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Building Confidence

In my recent posts, I’ve discussed edification or encouraging one another in the family.  Here, I’ll be talking about building up each other’s confidence.  While I’ll be focusing on relationships between husbands and wives here, remember that the church is the bride of Christ, so this blog post can be applied to relationships within the church as well.

Philippians 1:3-6, 25 (MEV)

3 I thank my God for every reminder of you. 4 In every prayer of mine for you all, I have always made requests with joy, 5 due to your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.
25 Having this confidence, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your joyful advancement of the faith,

Definition of Confidence

Let’s start off by defining confidence. Merriam-Webster defines it as “a feeling or consciousness of one’s powers or of reliance on one’s circumstance” Another definition is “…feeling sure of yourself and your abilities — not in an arrogant way, but in a realistic, secure way. Confidence isn’t about feeling superior to others. It’s a quiet inner knowledge that you’re capable.”

Confidence is not just our own confidence, but who we are in the Lord and how the Lord can bless us. We should be able to lift others up within the Lord and that should bring confidence within our lives.

Problems From Lack of Confidence

A lack of confidence can cause missed opportunities. Feelings of inferiority can cause you to think you can’t do something, or shouldn’t try. Maybe you won’t go out for that promotion at work because you feel like you wouldn’t be able to handle the extra responsibility. Perhaps you decline an offer to teach a Sunday school class because you think you lack the necessary abilities. It’s important to take advantage of opportunities that come your way. No matter if you succeed or you fail, you will always learn something.

Personal growth can stall without confidence. For example, what if, in order to get a new job, you needed to go back to school? If you’re feeling less than adequate, you may miss out on furthering your education, not to mention a great new career. You will feel defeated before you even start, so, you may not start. That goes back to those missed opportunities. How many things have we missed out on because the words “I can’t” or “I’m not” ran through our minds? It was once said that the word “can’t ” should be removed from the dictionary.

I think the worst thing to come from a lack of confidence is the feeling of being worthless and feeling that no one cares.  It can get to the point that it will pull a person down. If Satan can’t rob you of your knowledge of who Jesus is, he will try to rob you of your joy.  He’ll rob you of thinking clearly and he will fill you with lies. Satan will gleefully remind you of your past failures. That robs us of the freedom we have, in Christ, from those failures. When Satan gets a foothold in your thoughts and keeps reminding you about your past, it steals your confidence, and you fall deeper and deeper into despair. The sadness turns into more self-deprecating thoughts, Satan gains ground and the cycle continues.
      

Helping Rhonda

Let me begin by saying that I am in no way elevating myself. We all need to encourage one another.

Something I have always wanted to do is encourage my wife, Rhonda in her personal growth. She was once asked to speak at a Mother’s Day banquet.  She had never really spoken like that before and was a little apprehensive. As a family, we encouraged her to speak.  She did and was successful. Then word got out and another ladies’ meeting called and asked her to speak.  We encouraged her to do that event also. Hopefully, that helped her develop some confidence

While living in Georgia, we started a Christian school.   Rhonda hadn’t completed her education degree yet, but we felt like her main ministry should be at home during that time.  She did come into the school once a week and started working with a reading program helping the children.  She was also a monitor which is like a teacher’s aide.  While helping out, I knew I could just ask her to do something and she’d understand what I needed.

Another time, I worked at Accelerated Christian Education (ACE).  They did “Bible Time Boosters” which is similar to VBS.  They asked her and another lady to work with the little ones.  There were at least 35 children in the group.  To get the kids to walk in line and stay together, they all had to hang on to a rope.  When it came time for the closing program, her class’ turn came and she took the front of the rope, the children grabbed on, and the other teacher took the end and they did their program.  When it was time to leave the teachers and children took the rope and went back to their spot.
The rope trick really impressed a lady in the church named Mrs. Howard, who was in charge of many areas of the ministry. Later, she became president.  When it came time to start the preschool program, they wanted someone to be in charge of the school. This school was to be the pilot program for the development of the curriculum, which would have a world-wide impact. Mrs. Howard asked me if Rhonda would be willing to do that.  I would have encouraged Rhonda to do that, but we had already determined that her main ministry would be with our own preschoolers at home. Nevertheless, the idea of someone wanting her to head up the school was a big confidence builder for her.

Rhonda played the piano for her church as a teenager and she told me about a time that she couldn’t hold the foot pedal down because her knee was shaking so badly.  But she’s practiced and played many times for our church and others and has gained confidence and been a blessing.

As a teacher, Rhonda’s confidence was in working with the smaller children.  She worked with them for a while and was then asked to work with older children.  It was intimidating to her, but she did it and gained confidence. 


As a Sunday School teacher, again, her confidence was in working with children.  But she’s taught young adults and adults and I’ve seen her confidence grow.
I’ve just been trying to encourage her to grow.

My Personal Journey

Rhonda has encouraged me to grow and helped me gained confidence as well.  She’s encouraged me to trust in the Lord, and I’m SO glad she was willing to do that.  Our confidence in the Lord has grown through our lives because of our little, feeble faith that we started with that we could trust God when we couldn’t see what the next steps would be.


I was attending Seminary and had been a youth director at a church. That time was coming to an end, and it was time for me to graduate.  The house we were living in did not belong to us, and we needed to move out because the new youth director and his family were going to be moving in.  It got to the point where we had to be out in 6 days and didn’t know where we were going.  I had sent out many letters all over the country telling them I was available to pastor. 

I got a call from a church in Mt. Vernon, Illinois to preach a trial sermon.  I went and spoke, but was not called by that church. That was not in God’s plan. 

We got some replies from Georgia, and in that 6-day time frame, we went to one church, and I spoke.  I was scheduled to speak the next week at a youth revival at another church in Georgia.  After speaking at the first church in Georgia, we were headed back to Tennessee and were in prayer about what God wanted.  We said if that first church called us, we would accept the call.  Before we even got back to Tennessee, they had their meeting and called me as their pastor! 

We loaded up and moved to Georgia.  We pulled our U-Haul into one of the deacons’ yards with barely any time to spare and headed to the youth revival to fulfill that commitment. 

Then we were going to start a Christian school but it all fell apart.  I had already resigned from my church, and we had to be out of our house.  The church people asked me if I had made a mistake.  I said, “I don’t know. I don’t understand.  I don’t know what’s happening. But, I’m pretty sure I was right to resign.  I just don’t know yet what my next step is.”

They said they needed someone to fill in as pastor, so they asked if I would be willing to do that until I discovered my next step.  I agreed, and they said my family and I could live in the parsonage until everything got sorted out. So, even though the direction wasn’t clear at that time, God still provided for our short-term needs.

That Sunday we went up to a Sword of the Lord conference in Atlanta.  The regional coordinator from ACE was there, and I said, “It looks like we’re not going to start a school.” He said, “That’s OK.  We can just keep everything on file and in the next 3 years the church there can start.”  I started to walk away, and he asked if I needed a place to go.  It had never occurred to me to tell anyone that I need a place to go.  So, I told him that I did, and he told me he knew of a pastor who was wanting to start a school but didn’t have a principal or a supervisor and hadn’t sent anyone for training yet.  Classes were supposed to start in a few weeks.  So, it turned out that was the next step for us. 

Through all this, Rhonda just went along with me, even though I couldn’t see clearly the direction that God wanted me to go.  She got confirmation from the Lord along with me that He was doing something.  Even though we couldn’t see it, we relied on Him and trusted Him. In our case, God seems to let us just barely hang on when things seem to be falling apart. We just cling tightly to our faith.  Throughout our journey, Rhonda has encouraged me, and that has been a confidence builder for me.

Then, I worked for the International Institute, a college program for ACE, for a time. I then went back to southern Illinois and began a college there. 

