Kim Wilbanks

Words.  We read them, think them, write them and speak them.  We whisper them, sing them and shout them.  We use them to encourage, hurt, comfort or simply convey information.  Sometimes, they come easy.  Other times, not so much.

Did I Really Say That?

One of my favorite emojis is the person with their eyes closed and their hand on their forehead.  I often feel like this little emoji, especially when I speak.  I have trouble finding the right words to say in certain situations.  Many times, I think of something clever or enlightening I could have said hours or days after the fact.  Occasionally, when I make a comment, I am immediately like the little emoji, thinking “why in the world did I just say that?”  Stupid or insensitive things I have said can bother my conscience for days.  Recollections of conversations from my college years still cause me to figuratively plant my hand on my face.

All of that is when I actually speak. 

I tend to be a quiet person, a classic introvert.  I don’t talk a lot unless I know you well and then, I probably talk too much.  My mom told me that my kindergarten teacher scheduled a conference with her because she was concerned with my lack of communication.  I never talked in her classroom.  She informed the teacher that I talked all the time at home.

How The Writing Started

A few years ago, when my children left home and my nest was empty, I discovered writing.  I had always kept journals so it wasn’t entirely new, but the type of writing was.  Thoughts swirled around in my mind as I pondered my new station.  A quiet house led to time to think about life and to write these thoughts down.

There is something cathartic about writing.  You can write (or type) your thoughts and if you don’t like what you said, you can erase or delete.  When writing, you can take time to gather your thoughts and tweak them until they convey the message you want to send.  There’s time to get it right before your thought goes out into the world.  Of course, there are some on social media who should probably take a little bit longer to think about what they’re saying before they hit send but, that’s a different story.

Things I Believe About My Writing

I want to share with you two things that I strongly believe. 

I want you to know that I believe that any talent that I may have is a gift from God himself.  It is not me.  Sometimes, I wonder if writing is a way to compensate for my inability to speak with confidence.  Perhaps, God blessed me with a tiny bit of talent so I could share thoughts without the fear of stumbling over words or saying the wrong thing.

The second thing I want you to know is that I truly desire that the words I write are to glorify God and not myself.  I do appreciate you reading my words and I thank you for your kind comments but, I need to pass along the accolades to our great God.  We all enjoy hearing compliments about ourselves but sometimes it can go to our heads and I want to be so careful of that happening. 

This is what I consider the most important goal of my writing; to cause my reader to think of God or the things of God and his son Jesus and then follow more closely.  I hope my writing is doing that.  If not, it’s just a bunch of words.

Typing

Importance of Words

Writing