Witnessing Jesus’ Signature

In the Christian community, important words or phrases get tossed around one denomination or another – spiritually healing words, spiritually vital words such as “Savior,” “resurrection,” “redemption,” but sometimes the significance passes over us without registering the full impact such words can have.

Take “witness,” for example. Does the thought of a witness testifying in court come to mind? When we need to make a case for Christ, that’s exactly the kind of witness we most likely need to be.

A witness testifies or gives a testimony that's often based on a personal experience other people can relate to – or not! In other words, a witness gives evidence that might not be evident to everyone until we explain.

For the growth of the church and the encouragement of other Christians, we need to be witnesses, who spread the Good News by word-of-mouth. If we also happen to be Christian poets or writers, we have the opportunity and unique privilege of putting our witness into writing and signing our names.

But what about the Name of Jesus? We pray in His Name, but how does He sign His name?

In sign after sign, the Bible records Jesus’ miracles, teachings, parables, prayers, love, healing, and sacrifice.

Jesus is Himself the sign of God’s forgiveness and redemption.
Jesus is the sign of God’s mercy and love.
Jesus is God’s signature in the world and in our lives.

As we speak to others about Christ or give our testimonies or write in any genre, may we remain alert and eager to let our witness become a witness to Jesus’ signature.


© 2014 Mary Harwell Sayler - poet-author
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Writing for the right age

Lately I’ve been noticing a trend that makes little sense: books for children that aren’t! By that I mean the intended age group has not truly been considered as shown by these common mistakes:

• Subjects that interest older readers but are too complex or multifaceted for young children

• Subjects that interest young children but are too simplistic for older readers

• Word choices that the intended age group of readers cannot read, sound out, or understand

• Vocabulary and compound sentences appropriate for older readers but that confuse or discourage younger readers

• Abstract concepts toddlers and preschoolers cannot begin to grasp

• Nostalgia pieces written for the writer with no present-day child in mind

• Bible stories that thrill older children and teens but scare little kids who first need to hear about God's love

If you have noticed similar or other trends in #kidlit, I hope you’ll comment below and let us know what concerns you have about children’s books. And, if you see something especially kid-appealing and well-done, that would be good to hear about too.

You might also welcome these previous posts:

Keeping Your #KidLit User-Friendly

Poems can put FUN back in funny

Writing Children’s Picture Books

Writing children's poems for actual kids to read

Writing Children’s Stories With No Pink Fairies or Old Fads

Writing Winner Nonfiction for Kids


©2014, Mary Harwell Sayler, poet-author of Beach Songs & Wood Chimes and an e-book for classrooms and creative kids of almost every age, the Poetry Dictionary For Children & For Fun, has helped other poets and writers for many years through critiques, manuscript evaluations, and development of poetry and children’s picture book texts. 
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Timeless Bible questions to answer

As Christian poets, writers, pastors, and/or communicators for Christ, we often begin our articles, books, and sometimes poems by asking questions our readers might ask then thoroughly researching information to provide the solutions or answers needed. In The Jesus Code: 52 Scripture Questions Every Believer Should Answer published by Thomas Nelson and kindly sent to me for review by BookLookbloggers.com, prolific author O.S. Hawkins gleaned many, many questions from the Bible then narrowed them down to one a week for a year. Although I liked the idea of the book in general, two premises especially appealed to me:

1. Timely questions asked by the Lord and/or Bible people will most likely be timeless.

2. Each Bible-related question gives a theme and purpose for poets and writers to focus on, research well, and address in all genres of writing.

Both of those aspects make this evangelically-oriented book recommended for poets and writers, regardless of denominational preferences.

For example, the first timeless but troubling question began in the beginning and is still being asked today: “Has God Indeed Said…?” Or, to put it another way, “Does God really mean _______?” (fill in the blank.) So, if I were looking for a new topic to write about, I’d pray about it and ask God to bring to my attention specific scriptures people often question or water down or, in some way, say, “Well, God does not really mean that for us now.”