Things didn’t always turn out how we had planned, but no matter what, God worked through that, and people were blessed.

God Provides Confidence

We don’t know how big or small things will be, but they are never insignificant. God is faithful.  He can instill the confidence in you, that when you take some steps, even if you can’t see how it will work out, God will come through and it will work out!  Then, when you’re facing another time of uncertainty when you can’t see how it will work out, you will remember what God did before, and you ask Him to please do it again. 

Rhonda and I decided that we wanted all our children to attend college.  We didn’t know how we were going to pay for it, but we took a step of faith and enrolled them.  Somehow, through God’s grace and provision, we made it.

We had one year when 3 of them were in college at one time. Our son, Rusty, was told by someone to apply for some scholarships. They scholarship providers didn’t know him and weren’t from our state.  Rusty wouldn’t have had any idea about applying for those, but someone suggested he do so, and he got several scholarships out of that encounter. God works that way! He also provided jobs for them.  That was the year that our income came up and was one of the highest we’ve had in our lives.

Then, Rusty decided that he was going to be a missionary to Japan.  I said, “How are you going to get funding?”  He went to area churches to get monthly funding. The mission board said he needed a budget of $108,000 a year.  To us, in our area, it seemed excessive.  But Rhonda and I took a trip to Japan and bought a watermelon while there, and it was $40, so we found out that level of funding was totally in line.  But God made a way, and Rusty and his family were able to move to Japan, and he is still serving in the mission field today!

The Lord builds confidence in failures.  Abraham Lincoln ran for office several times and didn’t get voted nt.  Then, finally, he was elected the 16th President of the United States.

Encourage One Another

You can encourage one another.  If anything is worth doing, it is worth doing poorly until you can do it well. You can encourage with that. Wives can encourage husbands.  Perhaps the husband gets a new job and isn’t doing well in the beginning.  She can encourage him by using that phrase and letting him know that she believes he will improve and be successful.

Encouragement Regardless of Personality Type

God can use every personality type.  There are some people who are very driven and outgoing and will work to get things done.  You can be thrust into leadership positions.  You can be a follower.  You can be the best support person you can be.  But, there are also people who have milder personalities who can be leaders. 

There is a spiritual gift of pastoring, but there are some pastors who do not have that spiritual gift.  I am currently pastoring a church, but I don’t feel I have that spiritual gift.  But I have learned that if God calls you to serve in a certain role, He will provide the necessary tools.

You may have that hard-driving personality, and God will cause things to happen because of your drive. You might have a milder personality.  You might be introverted.  In many companies, there are people that are introverted and quiet who are in positions of leadership, and people can’t figure out how they got there.  The reason those kinds of personalities can be successful is that they are willing to put up with things that people with stronger personalities aren’t.   God can take that and use that. 

Whatever your spouse’s personality type is, please encourage them that God can use them. 

I’m currently interested in Internet marketing and I’m trying to learn how to do that.  My confidence grows each time I fail at that. I lean a little bit more each time I try.   Maybe someday I’ll be a great Internet marketer and be telling you all how to succeed at doing that.

What Can Be if We Instill Confidence in Others

Think about what can take place if you build your confidence, and your family builds your confidence.  You can begin to tackle new things, and you can see God do unusual things.  You’d be willing to start without knowing what the next steps will be.  You may be called to go to minister in a prison.  You may be afraid, but you take a step and be willing to start. As you do this, you may appear to be more outgoing than you actually are. You may overcome some obstacles along the way, but you will recover from failures that you face.

Before Rhonda and I got married, I sang in a quartet.  There was a song we sang that said:

When trouble is in my way,
I can’t tell my night from day,
When I’m tossed from side to side,
Like a ship on a raging tide,
I don’t worry I don’t fret.
My God has never failed me yet.
Troubles come from time to time,
But that’s all right,
I’m not the worrying kind because
I’ve got confidence
God is gonna see me through.
No matter what the case may be.
I know He’s gonna fix it for me.
Job was sick so long
Till the flesh fell from his bones.
His wife, cattle, and children,
Everything that he had was gone.
But Job in he despair,
He knew that God still cared,
Sleepless days and sleepless nights,
But Job said that’s all right because
I’ve got confidence.

In Closing

I pray that you will have it as part of your mission to instill confidence in those around you. My desire is to instill confidence in you so you can talk to people about your faith. I want you to be able to step out of your comfort zones.  When asked to be a Sunday School teacher, you will accept and see where the Lord leads.  When you see a challenge before you, I pray for you to realize that God has never failed you yet. Step out.  Even if there’s a failure, you learn from it. I pray that in your life, failure is never a bad thing.  Don’t let the failure go to waste.  Learn from it and build your confidence. 

Thank you for reading. For more posts like this, go to Randy’s Blogs. Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube Channel and my Rumble Channel.

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A Good Use of Your Videos – A Neat Little RepurposingTrick

A good use of your videos can go a long way.

Hi, Everyone. A lot of what we do here on the WA blog is to update each other as to what is happening in our lives. Most of us are going through the training here and building external websites. I just wanted to mention some of the things I am learning with the use of my external webites.

Coming up with content ideas is challenging after you have been trying to create quite regularly for a few weeks.

I just want to share a neat little repurposing trick that makes it easier to meet that challenge.

Walking with Randy

Walking with Randy

One of the things I have started doing has been to create videos using Facebook Live. I kind of got into using the live option because there were a few weeks where we decided not to have church services in our building. I am a bi-vocational minister, and I experimented with putting the message online. Our musicians were able to do the same for the song service. That let us continue our worship services even when we shut down for a few Sundays. When we returned to having the live services, we continued putting the services online. That was quite a blessing for some of our members who are not able to get out and come to church.

I became comfortable with with using Facebook live. So, now we do the service live, and then I have my assistant transfer the videos to my YouTube channel.

My website features my business, Collegiate Consulting Service, which features my writing, speaking, coaching and marketing enterprises. My writing includes some books on marriage.

Currently, I am  creating a live video each day, focusing on the following topics:

Monday–Writing
Tuesday–Speaking
Wednesday–Coaching
Thursday–Marriage
Friday–Marketing

Much of the marketing videos discuss Internet marketing, and that gives me a chance to promote Wealthy Affiliate.

I call the videos, “Walking with Randy.” I have been using a pedometer on my phone, and I have worked up to walking 10,000 steps each day.

Each day, I go for a walk with my smart phone, and hold it up to video my walk. I turn on Facebook Live and talk for a few minutes on the topics I mentioned above. For instance, this morning I talked about “How to Come Up with Great Content Ideas for your Book Chapters.” Since part of what I do is to provide coaching for aspiring authors, this fits in nicely with the content on my website.

Tomorrow,  I will give some writing tips during my “Walking with Randy” session. Then, as you can see, Wednesday will include some coaching tips. Thursday would regularly be about marriage, but I will probably skip it because that will be Thanksgiving day.

I encourage you to try something like that for creating content. Then you can make good use of your videos by taking that repurposed content beyond the initial recording.

Video Transcription

You can make good use of your videos by having them transcribed. The service I used last week to turn one of the videos into a blog post is called “otter.ai.” They have a free option that will allow you to have them transcribe up to 600 minutes per month.

I was pleasantly surprised as to how accurate the transcription was.

All the sentences were in one long paragraph, so I went through and hit the enter key after a few lines that were related enough roughly to resemble a paragraph.

Oral speech is different from written speech even though the modern recommendation is to write like you talk. Still, when we speak things out, we often correct ourselves on the fly. That means that you do have to edit the transition to smooth things out, remove some wordiness, and to go ahead and rewrite the sentences where you corrected yourself.

