Writing with Grace and Flair

I've been getting a lot of questions about writing (mostly on Pinterest) and wanted to share a few thoughts about giving and receiving "grace" with you works and with things you read.

I happen to believe that giving grace is important.

Why?  Because you can take the same essay and turn it into 4 different English professors and you would get 4 very different grades.  You could even run the alphabet.

I've had professors, editors, and critics love my work and hate my work.  Either way works for me because my question back to them is, "did it broaden your perspective?"

If it did, then I succeeded.  If it didn't my follow up question is, "are you willing to allow your perspective to grow?"

I think that's what grace and writing is all about.  We may not all agree, but you will read my work and consider the possibilities.  Then you will give me the right to my viewpoint.  You don't have to agree.  Just let me be me.  Right for me.  Not always right for you, but you allow me to think differently than you.

For some reason it's really important to me to give others grace...the right to be who they are.  The right to:

their own theology
their own philosophy
even their own ideas about raising children

For me?  I prefer a bit of flair, lots of laughter, and loads of grace!


www.lotsagrace.org

Listen Well

I had a communication professor in college who was an absolute genius. He was well into the autumn of his life and retired shortly after I graduated. Ergo, all of the 20 something's thought he was just an old geek. I was in my late forties when I returned to school to finish my degree, and I started noticing a recurring pattern from the prof. 

He told great stories. Stories about his old dog, stories about fishin', even stories about his last great meal. Now, I love stories, so I looked forward to going to class. That's about the time I figured out these weren't just stories he was telling for the heck of it. Here's the kicker. With each story he was giving us an example of our upcoming persuasion assignment.

Now I was really intrigued. 

I started following his outlines when I prepared my next assignment, and I started getting A's. 

Everybody said he was giving me A's because I was older. Nobody figured out the ole genius had a hidden plan in plain sight.

All it took to find it was a little listening.

My wise old professor was telling the stories of his life. Each story was layered with a different form of persuasion, a unique outline, and was filled with everything unique and real in his life. 

Really, it just doesn't get much better than that. Because, you see Sharing our true selves is a most precious gift.