business for. Since 2004, full time, since 2011. And it's like, okay, when is my turn? And yet the Lord was like, shelly, you have unique characteristics. And just like the tulip, each one of you have unique characteristics. And the Lord was reminding me he has provided for CJ and every single time, yes, my salary has not increased, but we have what we need, right? And it's easy. My friend was also. She was sharing something else, but I thought this was appropriate. It's easy to go from gratitude, like, thank you, God, that we have this book, that we have this opportunity to share our message, to attitude. Why are they having more success selling their books than me? Why are they getting featured on that and not me? You know, it's easy to go from gratitude to attitude. Anyone else? Am I the only one? And I was thinking about it this morning because it just.

Happened. Even just this morning in my heart where I was like, I'm so grateful for everything God is doing, and yet it's easy to compare. So as we have our unique characteristics, and like, C.J. and I were even saying, like, we have wealth in ways that you can't quantify in a salary. Like, we have time, freedom, we have our health, we have a relationship with each other and a love in our marriage that many people would love to have. Like, we have wealth in areas that you can't quantify. And as a kingdom writer, God has given you things and he's doing things through you that you can't quantify A number of books sold, you can't quantify a number of books published, you can't quantify in the features that you've gotten or the podcast interviews or whatever it is, you know? And so I just want to encourage you to be in that state of gratitude, and anytime that attitude starts to slip in, catch it right? Say, okay, Lord, I confess that I'm feeling this way. I give it to you, help move me back to gratitude. And I've had to do that several times this last week in different Ways in different areas. Like even like, you know, there's certain tasks that maybe you don't enjoy. Maybe it's the self editing, maybe it's certain parts of marketing. Well, for me, writing emails, writing sales page, I can do all of those things, but I can go from gratitude to attitude pretty quick. And I've had to write a lot of emails for this triple launch. And so, you know, I had to kind of get my mindset back into that place of gratitude. Look at all these Kingdom writers that are coming for this conference that we have an opportunity to impact. And just like I struggle, you may struggle right now, and I just want to encourage you to bloom where God has planted you in the seasons that he has given you to bloom and to embrace the tulip in you. Amen. The uniqueness that God has given you. So I hope that that was an encouragement for you today. I'm just being real honest. I still struggle with it as well. And God has uniquely created each one of us to be out in the world in different ways. If we were all the same, how boring would that be? And it is the body of Christ. We need each part of the body. So CJ has some encouragement to share as well.

Amen. Well, as we get ready to move into our prayer time, I had just been meditating a bit on Psalm 144.

Few of David's words here. I just wanted to read a little bit here. He says, praise the Lord, who is my rock. He trains my hands for war. I believe he's training us as Kingdom writers for the spiritual war. He's training us. He's prepping us. He's fertilizing us to be the tulips. As Shelley said, He's going to use us specifically for a purpose. He gives my fingers skill for battle. He is my loving ally and my fortress, my tower of safety, my rescuer. He is my shield, and I take refuge in Him. He makes the nations submit to me. Could go on. And I want to just move down toward the bottom. Toward the end of this psalm.

And.

Starting in verse 13, it says, May our barns be filled with crops of every kind. May the flocks in our fields multiply by the thousands, even tens of thousands. I was just thinking about.

The words we write. May our barns be filled with books of every kind.

Of May the flocks in our fields, may the words.

Of our vocabulary, of our writing multiply.

By the thousands, even the tens of thousands. You just think about all of us as Kingdom writers and all the words that we're Being inspired to write may our oxen. We might even say, may our computers be loaded down with these words. With productive, it says with produce. But we might say with productive words that encourage and bless people. May there be no enemy breaking through our walls. That's one of the things that we want to pray today. We're praying for a shield, for protection, for our words to be protected. How many know that there's an enemy that wants to steal your words? He also wants to silence you. He wants you to just put a muzzle on every single one of us, wants us to be depressed. It says, may there be no enemy breaking through our walls, no going into captivity. That's what the enemy wants. He wants to isolate us. He wants to put us in captivity. That's what I love about these times. I look forward to these war room prayer times because we are coming together.

We're not isolated. We are a family of Kingdom writers.

And finally, no cries of alarm in our town squares. Yes, joyful are those who live like this. Joyful indeed are those whose God is the Lord. That's what sets us apart. We aren't any more special than any other human being, but we have that God that we call upon, and we lean on him for those words, for that inspiration, for that protection from the enemy. So as we pray this morning, let's have Psalm 144 in mind.

Let's borrow these words of David that have lived on through the centuries and have inspired and encouraged believers around the world for generations. And we can. We can receive these words today where we are in 2022.

As Kingdom writers endeavoring to write words that outlive us and also to encourage those in the times that we're living in right now around the world. So are you guys ready for some spiritual warfare? Guys ready to do battle in the Lord's strength, of course, and by his spirit. But I believe every time we come together here that strongholds fall. I believe that the enemy hates this time as much as any time that we meet. And there's a reason. It's because things are happening. Things are being destroyed in the spiritual realm that need to be destroyed. And I just thank you all for being here.

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 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.

Sam.