Write from Your Heart: An Anecdote from Little House on the Prairie
I was awakened in the middle of the night, around 3:30 in the morning, and my TV was still on from the previous night. It was on the Hallmark Drama channel as I often love to watch The Waltons as a means to quiet my heart and relax in cheer. I found myself looking at the drama called Little House on the Prairie. Remember those stories of life on the prairie and the Ingalls family with their challenges and struggles?
Well, this particular story was about the children and families who were celebrating Founder’s Day. Laura, her sister Mary, and the children in their class all had to write a story of their choosing. Laura was afraid and anxious because her sister Mary knew “more words” than she did and therefore, she began to reason, would write better than her. Laura’s mother told her that because she is younger, she may not know or have as many words as her sister Mary. But she was to tell her own story and she was not to compare herself; simply write her own story.
Well, Founder’s Day came, and each student was called upon to tell their story. Laura told her story from her heart. She told of the nights when she had a fever and her mother was by her bedside with a cold cloth, placing it upon her head to help break the fever. She told how she would often doze off to sleep but when she would awaken, she would find her mother there to greet her with a loving, smiling face. She told the story of her mother needing clothes and desiring to look pretty, as most women desired in the town. When her mother received some beautiful material for clothing and was thinking to use it to make herself a dress for the Founder’s Day event, but instead, when she and her sister had awakened that morning to attend the Founder’s Day celebration, her mom had made dresses for the two of them. Instead of beautifying herself, her mother chose to make beautiful dresses for Laura and Mary.
Why do I write this story for you? I write this story because I felt impressed on my heart to share with you Laura Ingalls’ revelation to my heart. Although Laura’s words were not written on the paper, they were written on her heart. The words were spoken from her heart! They were not big, impressive words but words of compassion that unknowingly, spoken from her heart, formed the story for her paper of her love and appreciation for her mother. She may have been a little girl, yet her heart had big words!
Beautiful people of God, we all are anxious that we are not big enough to write our story, or we may not have the “right words,” pretty words, beautiful words, impactful words, encouraging words, words of truth, words of revelation, words of significance, big words, or large words. But God says to speak from your heart – use the words He places in your heart. He will add the weight to the words. He will add the significance of the words once read. Our responsibility is to write – He will draw and bring the revelation and glory for the impact He desires!
Beloved people of God, ours is the job, duty, delight, and passion to simply write what is in our heart – the impact is for God to make, and He will. He shall do what He promises to do.
Hallelujah! Be blessed as you mull this over in your heart today. Write from your heart!
