I am sitting here on a Wednesday night after our Bible study, just relaxing before calling it a night.
My wife tells me to go ahead and write my column for this week. You know, just get up and out of the blue write your thoughts down and put them in an order that makes sense.
After writing a column for six years in Walton County and the time here, apparently my wife thinks that "it just flows without any effort."
Does she not know there is planning, praying, research — all things that take vast amounts of time to make it sound feasibly sane?
She has to be joking!
No, it really isn't all that hard. You see, I have been doing this type of thing for most of my life. Writing plays, training material for different age groups, Sunday bulletins, having a book written and published, even some ghost writing for other ministers.
I love it.
As a young teenager, I had the privilege of proofing another weekly newspaper when others were too busy to do it.
Putting my thoughts and opinions down on paper, in all of its various forms, is so much easier sometimes than trying to express myself with my voice.
In Psalm 45:1, the last part states that "my tongue is the pen of a ready writer."
I can relate to that from this viewpoint: my pen is ready, therefore I write, and my voice is prepared to proclaim it.
Dear Saints, it should never be difficult to express our love for our Heavenly Father. God's Word is never so complicated that we cannot understand it when we would but learn to love it.
Loving Him and His Word may start out as a chore, but the more you read, as well as spend some quality quiet time with Him, the more readily the Word and the Father can communicate to you.
When this happens, then your tongue can be as the pen of a ready writer. We may not always get it right, our thoughts may come out as a rambling, we may feel inadequate in expressing how we feel. However, the more we practice, the easier it becomes and, yes, it does flow oh so easily.
Take me to task. Sit down with pen and paper and write what is on your heart.
Tomorrow night, make it sound a little better. Add more to that thought. Do this for a week, each day, changing it to make it better. After you have corrected and enhanced it for a week, throw it away. Now rewrite your original thought.
You will discover your first draft was with your heart, which is what God really wants to hear.
May God's Word become a lamp unto your feet, and a light unto your path. Be blessed.
The Rev. Richard Helms serves at Miracle Acres Ministries, 3187 E. James Lee Blvd., Crestview.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: HELMS: Write to God straight from the heart