Edit and Add Headings

You can make good use of your videos by taking that transcribed content and turn it into a blog post.

I already mentioned editing the content. Some of the sentences weill be unrecognizable. You can either eliminate them orWhat Is a Cool Website Any Aspiring Entrepreneur Can Use replace them with some other wording that seems to fit.

If you can figure out good divisions, you can name those divisions. Then those names can become headings. You place those headings at the appropriate places in your edited transcript.

I then get the video link from YouTube and insert in my posts at my external website, RandysBlogs.com.

So, you repurpose the rough ideas from your videos into written content, and that is a good use of your time.

A Nice Little Bonus on This First One

The first blog post I made using this method was drived from a video titled, “What Is a Cool Website Any Aspiring Entrpreneur Can Use?” Can you guess what that website is? If you guessed, “Wealthy Affiliate,” you were right. I told why I like the WA program, and I shared several ways it could help any aspiring entrepreneur.

I put my WA affiliate link at the end of the article where I put the call to action statement to “Click Here.”

The nice little bonus was that I received an email notification that I had referred someone to WA and it was within a day or two of the blog post going live.

Conclusion

You can simplify your content creation by coming up with different emphases for each day of the week. Then you can speak about that topic using the Facebook Live video option. After that you can transfer you video to YouTube. Then you transcribe the video and edit it to create a blog post. You can even have your video put on the post. Then you can share the blog post back to Facebook, giving people there another chance to be exposed to your content again. Then you can share things on Twitter, LinkedIn, and other relevant places. This is a good use of your videos, and that is a neat little repurposing trick.

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The Healing Power of Humility

Humility can bring about healing in our own lives, our marriages, and our Nation. Here, I will address the importance of humility, examples of humility, commands concerning humility, and the most important requirement of humility for us all.

James 4:10
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
II Chronicles 7:14
If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Marge and Mark

Marge and Mark were on opposite sides of the hedge, feeling torn down

Marge and Mark were next door neighbors. Marge was in her back yard. Mark was in his. Their yards were separated by a tall hedge and they could not see one another. Marge, to herself, said, “I can’t do anything right! He never stands up for me. I’m always taken for granted. He doesn’t notice when I try to look good for him. He is SO arrogant. He never apologizes for anything! He never supports me when the children put me down.”

Imagine if Marge had felt appreciation or gratitude from her husband.  How would her attitude be different?  Instead of the frustration she was feeling, maybe she would have felt grateful for a husband who supported her and showed his love.  Was her husband being arrogant, or just not paying attention?  Either way, it’s obvious there was work to be done.  Marge needed the support of her husband, and some

encouragement when she made extra effort to fix herself up.  Dealing with the children alone was draining, and feeling like she had no one to back her up or stick up for her when they put her down was very hurtful.  The whole home would have run more smoothly if Marge’s husband would have shown humility and stepped outside of himself for a few minutes and looked at things from Marge’s perspective.  I’m sure she would have had feelings of admiration for her husband as opposed to the resentment her thoughts showed.  She was working hard and did not feel the validation she needed.

Similarly, Mark was thinking to himself, “She doesn’t seem to think I know anything! I’m always taken for granted. She never says anything good about me in public. She never apologizes for anything! She never stands up for me when the children push against me. It would be nice to hear ‘thank you’ once in a while.”

Mark’s wife seemed wrapped up in her own world, her own self.  Mark worked hard, both at his job and at home.  He was skilled at many things, and knew how to do a lot.  His wife never seemed to appreciate that.  He felt beaten down and defeated.  If his wife had taken the time to step out of herself and look at things through Mark’s eyes, she may have seen what her pride had done.  Maybe she would have realized that he was a good provider, a good husband, and a good father.  Maybe her heart would have been softened, and she would have apologized for how she had treated him, and how she had not taken his feelings into consideration.  It could have been the beginning of a new commitment for her to be more appreciative of Mark, and to make sure to thank him for the things he did. 

The Importance of Humility

A man once said, “There’s one thing that I’m better at than anyone else: being humble.”

One thing I'm better at: I'm more humble than others

Pride Brings Pain

Proverbs 21:9
It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house.

In both Marge’s and Mark’s houses, it seems there were people who were lifted up with pride.

Proverbs 21:19
It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman.
Proverbs 25:24
It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman and in a wide house.

Proverbs 16:18
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

There was a time when God commanded King Saul to take his army and totally and completely destroy the Amalekites. They were to take no prizes, trophies, or plunder. They were even commanded to kill all the livestock. This was to prevent anything from the pagan land from influencing His people.

Instead, they took some of the spoils. When Samuel returned, King Saul claimed to have done what was commanded. Samuel questioned him. What is the bleating of sheep and goats that I hear. King Saul continued in his lies, indicating that he kept the animals for sacrifice.

Samuel responded:

I Samuel 15:17 -19
So Samuel said, “When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel?
18 Now the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’
19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord?”

So, you can see that pride brings pain in our lives. In the case of our marriages, our own pride is a hindrance to helping our spouses to experience that feeling of value they deserve.

However, when we humble ourselves and get our eyes on others, we get into a better position to lift them up.

Humility Brings Joy

1 Peter 5:5-7
5 Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,
7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.


So, if you have cares, you can bring them to God. All you have to do is humble yourself under His mighty hand. Not only will you feel better, but you, yourself, will be lifted up in due time. Your humility will help you lift up your husband or wife, but it will also place you where God will eventually lift you up too.


II Chronicles 7:14
If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.


Humility brings joy. It brings healing. Healing for our land, for our marriages, and for our lives.

John 9:33
33.Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, “What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?”
34 But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest.
35 And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”
36 Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them,
37 “Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me.”


I have an entire message on just this, called the Secret of Greatness. It can be summed up in just one sentence: The secret of greatness is humble service without thought of reward. That is what Jesus was talking about here.

 Marge and Mark are good examples of what can happen if we don’t practice humility in our own lives.  Resentment and hurt feelings arise.  That’s just from the human standpoint.  Relationships between one another are an important part of life.  We want to go through life with people who appreciate and respect us, and we need to do the same. 

Imagine if we all showed one another the grace that God shows us.  How much more kind would we be to the cashier who made a mistake in giving us our change, or the driver who cuts us off in traffic?  Imagine how our brothers and sisters in Christ could be lifted up and encouraged if we addressed them with humility and grace and love?  If the humility is something we are the recipient of, imagine how encouraging that would be, and how much more joy and contentment we would feel in our lives.  Pride can cause so many problems. Refusing to be humble can cause hurt feelings, misunderstandings, and sometimes much worse.  The biggest reason to be humble, though, is because God commands it!

Examples of Humility

Moses

Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.

Numbers 12:3  
Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.
Moses was leading millions of people. God used him to part the Red Sea, and all the children of Israel went across on dry ground.

Something I want you to understand is that humility does not mean being a doormat. We must humble ourselves in the sight of God. We can fall down before God in our feelings of unworthiness. We should be humble in our dealings with others. But humility does not equal weakness. Moses was very strong. In fact, he even had a problem with anger. His anger caused him to miss seeing the Promised Land when he struck a rock instead of speaking to it as God had commanded.

Jesus

Humility: the greatest example was Jesus

Of course, the greatest example of humlity is Jesus. He was King of the Universe, yet He humbled Himself, was born as a baby, and raised by humans. He knew hunger, thirst, criticism, and intense pain on the cross. He had the power of Heaven at his disposal and He chose humility. Humility is strength and power under control.

Luke 2:51
And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.

Joseph and Mary had lost Jesus. Imagine what it must have felt like–to have been given the responsibility to care for God’s only begotten son, and the lost Him!

When they found Him, He was in the temple talking with the doctors of the Law.