Another of the many questions the Bible asks is, “Where Can I Go from Your Spirit?” The answer, of course, is nowhere! God is everywhere, and as the text says, “What a wonder! God knows you… your e-mail address… your phone number… your worries… your hurts… your fears… your dreams. And He loves you.”

Thinking again about our potential readers and writing interests, we might ask ourselves, “Who most needs to hear this?” Would people in prison be glad to know God has not forgotten them? Would Christians weighted down by dark thoughts or chemical imbalances or financial woes be relieved to hear that, yes, God is with them? Or, if you’re into politics or social needs more than mental health or legal issues, the Bible question “Who Is My Neighbor?” will surely appeal to you.

If we look carefully into each page of the Bible, we could eventually locate these questions ourselves, but O. S. Hawkins has done this for us with pastoral guidance we can prayerfully translate into that poem, article, or book God has put on our minds and hearts to write.


© 2014 Mary Harwell Sayler - poet-author of Living in the Nature Poem and the Bible-based poetry book, Outside Eden -


The Jesus Code: 52 Scripture Questions Every Believer Should Answer, hardback, imitation leather




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Dancing on the Head of a Pen: book review

The enticing title, Dancing on the Head of a Pen: The Practice of a Writing Life by Robert Benson, drew me to request a review copy from Blogging for Books – a site that provides review copies of a variety of books in exchange for an honest assessment. Fortunately, that's what I aim to provide, whether I'm discussing a new edition of the Bible or reviewing a traditionally published poetry book or a book about the writing life in general, as happens here.

Published by Waterbrook Press, this particular book also appealed to me because the author knows how to write! That might seem to be an obvious prerequisite, but I’ve discovered a new world of newbie writers who blog about writing and sometimes pass along assumptions, rather than reliable information. Conversely, Robert Benson has written many books and knows the in’s and out’s of writing and publishing. So, believe him when he says: “Most of the time, writing a book more closely resembles digging a ditch than participating in some transcendent creative experience.”

How we go about “digging” depends on what we dig. As Benson says, “Any of us – writer, designer, potter, painter, sculptor, architect, and on and on – wisely studies the habits practiced by the artists who inspire us in the first place. Those habits can guide us as we try to learn to do the work ourselves.”

For each of us, the work and surrounding habits will differ, not only from one another but also our own earlier selves as we experiment, pick up ideas, and find workable ways to write and continually improve our work. Most of us, though, will do well to heed Benson’s call to be quiet.

As he explains, “Solitude is likely necessary to be in touch with the things deep inside you. Silence may be required for you to hear what those things are saying to you. Do not be afraid to be quiet. Never be afraid to be alone./ Wandering around in wide-open spaces, especially spaces offered by a blank page, may be the key to making some art of those things found in the silence and the solitude.”

By now, you may be wondering if this book provides a devotional guide or tips on writing or suggestions for establishing your own routine or more than the sum of those parts, and to all, the answer is: Yes!

Once we’ve heard ourselves think enough to know what we’re to write next, we have to decide what type of writer we want to be. Like Benson, “I want to write. I may even need to write. But I want to be read as well.”

Knowing this about ourselves helps us to know whether we want to write for publication. If so, we need to have some type of reader in mind and some idea of whether anyone else might be interested in our chosen topic.

The author says, “When I begin to write a book, I ask myself some questions. Who do I think might read the writing I am about to do? Who do I expect to be interested in the stories I am trying to tell? Who do I hope will discover and enjoy and be moved by them?” And always, “Write for those you love.”

As Benson also says, “A writer has three jobs. Write the work. Make the work as good as possible. Find the work a home and a crowd of folks to love it.”

More than this, however, Robert Benson tells us, “I spend most of my time, metaphorically speaking, as a kind of explorer, out wandering around in the philosophical dark, lost in the spiritual words, searching for a deep something I often cannot even name, following trails leading to dead ends and darkness as often as not.” But then, “The spiritual life is not so much about answers as it is about better questions. Writing can be the same.”


©2014, Mary Harwell Sayler, reviewer, authored 26 books in all genres, primarily for Christian and educational markets, before writing the Christian Writer’s Guide e-book on Kindle.


Dancing on the Head of a Pen, hardcover



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