Words by Becky Antkowiak
“…I am full of words; the spirit within me compels me.” —Job 32:18
As writers, words are our business. Words fuel our passion. Words bring life to our imaginings and breath to our ideas. We can’t write without words.
Words paint pictures in the minds of our readers.
The words we use are more important than we may realize.
A friend emailed me. “God gave me this story. He wants the world to hear it, and I can’t wait for you to read these scenes. Be brutally honest. What do you think?” I’ll never debate whether God sparked the idea for a story.
But God is not the creator of disorganized thoughts, jumbled ideas, misspellings, or terrible grammar. Every sentence needed work. I explained that believing a message came from God doesn’t relieve us of our responsibility to learn how to use words well. Thankfully, this conversation didn’t end the friendship.
I suggested finding an editor to help craft words and streamline descriptions.
Continue learning
No one has perfect grammar. Everyone makes mistakes. An eagle-eyed reader will find more than one error in this post. However, our job as writers and as Christians is to continue to learn. To grow our skills. We can’t be lazy with our words. His message is too important.
In the New Testament, Paul describes bringing his physical being under control to allow his spiritual being to thrive. Discipline is not always enjoyable, but if we’re committed to bringing God’s message to the people who need to hear it, we need to hone our craft. We need to learn spelling. Vocabulary. Grammar. Structure. Show vs. tell. Dialogue. Words.
Without words—without the right words—we can’t clearly communicate the message God has given each of us. The message someone needs to hear.
Imagine Elihu gritting his teeth. Shouting at Job. “I am full of words. The spirit within me compels me.” He can’t hold back the words.
Is he talking about writing? No. Is the verse out of context? Possibly. But the point remains. The spirit compels us to share the words God gives us. We need to buckle down and study. As writers, we must educate ourselves, so we can write the best words. The clearest words. The most accurate words.
Words communicate truth. Let’s focus on our words.
About the author…
Becky Antkowiak (ant-KO-vee-ack) is a writer, speaker, editor, adoptive homeschooling mom, Compassion sponsor and enthusiastic Grammar Floozy. A lifelong serial extrovert, Becky believes every stranger is a friend she hasn’t met. She founded the 540 Club, a free group for writers focused on sharpening writing skills, studying writing craft, and encouraging each other in the writing journey. When she’s not writing, you can find her demolishing, rebuilding, and creating alongside Patrick (her best friend and husband of 20 years). In her spare moments, she binge-listens to audiobooks while eating salted caramel anything.
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