When they questioned Him, He told them that He must be about His Father’s business. Still, he went with them and was subject unto them. Here is the ruler of the universe deciding to be subject to human beings.

Notice He was subject to them even though He knew more than they did.

Not only that, He was subject to them even though they were sinful and He was not.

I John 3:16
By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Jesus came to this earth and humbled himself. When they came to crucify Him, He allowed it to happen.

If the strong personalities of Moses and Jesus could humble them selves, surely we could temper our own selves.

Commands Concerning Humility

Ephesians 5:32-33
32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

We need to value one another, and make one another feel valued. You are valuable to God. So much so that He sent His son, who was willing to take your sin upon Himself. God values you so much, he offers you the gift of eternity in Heaven. You are that valuable!

Scripture tells us to not grieve the Holy Spirit. We’re told that when we receive Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit. We also receive the fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness*, self-control. Against such there is no law.
*Gentleness is the same as meekness or humility.

When we looked at the translations that said that Moses was the meekest man on the earth, we saw that alternate translations said the more gentle than others, and further that he was more humble than others. We see the synonyms: meekness, gentleness, and humility. Therefore, humility is a part of the fruit of the spirit.

How can we learn to be more humble?  The Bible is the perfect place to start.  Use a concordance or search engine and find scripture verses about humility.  Write them in a notebook and keep them where you have your daily devotional.  Read the verses daily.  Commit them to memory.  Another way is to look up…from the phone or computer, from the television, the book, paper, or anything else that takes your focus away from others.  Look for needs around you.  Look for the person who is hurting.  Pay attention to words and actions.  Not everyone who needs help will tell you.  Pray and ask for wisdom and discernment in seeing people’s needs.  Ask for guidance in how you can help.  Be open to correction and direction.  Remember that being humble is a fruit of the Spirit, a gift from God when we accept Jesus as Savior.

The Most Important Requirement of Humility for All of Us

Kneeling at the cross, remembering that Jesus humble himself and gave his life for us

We have to humble ourselves and admit that we have sinned in order to receive Christ. God requires it. If you are going to be saved, you can’t say, “I don’t need to be saved. I’ve done all these wonderful things. I’m better than that person over there” The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.

Humbling yourself before God is the only way to get to Heaven. Why would God have sent His son, and why did Jesus lay down his life, if there were another way? Even Jesus Himself prayed to His Father, if there were any other way, to let the cup “pass from” Him.

The first step to salvation is to humble yourself before God. Acknowledge your sin, that you’ve gone your own way, and that you have pushed against God. Give yourself to Him, and He will fill you with His Spirit, and you will receive the Fruit of the Spirit.

Pride stands in the way of us lifting up our husband or wife. Humility will remove that barrier.

Humility then will heal our land, our marriages, and our lives.

If you enjoyed this marriage tip, you might like this one that talks about the power of overcoming.

Also, don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

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Persistence, Key Success Trait for Life and Business

Crash. Boom. Lightning strike! Was it going to rain on our . . .
(Well, not actually a parade)? Persistence, a key success trait for life and business, was going to figure prominently for us on that day.

The Trip

Last Thursday, I went to Holiday World with Chip, my son-in-law, and Ralanna, my second oldest daughter. They have four children (four of my Grandchildren!). Three of them went with us. The eight-, thirteen-, and sixteen-year olds would be able to navigate the park very well. Their youngest stayed with my wife, Rhonda, who doesn’t care anything about most of the rides anyway.

We started the trip in a storm. Then the rain progressively seemed to get less and less heavy. We, after a couple of hours, could see bright spots in the clouds as we got closer to Santa Claus, Indiana. Yes, that’s really the name of the town where Holiday World is located.

However, about ten miles before the exit off of the interstate, what many would call a “cloud burst” hit–The hardest rain yet!

Would we have to go back home?

The rain let up again, and by the time we got to the parking lot, it was just a little harder than a sprinkle.

The Decision

The bottom line–We went on in. We had plastic ponchos, and they served us very well.

The rain continued off and on. That was OK because after riding the old-fashioned cars, where even the youngest could drive, and the bumper cars, which were inside, we were in the water park the rest of the morning.

Right after we ate lunch, the loud speaker announced that weather with lightning was approaching and all rides would be shut down temporarily. So, for about 45 minutes we sought shelter in some areas with rooftops.

The storm ended, and we changed clothes and went to the other part of the park. Our ponchos came in handy again when we rode the Raging Rapids and the log ride, both of which usually drench us.

The Rewards

Several rewards and nice surprises came our way because we persisted through the storm: The crowd was much smaller than usual. The lines were shorter. We even rode the Raging Rapids three times in a row–which delighted Makenna, the youngest member of our party, very much. Because some of the larger rides were closed, we rediscovered many of the smaller and medium-sized rides. Again, the was a great benefit to Makenna. The weather was cooler than usual. Furthermore, since some of the major attractions shut down for two hours, we also found out that we get to use the same tickets for another trip with no additional charge!

What does this have to do with writing books, having online businesses and other entrepreneurial pursuits?

Realize the value of persistence. Many failed businesses have been estimated to have quit right before their moment of success. Many experts say if those businesses had just hung on a little longer, they would have made it.

So, persevere through the storm. Many unexpected benefits may come your way.

For you, success may be just around the corner and right after the current storm dies down.

Where are you in your business ideas? If you are thinking about writing a book, for instance, here is a great way to start.

Also, don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

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Writing Nonfiction PDF Books – A Great Way to Start

writing nonfiction ebooks

Here is another post on writing. Specifically, about writing nonfiction PDF books. They are a great way to get started! Even if you’ve never written a book before, you can do this. If you have a computer and the capability of saving your files as PDF files, you’re ready to go.

Do you have a real book?

Several years ago, many people did not consider eBooks, or PDF books, to be real books. Then Amazon developed this thing called “Kindle.”

Not long after that, eBooks increased in popularity and credibility. Actually, in some years, Amazon sells more digital books than print books. I don’t know the current statistics on that, but I remember a few years ago that the number of digital books (eBooks) exceeded the number of print books that were sold during that year through Amazon.

They Practically Became Equals

What that meant was, that eBooks increased in popularity and credibility. In effect, they became “equals” to print books. A print book was a real book, and an eBook was a real book too.

Give People What They WAnt

When people want a book, they want what they prefer. I actually like holding a book in my hands and being able to rifle through the pages. I have also bought many eBooks, and I really like those too. So, some people will want a print book, some will want an e book, and some will want both.

I Highly recommend you do both

Now, even though I’m talking here about using a PDF file to get started with your book, I really think that you should have the goal to do both. Because once you have your eBook written and set up, and you’ve learned how to format it yourself, you just have so much of what is needed to send the file off for a print on demand (POD) print book. So I think that you should have the goal of doing both.

The distribution won’t be as wide, but it is a place to start

The way to get started is to simply to produce a PDF book. Of course, if you have it set up only as a PDF book, your distribution will not be as wide as it would if it was available via Kindle, Mobi, or an ePub format, but you will still have a book and it will be a real book. It will be a book that you can sell right from your own website. Some of you reading this may already have your own websites. If you do, then you are good to go, and you can get started with your own PDF book

8-1/2 by 11 produces a real book

PDF stands for portable document format. It’s something that’s often used to send things through email, because the file is not as large as it is in other formats. It’s also easier to use. You can produce an eight and-a-half by eleven real book. That’s just the easiest way to do it. Use your preferred word processing platform, Microsoft Word, for example. You can then set it up as an eight and-a-half by eleven, and come up with your own cover page. Then, learn about other pages you need, copyright pages and such, by looking at other books. Be sure to add them.

be consistent with size and formatting

Then you can just produce an eight and-a-half by eleven real book. You need to be consistent with the size of the words in different parts of your book. You can make the title whatever size you want it to be; of course it will be larger than the chapter titles, headings, and subheadings. Then figure out what size you want and just be consistent. Use the same type of formatting and style for the chapter titles, and do the same for each type of heading every time. If you use subheadings, again, be consistent with the formatting and style.

