What are Your Motives? (Thursday Thoughts)

#thursdaythoughts – where is the love in that?

I am walking through the Pauline Epistles this year.  Currently, I am studying 1 Corinthians.  My memory verse for this month is 1 Corinthians 16:14 (DDB version), do it in love.

I was watching a video by Pastor Paul LeBoutillier of Calvary Chapel Ontario, and he asked this question: What are your motives?  That got me to thinking about my motives when I write.

Thinking about the memory verse and the question asked by Pastor Paul, I asked myself two questions… Why do I write?  Do I write in love?

 

First, I must define what write in love means.  To “Write in Love” means that you write from a place of love and care, regardless of the topic.  It means that you take the time to search your heart to see why you are writing it.  It means that you consider your words carefully.  It means that you do not write out of spite or mean spiritedness.  You write it to share your story or experience with the world, not to be hateful to someone or some organization.

Secondly, I must explain what write with love suggests.  “Write with Love” means to clear your heart and mind of any animosity, hatred, or pride before you write.  Even if the subject matter is something that is harsh, hard, or detestable, you have to take a beat and write with a clear heart and mind to be sure that you get the best out of your writing.  It means that you focus on the reasons for sharing your story with the world instead of focusing on the hatred, cruelty, or malice you feel for a person, place, organization, or topic.

Lastly, I must consider myself when discussing these two explanations.  I could not write about a time period in my life, even though I wanted to.  I had hatred in my heart about the topic, towards some people, and towards a place.  Even when I tried to write, tears came and words would not flow properly.  I had to wait until I calmed down.

 Recently, I had planned to write a devotional about love, but I was not able to do that because there was no love in my heart.  I finally asked myself, “How can I write about love when I have hatred, malice, and pride in my heart?”  Writing with bad motives is not good.

At times, when we have writer’s block or even do not want to write, it could be that our conscience or unconscious mind is telling us that our motives are wrong or that we are not in the right frame of mind to write.  We should listen to those thoughts.  They could be telling us we need to evaluate our reasonings for writing.

 

I think every writer should periodically access why they write.  It is important to keep this in mind because this is one thing that keeps us motivated on days when we do not want to write.  I recommend that we write this out in a journal, our Writer’s Notebook, or on our computer.  Place it somewhere that we can find it easily.

 

Before you write anything else, take a moment to ask yourself:

What are my motives for writing this piece?