Back to Basics: Your stories are all around even if you don’t recognize them

 

Your stories are everywhere, all around you, just waiting for you to put them in writing.

 

Look at your cell phone contact list, your address book, email inbox, friends on Facebook and other social media. What stories can you write about the fun you had with them? About the adventures? What skills did those people teach you?

 

Go deeper: What did you learn alongside them about failure, hard work, success, romance, illness, teamwork? What lessons did they teach you?

 

Think back: Who taught you about honesty, integrity, perseverance, kindness, compassion, generosity, faith in God? How, specifically, did those individuals shape you and encourage you to be the person you are today?

 

Stories are everywhere—not just stories. God-and-you stories.

 

 Look around your office or your house. What have you tucked into a special drawer or a safe deposit box?

 

If a tornado siren sounded, or if a smoke alarm went off, what would you grab and take to a safe place?

 

If those items could talk, what stories would they tell?

 

I think about that question a lot.

 

Someday I want to write stories based on my old blue American Tourister carry-on bag. It traveled with me for thirty years across three continents: from this planet’s most primitive places to the world’s most sophisticated cities. What stories it could tell!

 

What stories would my husband’s grandmother’s aluminum colander tell? And her ironing board? I don’t know how many years Grandma Jennings used them, but I’ve used them for more than fifty years! Five generations of our family (so far) have used those items. Imagine what stories they could tell—stories of God’s goodness to our family, generation after generation.

 

Why have you thrown out some possessions 

but kept others for many years?

 

Why could you never throw them out or give them away? 

Because they represent something important to you. 

What is that something?

 

Look around and ask yourself:

 

“If this dining room table could talk, what stories would it tell?”

 

“If my old Bible could talk, what stories would it tell?”

 

“If these boots could talk, what stories would they tell?”

 

What about a photo? A book? Washing machine? Piece of art? Jewelry? Woodworking tools? Coffee mug? Mechanical tools? Art supplies? A vase? A favorite old devotional book?

 

Many items could tell stories—stories significant to you and your family.

 

Glenda Bonin suggests we interview key people—and even ourselves.

 

“Don’t be timid about interviewing yourself and others,” Glenda writes. “A good interviewer asks questions and waits for answers. . . . Listen deeply, allowing as much time as needed for quiet moments of thought. Do not rush in with a new question until you are satisfied that the question has been fully explored. . . . These moments are often where the best family stories can be found. . . .”

 

I like Glenda’s suggestion: Interview others, yes, but also interview yourself, and “listen deeply, allowing as much time as needed. . . .”

 

You might even schedule a time to think, to ponder an item’s importance. Or maybe you could contemplate while you drive to work or mow the lawn or walk the dog.

 

What questions do you need to ask?

 

What questions do you need to ask yourself?

 

Peel back layers. 

Wait for answers. Listen for them.

 

When answers surface, write your stories—

not just stories. Write God-and-you stories.

 

Remember, while you’ve been using and enjoying those items, God has always been with you, working in you, working on your behalf.

 

You don’t need to experience news-making miracles to witness God at work. He is in your everyday comings and goings.

 

As Oswald Chambers says,

 

“We look for visions from heaven

and for earth-shaking events

to see God’s power. . . .

Yet we never realize that

all the time God is at work

in our everyday events

and in the people around us.”

 

Write your stories!