So, the title of the book, chapter titles, headings and subheadings: Be sure you’re consistent with what you are doing so that they all look like.

next steps

Once you get all that done, and you’re satisfied with the book, what’s next? You may have hired an editor to look at your book and go over it for you. Maybe you had a writing group look it over, give you all the input that you need, and you’re satisfied, and you think you have a book.

Get your cover page on there. You can hire someone to produce a good cover for you, but you also can do some yourself. If this is your very first book, and you’re experimenting, you might want to produce your own cover.

get a way to accept payment

Now, you can sell it from your own website. Get a shopping cart of some type or go to PayPal where you can accept payments, and then sell your eBook. It is a real book, especially nowadays. So that’s one way of getting started in the self-publishing world.

basis for print books

Once you have all that done, go back to your word processing file, go over to Kindle or some platform like Lulu.com or48 hour books, (I don’t get any kickback for mentioning those names) read their instructions, and you will have what you need to have a print book produced also. Then you will have an e book, and a print book, and you definitely would have a real book then.

If you did it through KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), you certainly would have that book available on Amazon where people could find it. Some people say, “That’s another mark of having a real book, when it is on Amazon.”

So, here’s a nonfiction writing tip: writing nonfiction PDF books are a great way to start, especially if it’s a first book for you.

If you’ve watching this on YouTube, or in the link above, I encourage you to subscribe to my channel. There, you’ll be able to get more tips like these. Here on the blog post, you can go to the top of the page and click on the word “writing”, and you will find many many more tips.

Also, don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

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A Writing Solution from a Chainsaw

A writing solution from a chainsaw? Really?

Day before yesterday, I went out to use my chainsaw. I really like when I can start it back up several times during a work session.

I pulled on the starter rope six times. Then the saw uttered that familiar sound of actually starting and running for a second or two before it dies.

Then I gave it several more pulls, and it never offered to start again.

I tried putting the “on/off, run, and choke switch” in several position.

After that failure, I resorted to a YouTube search.

I found the problem. I had flooded the engine when I gave those extra pulls in the choke position.

The solution (and how I got it to work many other times, not knowing what I was doing)–When the saw offers to start the first time after a few pulls, immediately move the switch up one notch. Then it should start on the next pull.

They also showed a method for starting an already flooded engine, but it didn’t work that day.

Yesterday, I tried again. I pulled 5 or 6 times, and I heard what some call, “The Burp.” That’s when it runs for a second or two and then quits.

I moved the switch up one notch to the next position, and it started right away. I used it for several minutes until it died when I tried to let it idle.

Then, I couldn’t get it to start again.

So, I haven’t learned all the tricks, and there have been days in the past where I ran the saw for hours at a time.

Still, I know more than I did.

What is the writing solution? Like anything in life, keep learning and improving upon what you do know. You can do that by reading books, buying courses, investing in coaching, and, most of all, persistently and consistently working on your craft.

If you would like more detailed writing tips, click here.

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Writing Nonfiction Articles – A Good Addition to Writing Your Books

When talking about writing nonfiction articles, we want to talk about where you can have these articles placed, the length of the articles, the research required, the structure, and the best places to put your articles.

Jill, heard the phone rang. She ran and answered it. She heard from an editor of a magazine that she had been hoping to write for. Then she woke up.

Wouldn’t it be good if you were to have a magazine editor call you and offer you an opportunity to write an article? Not only to write one article, but to write many short nonfiction articles, on any topics that you are passionate about, as many articles as you wish, with no chance of rejection! Well, that would be an even greater dream for Jill, and for us.

Where Can I Publish My Articles?

Let’s talk about where we can put articles. It can be in magazines, on websites, and they can some sections of newspapers.

How Long Should I Make My Articles?

What about the length of your articles? If you do some research on this, you will find one site says anywhere from 800 to 1000 words, while another site says 500 to 1500 words, and another one says 300 to 1000 plus So let’s just take the outside parameters of that and say 300 to 2000 words.

Considerations for Research

We also need to think about the research that’s involved. What kind of information do you need, and then how much information do you need? That will depend on how many words you’re shooting for. Where is the best possible place to get it?
Well, think about what you’ve ever read on this topic. Think about what you’ve ever thought about this topic – you have your own research. Think about what you have written. Then turn to outside sources.

Now, the internet has provided us a wonderful thing in being able to do a search on many different topics. So you can go do some online research. But whenever you do this, need to be a little more careful maybe then in the past on checking some of the sources for online articles or information. You may find three different places that say about the same thing, and you discover that they got all their information from the same place. So just be careful in checking out where you get your information when you’re verifying it.

Then you can talk to interesting people. If you know somebody who is an expert in the field or somebody that has experience in the area, you can interview them. Now you can even do that from a distance. You could do it over the phone or Skype or Zoom or some other online platform. Of course you could meet with them in person too.

Next, you’ll want to add some interest factors. These could be interesting facts that are related to your topic; maybe not directly related to what you’re writing about but you can throw in an interesting fact or two. You can start throw in some humorous items, that are related to your topic in general. Also, as I mentioned in the last post, you could add some stories that would illustrate your point.

So, we talked about where, and the length, and the research. Then you want to structure your article. It would have a beginning, a middle and an end.

The beginning you want to try to hook your reader, tell them why they need to read your article, and state the main point your article. In the middle, you will have more paragraphs that give more detail. Then at the end you tie it all together.

Where is the best place to put your articles? I mentioned magazines at the beginning. Those are still good, maybe harder, may not be as good as it used to be. Also newspaper. You could pitch an article to newspapers. Or, you could place them on a website. Probably the best website would be your own website, where you would have your own website and your own articles.

By placing these articles on your own website, you will be building a platform. Then when you get ready to write your book, you can pitch the idea to an agent who would contact a traditional publisher for you. One of the things they will be interested in is your platform. Do you have a platform and a following? One of the best places to build that is on your own website or own blog.

One of the reasons for having your own site or blog, building a platform of course. But think about it: You are in complete control of your writing; you own all of that content. You get to write on topics of your choice. You have no boss to answer to except yourself, you set your own hours, you can take off whenever you want, and you can write from anywhere.

I hope that you will consider writing nonfiction articles.I hope this has been helpful to you. If it has, and you’re reading this on my blog, and if you’d like more tips like these, then just go to the top of the page and click on the word “writing”, and you will find many articles about writing there. You can find the blog at www.randysblogs.com Please also check out my YouTube channel and subscribe for more great content.

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Writers Panel – How Successful Authors Wrote Their Books

“Writers Panel – How Successful Authors Wrote Their Books” is an excerpt from the class on “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less.” This panel discussion was one of the most popular sections of the class. Here is the transcription of the video that was lightly edited to change spoken speech into written speech. If you would like to know the stories of these successful authors, read on.

Our Panel

Randy: We are glad to have you with us tonight. Please introduce yourselves.

Kelsey Browning: My name is Kelsey Browning. I live in West Frankfort, Illinois. I have lived there since I was two and Johnston City before that, so Southern Illinois the whole time. I am married to a farmer, Kendall Browning. We live on this little family farm with my three rotten but adorable kids.

Shelley Wilburn: I’m Shelly Wilburn. I’m also from West Frankfort. I’m married to D. A. Wilburn. He is a carpenter, and we have three grown children, and almost four grandchildren.

Idella: Almost?

