Today I'm participating in a blog hop with author Rebecca Bruner!
My
current work in progress is called A Wife of Valor: Your Strategic Importance in God's Battle
Plan. For many years, I have been teaching
Christian wives about God's design for marriage and how to put
biblical principles into practice within their own relationships. At one
point, a young woman told me that she was sharing lessons she'd
learned in my classes whenever she talked with other women whose marriages
were struggling. She really encouraged me to write this book so that these
principles could impact a wider audience and be a blessing to even
more marriages.
How
does my work differ from others in its genre?
I
think many Christian marriage resources for women focus only
on improving their satisfaction or reducing conflict between spouses. I'm
convinced we need to think bigger. My goal is to encourage
women to look at their marriages from God's perspective. We need to stop merely
asking "Is my marriage making me happy?" and instead ask "Is
my marriage glorifying God and accomplishing His purposes?"
We have to bear in mind
that God is at war. Even before humanity was created, Satan had already
declared war upon God through his rebellion. God designed men and women to
complement one another, partnering together in marriage to serve as His allies
in that war. Marriage is far more than a means of fulfilling our human needs.
It is an essential part of God's strategy for battle.
Because God created men
and women to see the world from completely opposite vantage points, we have the
potential to strategically cover each other’s backs. While Satan tempts wives
and husbands to fight head-to-head against each other, God wants us to learn to
battle back-to-back against the real enemy, defending each other’s
greatest areas of vulnerability with our own unique strengths.
Why do I write what I do?
I'm
convinced that women are hungry for the truth of God's word. I'm trying to be
very transparent and intentional as I share the lessons from the Bible
that God has used to transform my own marriage. If I
can impart the wisdom God's entrusted to me to help other women
put learn how to Him first in their marriages, then I will consider my work a
success.
How
does your writing process work?
It
all begins with prayer for guidance and inspiration. I'm constantly asking God
to oversee my writing and help me to become the best possible steward of
the message He's entrusted to me.
I
try to discipline myself to write at least five days a week. When I am
composing fresh material, I often start with a five to six-minute period of
writing stream of consciousness in long hand, just to get the words flowing
freely. Then I go to my computer and start working on my document for at
least a half hour, longer if I'm on a roll and have the time in my schedule. I
figured out a while back that thirty-six minutes of writing over five days adds
up to three hours a week if you can be consistent, which is nothing to sneeze
at in my opinion. I know a lot of writers who wish they could find three hours
each week to devote to working on their books.
With
this work in progress, once I had a complete rough draft, I recruited
beta-readers to give me feedback. I also taught a class based on the material.
Feedback from the readers and the class members has been very helpful as I have
refined and revised the book.
At
this point, I'm working on a second rewrite with the aim of making
the manuscript more personal and invitational in tone. My goal
is to connect with my readers on the same kind of personal level that
I can when directly talking with a group of women. When I'm done
with the current revision, I'll again solicit feedback from
reviewers, critique partners, and beta-readers and try to implement any
suggestions for improvement they have to offer.
I've
submitted proposals for this manuscript to some Christian publishers,
but if God should close those doors, I'm open to publishing independently.
Although I can't foresee precisely how God will get this book into the hands of
readers, I have faith that He who began this good work will complete it in
His way and in His time.
Thanks for visiting, Rebecca!
For more about Rebecca and her books, please visit her blog at:
Blessings,
Ruth
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