by Sandy Kirby Quandt @SandyKQuandt

As a writer, have you ever tried to fit into someone else’s clothes? I don’t mean literally, I mean have you tried to fit into writing things God intended for others to write? It doesn’t quite fit. It’s either too big, or too small. The only writing that will fit just right is writing what God created us to write. 

The week I spent as a participant at Space Camp for Teachers at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama was a once in a lifetime experience. During one activity, my teammates and I performed an EVA – Extravehicular Activity – on the International Space Station. Obviously, this was a mock-up. Not the real deal. But still…

Before going out to perform our EVA, the four of us changed from our blue flight suits, and pulled white EVA suits on over our shorts and tee shirts. We ranged in height from my 5′ 3″ to Bruce’s 6′ 6″. After changing clothes, we hung our flight suits up, and headed out the door to our assignments.

With our respective EVAs completed, we returned to the room to change back into our flight suits. Before Bruce returned, however, Jonathan moved my flight suit to where Bruce’s flight suit previously hung. While the rest of us watched, Bruce tried to squeeze his large frame into my smaller flight suit. Poor guy. He didn’t know what was going on. Jonathan told Bruce he must have grown during the EVA!

Just as my flight suit did not fit Bruce, and his did not fit me, God designed each of us to be the writer we are. He didn’t intend for us to become someone else. But as writers, don’t we try to fit into someone else’s clothes sometimes? We try to squeeze into parameters meant for others, not meant for us. We try to write things God intended for others to write, not for us to write. In doing so, we end up trying to be a writer God did not create us to become.

Instead of looking at the writer God created us to be, we might look at other writers and wish we had their abilities, opportunities, publishing credits, platform. Or maybe we wish we wrote what they wrote, instead of what God placed on our hearts to write.

Perhaps we listen to the negative things others say about us and our writing, instead of listening to the truth God says about us and our writing. Or worse, we listen to the lies we tell ourselves, believing we aren’t good enough, smart enough, social media savvy enough, whatever enough, to be a real writer.

How can we reach the potential God placed inside each of us as writers if we constantly try to fit into someone else’s clothes, trying to be something God never intended us to be? Refusing to be the writer God created us to be isn’t going to get us far. Wouldn’t you agree?

If we insist on trying to fit into someone else’s writing clothes, we’ll end up like my friend Bruce. We’ll struggle to put on something that obviously doesn’t fit because it isn’t ours. No matter how much we might want it to fit, it won’t. It is something we aren’t supposed to try to force ourself into. 

 God made each of us the writer we are. That might mean we write fiction, nonfiction, screenplay, poetry, articles, Bible study, memoir, historical, suspense, speculative, or any other genre. Through our union with Christ Jesus, we are created for a life of good works which he has already prepared for us to complete. We weren’t created to write what God created someone else to write. We were created to write only what he created us to write. Believing that truth, we can comfortably fit into the writing clothes God meant just for us, and quit trying to fit into someone else’s clothes. 

I wish you well,

Sandy

Sandy Kirby Quandt is a former elementary school educator and full-time writer with a passion for God, history, and travel; passions that often weave their way into her stories and articles. She has written numerous articles, devotions, and stories for adult and children publications. Her devotions appear in two Worthy Publishing compilation books; So God Made a Dog, and Let the Earth Rejoice. She has won several awards for writing including the 85th and 86th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition in the Young Adult category, First Place in the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference Children’s Literature 2016 Foundation Awards, First Place in the 2017 Foundation Awards in the Young Adult, Middle Grade, and Flash Fiction categories. Looking for words of encouragement or gluten-free recipes? Then check out Sandy’s blog, Woven and Spun. When The Way Is Steep