Shelley:   Almost. We have one on the way.

Idella Edwards:  My name is Idella Edwards. I was born and raised in Aurora, Illinois, and my husband and I have lived in eight different states.

We retired from Oklahoma, and looked at Oklahoma and said, “Do we want to stay here for retirement, and we said, ‘No.'”

So I got on the Internet and picked Marion, Illinois, for our retirement. We have five children and 12 grandchildren.

Their Books

Randy:   Okay, so tell us about some of your books. We’ll go in reverse order,. So, Idella, you can start.

Idella: Well I have four Christian devotionals, and then I have four children’s books. I have a poetry book, and then I have another one I call my grandchildren book, Parenting 101.

I’m really jealous of these two, starting so young, because I didn’t start writing until I was retired. In fact, I started writing because I came to Marion, Illinois to join Aldersgate United Methodist church. After we got there, Susie Rice started teaching a class. I started writing encouragement emails to the group as a whole, and then after a while, I thought I needed to collect those and put them in a book, you know, so that’s kind of how I accidentally got started.

Shelley:  I currently have two published books. The titles are Walking Healed. They’re both titled the same thing. One is just the Walking Healed book. It’s a journey of forgiveness grace and hope.

The second book is the Walking Healed companion study, which is the Bible study guide.

I got into writing when I was 12 years old but not full time until about five years ago, when God healed me of over 40 years of depression and mental and emotional abuse, and that’s what my book is about — overcoming. It’s about overcoming your obstacles and things in your life. I’m currently working on my third book, which is another Bible study, and it’s titled, Warrior Princess. It is about discovering your identity in Christ.

Randy: And I would say that Shelley was in the first version of this class.

Shelley: I was.

Kelsey: My book is called, Here I Am.  It’s part of a series. It’s young adult fiction.

It starts out as the story about two teenagers, and friends. Then it spreads from there to things that are going on in their lives.

I’ve had a lot of readers that are a lot older than teenagers where I originally geared it. I actually have found that, to my knowledge, one teenager has read my book. Therefore, I hesitate to call it teen fiction.

For me, writing a book was an accidental beginning as well. My friend growing up, always, always wrote short stories. Any opportunity she had, she was writing. I was looking for hobbies, and then I just sat down, and God kind of just gave it to me. I never, never, planned on being a writer, but that, that’s how I got started, so it was just kind of an accidental thing.

Questions and Answers

Randy: OK, Now we will open it up to you class members to ask questions.

Lynn Masters: Did all of you do this in 28 days, or was this kind of like you had the basics but kind of extended past that?

Shelley: Once I got started, it went really fast.  Now, when I wrote the companion study to Walking Healed, I already had a basic outline.  It wasn’t really a blueprint, but I was supposed to teach a class on my Walking Healed book, so I had written out notes.  I took those notes and wrote the Bible study in about 5 weeks. 

Kelsey: It’s hard to give a timeline, because I have 3 little ones.  Some days, there was no working on a book.  I’m a stay-at-home mom, so some days It depended on the kids.  But as far as the fiction process goes, when I was making it up in my head, sometimes I had to stop and walk away for a while. I’d have to let what I had written marinate and build, and see where the character was going.

Sometimes I’d go a week where I would write all night long, for hours on end.  Then I might go 2 or 3 weeks and not touch it because nothing was coming.  So that’s how I had to write.  When it is there, get it out, but it may not come back for a little while. So my timeline is all kinds of messed up.

Randy: That’s a good transition to what I’m going to talk about next week. Abandoning the basic technique. That will work, it can work, and can even work for fiction.  The best thing is to find out what works for you and then correlate with other techniques, like the ones presented earlier in the course.  I am going to encourage you to come up with sort of a blueprint because it’s a good thing to fall back on if you need it.  Another thing about producing a blueprint is that the process helps clarify in your mind what you’re doing. 

Their Unique Writing Processes

Debbie Neal Crawford : I’m interested in the process of the writers. Are you a morning person,? Do you write it it out? Do you type it?  Are you disciplined in your daily schedule?

Shelley: When I sit down to write, I am. However, I could be driving down the road and get inspired.  I do a lot of talking in my car on my phone and then I transcribe.

As far as when I wrote Walking Healed the companion guide, I had notes, not really an outline, and I would sit down every morning for 3 hours and write. 

When I wrote this one, it was just whenever I was inspired, I would sit down and write.  Some days it would be 8 hours, and some days it would be 3-4.

Randy: Did you have a regular schedule for when or how often you would blog?

Shelley: I’m not very faithful right now.  But in the beginning, I would make sure I posted at least 2-3 times a week.

Kelsey: I was a night owl.  Once everyone was asleep–when everyone was in bed–it was quiet time.  I could never concentrate in the mornings.  In the afternoon and the middle of the night was my best writing time. I listen to the radio in the car and that’s when it would hit me.  Music at other times helped too. Tons of stuff in this book came from listening to music.

Randy: Did you do any voice recording and transcribe it?  Of course your transcription doesn’t have to be word for word like what you said originally. You are the author, so you can change it up however you want.

Kelsey: I would record on my phone and listen to it later.  It helps to listen to it later and see if it makes sense.  Sometimes hearing it back helps.

Randy: So, Kelsey, you are a night owl. I can identify. Shelley, what about you?

Shelley: I’m a night owl.

Randy: And Idella?

Idella: I’m a morning person.   I don’t know if my books would fit into that 28-day time frame. With devotionals, you have to write the ideas down when they come to you, you can’t wait.

Don’t tell the preacher, but some have been written on the back of the church bulletin.

Shelly: I’ve written a lot of blog posts during sermons.  I even told my pastor, “I just want you to know that your sermon prompted a blog post.” He said, “Any way I can help.” At least he’s a good sport.

Kelsey: Even with fiction, I get that too.  Sometimes, it would even be the answer to some little conversation that needed to happen, and I was having trouble finding a way to put it.  Sometimes, I would hear it in a sermon.  He would put it a certain way and make me think of it in a different way.  It sometimes would help fill out little pieces – that’s where I would always get stuck – just little pieces of conversation that didn’t sound right. There were several times, through sermons, that I pieced the conversation together.

Dan Masters: Are you on the best seller list yet?

Kelsey: I’m barely on the sellers list yet.

Idella: My purpose for writing, at my age, is more to leave a legacy than to make a million.  I know I’m not going to hit that million. 

Debbie: Are your books from Create Space or…

Idella: I used Lightening Source.

Shelly: I went through Ingram Spark, which is a division of Lightening Source

Kelsey: WestBow Press.

Hybrid Publishing

Randy: I told Kelsey that I was excited to hear from her because I am familiar with WestBow press.  If you remember we talked earlier about self-publishing, traditional publishing, and what I would call hybrid publishing. That’s how I would classify WestBow. I would say it is a hybrid publisher.

Idella: What is hybrid publishing?

Randy: Hybrid publishing is sort of a cross between self publishing and traditional publishing. When you use a hybrid publisher, you don’t completely self-publish; they do things for you.  In their case, they have several different packages.  The more they do for you, the more you pay for the service.

Kelsey: They’ll even help you with marketing, but you’re looking at lots of money there.  That’s where I had to bow out. I just had to figure it out on my own. 
They designed the cover (holds up book).  They asked me for ideas, and gave me a web site to look at some standard art.  You fill out their questions, and they would email you a first draft.  I loved my first draft, but you can send it back.  Now if you tell them, “No, let’s try something else” more than twice, then they’ll charge you for another round of it.  I understand that, because I’m sure they get people who are never going to be happy.  They did that, and they took care of all the copyrighting, and the ISBN number. They have part of a package where you can get what is called a book-seller’s return, so, in theory, (I haven’t done this yet) it’s easier to get book stores to take them because the company will buy them back if they don’t sell.  So it kind of gives them a free out instead of wasting their money if it doesn’t sell.

