Leah Grace Last week, I shared part 1 of my writing journey. If you haven’t seen that yet, you can check it out here!
I was talking about the time, when just a few months ago, I dove full-force back into fiction writing. Yet as I did, I started struggling mentally & spiritually. There were 2 things that I attribute to this, which, once they were dealt with, erased the problems completely.
- I was not guarding my mind
- I was not guarding my words
This week, I am going to delve into these two things.
Not Guarding My Mind
Stories can be so immersive. I’ve shed so many tears about characters who’ve died, gut-wrenching dialogue, and book series that end. I’ve spent hours upon hours fantasizing and daydreaming about the characters, plots, and storyworlds that I read about. But over these last few years, I’ve had to step back and reevaluate—what am I putting into my mind?
I realized that many stories have led me to think and feel a number of ways: afraid, doubtful, discontent, selfish, entitled, angry, resentful. They’ve pulled me out of living in the moment and immersed me into something that isn’t even real. Romance stories can be even worse—encouraging jealousy, discontentment, and even impure thoughts.
So, I’ve been thinking: what am I putting into my mind with the books that I read? And what am I putting into mine and other peoples’ minds with the books that I write?
We must be vigilant to guard our thoughts. The scriptures are very clear that we have to be careful about what we think about and how we fill our minds.
1 Peter 1:13 says, “Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Furthermore, Paul said in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”
Both passages tell us that we need to be intentional to guard our minds.
Yet I realized that I was doing just the opposite when I was writing fiction. When it was time to brainstorm, I opened myself up to whatever thoughts and ideas felt like landing in my brain. “Most anything goes” is the mentality that I took up.
The thing is, God wants us to guard our minds and be very specific with what we will and will not think about. When we guard our minds, it’s like setting up defensive walls that keep Satan’s thoughts out and God’s thoughts in. So “forcing” our minds to relax and stop filtering thoughts & ideas is not God’s way at all. In fact, this is where the danger is lurking. We need to filter everything that comes into our minds. We need to think about what we’re thinking about—and if it doesn’t match up with the way God wants us to think, then we should shut it down and take those thoughts captive (2 Corinthians 10:3-6).
In fact, opening our minds up is the core concept of meditation & yoga—it’s essentially making our minds a free space and letting anything (including demons) fill our thoughts.
Our mind is not supposed to be a free space. We’ve been bought with a price, the blood of Jesus, and we are no longer our own (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 1 Peter 1:18-19). We belong to God and we do things His way, which includes thinking about the things He wants us to think on and always being prepared for action (Colossians 3:1-3, 1 Peter 1:13).
Not Guarding My Words
Another thing I did was write as fast as I could. I used The Most Dangerous Writing App, which erases all of your work if you don’t write fast enough for a set amount of time.
I put in my airpods and tried to put down as much content and ideas as possible. It was messy, unorganized, and very not thought out. Whatever came to mind went on to the computer without a second thought. I was hoping that somewhere along the way, a good idea would come out, and then I’d have something to work with.
Yet this, too, was not a good practice. Why? Because I was not guarding my words.
When I say “guarding my words,” I’m not talking about swearing or writing sinful, immoral content (because that’s already a given). I’m saying that we need to filter our words—even the ones we say during brain-dumps—through the lens of, “Does God think this is a good thing to think & write about?”
All through scripture, we are told to guard our lips. We simply are not supposed to say everything that comes to mind.
Jesus said in Matthew 12:36, “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.”
Proverbs 17:27 says, “He who restrains his words has knowledge…”
Proverbs 10:18 says, “When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.”
Ephesians 4:29 says, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.”
James 1:19 says, “This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.”
In trying to make myself come up with ideas, I wrote as fast as I could. Everything that crossed my mind, I just threw out there without a second thought. I simply hoped that something good would make its way into my brain-dump.
Yet I was teaching myself to say whatever I wanted without filtering it first. That’s the exact opposite of what we are commanded to do in James 1:19.
I’m not against all fictional stories. Jesus told parables to help people visualize and understand the truth. Even in the Old Testament, when the prophet Nathan came to David to tell him about his sin, he used a made-up story to prove his point.
What I’m saying is that I think that we need to be so intentional when it comes to writing. Everything we think and say should first be filtered with the help of the Holy Spirit. He gives us wisdom and discernment and helps us to do things His way.
Some questions that may be good to ask ourselves are, “Does this, in any way, encourage fear, depression, discontentment, or immorality? Is this edifying, encouraging, and something that I can picture Jesus writing and thinking about? Does it build up my faith and encourage me, or is it simply escapism?”
Those can be hard questions to ask, but I think it’s important for us as Christian writers to ask them anyway. It’s so easy to get caught up in the exciting plot and fun of creating that we miss the point of fiction completely. I can say that because it happened to me, and I don’t want it to happen to you.
I don’t think that writing fiction is bad—but I think that we have to be careful and discerning.
Please, my sisters, seek God about the stories that you’re writing. Guard your mind, your thoughts, and your words. God uses stories to get to people’s hearts—so let’s make sure that what goes into their heart is straight from God’s heart. 💜
