At the Southern Christian Writer’s Conference this weekend, I attended a seminar by Melanie Dickerson on “How to Create Conflict in Fiction.” She was discussing how without conflict there is no story worth reading. We don’t read books or watch movies where only good things happen and everyone is happy. It’s like the movie Pleasantville…
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Random Patterns
Part of the fun of a mystery knit along or even a mystery novel is watching seemingly random facts fuse together to become a completed pattern. It’s fun seeing the parts come together and trying to guess what it will become. I especially like the pictures in puzzle magazines that look like a jigsaw puzzle…
Doing Your Part
We’ve spent Monday nights in April studying the story of Gideon in the book of Judges. One concept that was discussed was fulfilling your role. Gideon was given a battle plan from God. In order for it to work everyone had to take their place and do their part. Like our physical bodies, if one…
A Spot of Trouble
Yesterday I was knitting a sock and came to a thin piece of yarn. The yarn has been in storage for years and had gotten damaged. I thought we had pulled off all the damaged section before I got started, so I thought I could work this one little strip in and continue on. After…
Not Responding
Not Responding. Those two words seem to be the phrase of the day. I spent an aggravating hour, on and off, trying to reach the mortgage company to find out how to proceed with taking care of an issue. First, I waited in line on hold only to have the operator never pick up after…
The Vision
When we have a vision for something, in the beginning it is exciting and energizing, but the true test comes when the newness wears off and the drudgery of everyday life takes over. For instance, when I start a new knitting project, I am excited to see the pattern take shape on my needles and…
Dropped Stitch
I picked up my knitting this morning and was working away until I got to a place where I was short one stitch for the pattern. I counted backwards and forwards and the rest of the pattern looked right, but I was still missing a stitch. Then, I saw it. It had dropped 4 rows…
UFOs and the Power of Finishing
In knitting there are a lot of technical knitting terms, but there is also universally recognized jargon. One such term that falls under jargon is UFO, which stands for Un-Finished Object. A UFO is when you start something and later discard it for any number of reasons, including it was too hard, confusing or boring….
Perfect
Do you ever think about doing something new but never go through with it? I do. I’ll look at a new knitting project and get started, but when I hit something unfamiliar, I often stop and put the project aside. I currently have 3 knitting projects that are almost done, but I keep hesitating because…
Life is a Battle
In Oswald Chambers’ book My Utmost for His Highest for December 4th, he states the following: “To him that overcometh…” (Rev. 2:7) – Life without war is impossible, either in nature or in grace. The basis of physical, mental, moral, and spiritual life is antagonism.” The goal is to overcome anything that is not of…