Hybrid is what they pretty much call it, too.  It’s kind of an in between. 

Randy: I didn’t know if I’d coined that term or not. 

My first book was through a printer called 48 Hour Books, and they will print your book very quickly for you.  Their cost per copy is a little higher, but my wife and I were doing a marriage seminar, and I wanted the books to be available for that.  I happened to be in Mexico on a mission trip. We spent the nights on the Texas side. I remember the night I took the plunge, and I pushed the button on the 48 Hour Books. When I got home, I did get the books.  I don’t recall if they got there in time for the seminar, but it was just a couple of days. I was pretty happy with them.

Then I did Create Space, which is similar to Lightening Source or Ingram Spark for the second book.

For the third book, I used a hybrid publisher, and it’s called FWB Publications. (FWB stands for “For Worthy Books”). I’ve been very happy with them.  There is a whole lot of responsibility back on me with them, as far as proofreading and that.
 
Now WestBow, I think, goes over the final copy more in-depth than what mine did.  I had to be sure what I presented to them was absolutely what I wanted

Kelsey: They’re extremely helpful (WestBow Press).  I’m a stay-at-home mom and my husband is a farmer, so we don’t have a lot of extra money.  They would tell me the amount, and I’d tell them, “I don’t have that right now, I’ll have to save it up.” They would call me back, but only about once a month.  They didn’t just call and hound, and hound, and hound while I got the money saved up.  The package I got, which is pretty inclusive, was about $3000. But they pretty well lined out everything.

Copies, ISBNs, and Covers

Debbie: How many copies of the book did you receive?

Kelsey: Around 50.  There were some hard-backs.  They set the pricing because of the pricing company that they go through.  The paperbacks were reasonable; they were $17.95, which I think is reasonable. But the hardbacks were $30 and nobody is going to by a $30 hardback book from an unknown author. I don’t try to push those too much. I would say, “Don’t pay for extra hard back books in the package.” It came with business cards, bookmarks for promotion, post cards for promotion.  What i received was more than just the books. 

Idella: Lightening Source is much, much cheaper, but I don’t pay any extra for marketing, other than $12 a year to be on Amazon.com.  I buy my own ISBN numbers; if you buy 10 it’s cheaper than one. I think one is $125 and 10 is about $250.

Shelly: I just bought the 10.

Idella: I’m on 20 now.  I design my own covers, but I’m not smart enough to get my cover on the Lightening Source form, so I hire a former employee that does that for me for $100.  Other than that, I just send in my PDF.

Kelsey: The cover design was included in the package, too.  I forgot to mention that.

Shelly: I designed my cover, too.  It’s my daughter-in-law walking down my driveway, and I hired a photographer I go to church with.  All in all, I got a pretty good deal. I went through Ingram Spark.  You order your cover template, and you send it to a cover person, which is what I did, and he charged me $50 per cover, which I didn’t think was bad at all. 

I do have pictures in my Bible study, too.  We had them done.  My pictures tell stories, too. 

Idella: (Holds up book) This is the premium color, but for my devotionals I used the standard color, which is cheaper.

But the one nice thing I like about Lightening Source is that I can buy one copy or 100.  I’m not obligated to buy a certain number.

Shelly: They’re a print on demand, or POD company, which means you don’t have to order a set amount, They don’t send unneeded books to you, and they don’t have a bunch of your books sitting in a warehouse, either.  When anybody orders your book, they print it right then, and they mail it out.  I do have one box of each of my books that I carry with me to have on hand.

Lynn: How many books are in a box?

Shelly: It depends on how big your book is. But you don’t have to buy a box, you can buy however many you want. You set the price for your books at retail and then you buy at below wholesale, which is $4-$5 a book.  (Idella nods agreement.)

Kelsey: That’s pretty well the same for WestBow Press too.

Dan: So you set the price?

Getting on the Amazon Bestseller’s List

Shelly: Yes.  I will also say that when this book (holds up book) came out, I decided to do it in  e-book form, so this is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books A Million, CoBo, and Apple iTunes for $2.99 as an e-book and $13.99 retail.  I like the idea that they can get either/or and I’ve had a lot of success with that.  The day that this one came out, it hit the Amazon top 50 in the first hour.

Randy: Was that on the digital version or on the paper version?

Shelly: It was on the digital version.

Randy: The fastest way to bestseller status . . . .

Shelley: It came out before the paperback.  Yes, It’s the fastest way.

Lynn: What made it go so fast? Did you post it on Facebook?  I’ve seen posts like that.

Shelly: We did a lot of “Coming Soon”, and it was up for pre-order as well, and I posted that on Facebook.  I have a lot of Facebook friends, and my editor, who is also my friend, posted on hers, and authors help authors.  I’m all about helping other authors.  That’s one thing they taught me.  So we were branching out, so when it did come out, people were buying it up.  Amazon updates every hour, so I at least got an hour in the top 50. 

Promotion

Lynn: Do you have author pages, or do you have your own?

Shelly: I have both.  I have a personal Facebook, and I have a Facebook author page.  I also have my blog, and I’m on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.  All those things help.  I don’t use all those things all the time.  Right now, my biggest thing is Instagram.  When I post on Instagram, it will go to Facebook, so I’m hitting 2 or 3 with one post.

Randy: Do you have an Amazon page, an Author Central page?

Shelly: I have an Amazon author page, too. That’s important.

Wrapping Up

Randy: Our time is going.  If you have questions, ask quickly.

Lynn:: (To Idella) On your devotional, is it daily or is it chapters?

Idella: It’s a two-page devotion, and I have discussion questions at the end if they want to use it for a group study.   I don’t know how many are in there – they’re different sizes.

Randy: So, they’re not dated, like “January 1st”?

Idella: No, I don’t have them dated.

Randy: Rhonda, do you want to make a comment about the returns at the book stores, since you’ve worked at a book store?

Rhonda: Generally, the print on demand books are not returnable. I don’t know about in your (Kelsey’s) case–if that’s different.

Idella: You can set it up however you want it.  I’ve found the returnable option is not worth it. I got a whole box back one time.

Randy: The book stores are used to being able to return books.  So, depending on what kind of marketing you’re doing, and what your reach is, you have to figure out if that would be something for you.

Lynn: Do the book stores allow you to come in and do book signings? Will the book store publicize it, too?

All: Yes

Idella: This particular book is at Handfuls on Purpose (Christian Bookstore) right now as a free giveaway.  That gives them advertising, and it gives me advertising.

Randy: OK.  You were here to help us, and you told us how you did it.  What is one (or more) main tip or tips you would like to give aspiring authors?

Idella: I would say pray and listen, because God will lead you in the direction you need to go.

Shelly: Do your research.  Check out all your options before you jump in to one certain thing; in addition to praying.

Lynn: You’re referring to getting your book published?

Shelly: Yes. Do all your research and then decide what will work best for you.

Kelsey: Write it.  Just write it out.  You can always edit, you can always change it, but if you have an idea, just get it down on paper, on the computer, get it somewhere.  Even if it’s one you wind up throwing away, it may take you down a path you didn’t even think was where it was supposed to go.  Just write it out.  If I get too far out in the future in my head, my subconscious would just shut it down; but if I just get it out there, it works a lot better.

Randy: How can people get your books?

Idella: Amazon.com under Idella Pearl Edwards

Shelly: Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com.  You’ll find me under Shelly Wilburn or Walking Healed.

Kelsey: Also, at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, and WestBow press.com.

That was the end of that section of the class. I hope you found it helpful. If you would like more tips like these, you can can click on the writing tab at the top of the page.

If you would like a self-study course that contains what was in the live course, and a whole lot more, you can invest in 6 Figure Writing by clicking here.

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How to Write Nonfiction | Turn Your Knowledge into Words

How to write nonfiction – Turn your knowledge into words that can be shared in books and articles. Your life has given you a lot of experiences. From those experiences, you have gained knowledge. That knowledge can help people, and that’s what you want your book to do. But how do you go about putting that knowledge into words?

Writing From Mountains to Molehills

Several years ago, I wrote a book called From Mountains to Molehills: Overcoming and Celebrating Your Differences in Marriage.

The process of writing this book was easier than it was for some of the others That was because I already had some chapters written from a previous book that was divided into six parts.

I later decided to revise the original book, but then I decided instead to write a series of six books. Each new book corresponded to one of the parts in the original book. So, I had several chapters that related to that content that was about “Overcoming.” I think there were probably about 40 or 50 pages that came from those chapters. To come up with the new book, I thought more about the topic. How could I expand it from about five chapters to anywhere from 12 to 20 chapters? The final product ended up being 14 chapters after I got it all put together.

Then I thought more about what I had covered in the chapters that were in the “overcoming” part of the original book. As I thought about that, I looked for the gaps. What else did I need to talk about on that topic? Then I did research.

Part of that research involved putting out a survey, and surveying other books that related to this topic. Then I went back and filled in the gaps, and outlined those other chapters. Having completed that research, I was able to finish the book.

After that, I was able to go in and put in some of my own personal touches. I added some personal stories out of our own lives. Then, as I recall, I made up some fictional stories in that particular book and put those in at the beginnings of the new chapters. They were stories of Ralph and Elizabeth. Of course, Ralph and Elizabeth were not people that I really knew, rather they were composites of people who were experiencing the things that I was talking about.

Brainstorm What You Know

First of all, brainstorm what you already know. Just get a piece of paper, and start writing down ideas on that piece of paper. Set a timer for 15 minutes and write as quickly as you can. After the timer goes off, set it again if the ideas are still flowing. Keep doing this until things slow down and you run out of ideas. At this point, things will not necessarily be in order. After that, one of the ways that you can handle that brainstorming and reorganizing would be to put little symbols beside the topics. For instance, sometimes I put a little box beside sentences or phrases that are similar. Next, I find another group of similar phrases or sentences, and I put a circle beside those to differentiate between them and those with the boxes. You can think of other symbols for that purpose. I remember using a triangle one time when I did that. I also remember using a 5-pointed star, and an asterisk. I was able to group those ideas together. So you use a process like that to brainstorm what you already know.

Look for the Gaps

Then, you try to find the gaps. Ask yourself, “Will this cover the topic? Will this give my audience the help that they really need?” Once you answer those questions, you can do further research.

Research for Info to Fill the Gaps

When you find the areas where the information is lacking, it’s time to research your topic. With that added information, you can come up with chapters to fill in the gaps.

Get the Rough Draft Done

The next step is the most important: Get the rough draft down, just get a draft down. In most cases, that will help.

Some people are really good at writing and editing the same day. If you do that, then you just need to have a word count for each day. Others do really well by just rough drafting each day until they’ve got the whole book done. Sometimes those people use a timer, and write those sections until the timer goes off. They have a time goal for the day instead of a word-count goal. Then they go back and do the editing and refining. Either way though, get the rough draft down.

In some of the coaching that I do, I help people with writing rough drafts of books. I have two different methods of fast writing that can be used. I also have two different methods of how they can “talk” their content out. They can utilize their phone, even do a live video like my “Walking with Randy” videos. They have an outline, and speak the book. There are two different methods for doing that, but going into more detail goes beyond the scope of this blog post.

So, you brainstorm, fill in the gaps, research, and get the rough draft down. After that, you make it even more interesting.

Add Your Personal Touches and Stories

Go in and add your own personal touches and stories. Now the stories don’t all have to be yours, they can be stories of other people (with their permission to tell their stories). But, tell your stories where you can. That adds the personal touch. You can also make up stories that are actually composites of people you know. That’s what I did in the case of Ralph and Elizabeth.

You have knowledge, and you have knowledge that will be helpful to other people. I hope that this blog post will help you to be able to turn your knowledge into written words.

So, how to write nonfiction-turn your knowledge into the words. Again, I hope this has been helpful to you.

I will remind you that you can go to Randy’s blogs.com to get more writing tips like these. If you are already on the blog, you can click on the “Writing” tab on this page.

You can also get videos like this on YouTube. I would even recommend that you subscribe to my YouTube channel to get a sample of more videos like these. if you are a subscriber, on a rainy day, you can binge watch the whole set!

Incidentally, if you are interested in the above mentioned, From Mountains to Molehills: Overcoming and Celebrating Your differences in Marriage,  you can find more info here.

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Writing Nonfiction Articles – Questions to Speed Your Way to the Cash

Today, I’m offering more tips that have to do with writing. So, writing nonfiction articles: the fastest way to the cash. These are some tips that will help you write nonfiction articles.

First of all, you want to do this because it is one of the fastest ways to get to the cash and it’s also one of the fastest ways to become prolific in what you do. There is a variety of topics that you can talk about with nonfiction. Of course with fiction, there are all kinds of stories that you can do too, but it seems to be a little bit harder. to come up with different variations of stories. However, with nonfiction, you can talk about all kinds of things, so you can come up with many, many more nonfiction articles.

The reason why I’m writing about this here is because it is possible to both be able to speed your way to being prolific and have many topics on which to write.

Think About Your Audience

Here is something that you should think about when you’re getting ready to write your nonfiction article: Think about your audience. Who is your audience? Who, most likely, would be interested in it? Is your audience male or female? Young or old?

You may not know the answer to all of those questions but sometimes you can get a pretty good handle on it if you go to the groups that are discussing the topics that you’re talking about. Also, if it’s something that you know a lot about, without having to do a lot of extra research, you are probably in your target market. You would know yourself some of the things your audience would need to know. So, first of all, think about your audience.

Think About a Problem

Second, think about a problem. What is the biggest pain that is associated with the topic that you’re discussing and the problem you’re trying to solve? What is it that would keep people awake at night? What would they have to overcome?

Think About the Solution

Next, think about a solution. What is the biggest benefit? What will they care about the most? What will bring them the most joy as a result of getting this solution? Will they be happy because of being able to do things more easily or more quickly? Will getting that solution help them make more money? Will getting that solution help them to be able to help other people? Will arriving at the solution give them a sense of fulfillment?

Think About the Steps to the Solution

Finally, think about the steps to the solution. Imagine that you’re standing on one side of a stream and the solution is on the other side. There are a bunch of stepping stones in the middle. Figure out what steps are involved in arriving at the solution. Do the steps have to be performed in a certain order? Do some of the steps build upon previous steps, or can they be placed anywhere between the problem and the final solution?

So there it is: writing nonfiction articles is the fastest way to the cash.


✅Think about your audience.
✅Think about a problem.
✅Think about a solution.
✅Think about steps to the solution

Nonfiction articles are the fastest way to become prolific. Yes, you become an expert when you write a book, but it takes so much longer to write a book than it does to write a short article. Some people get double mileage by writing articles for their blogs or for websites, and when they are ready to write their books, they can pull the articles from their blogs and then edit them to become chapters or parts of chapters for their books.

You can find places to put your articles by submitting them to article directory sites, like Ezine Articles.

Another way of using your articles is to put them on your own blog, or your own website. I have already mention how you could get double-mileage out of those articles. Search engines like to see websites that are updated frequently. You do that by continually adding articles that will bring value to your readers.

Also, don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.