I’ve desired to write before I could spell. It amused me as a child, became a ministry as a teenager, and helped pay for education as a college student.

Writing has always been a big part of my identity, passion, and learning (because I was not born good at it!).

But I’m shy about it.

Most of my friends growing up were into horses and ranches, and it was embarrassing to own a laptop and be a fast typer.

As a single in college, I was afraid to share my writing because I wanted to guard my mystique, I guess. What if I acquired a stalker reader? Or what if a quality Christian guy stumbled onto my blog? He might misunderstand my words, see a small piece of me without really knowing the whole.

As a result of these fears, I wrote on the down low, agreeing with Sean O’Connell (from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty) that maybe, “Beautiful things don’t ask for attention.”

Have you ever been shy about sharing the very gift you’re the most passionate about? Why do we feel we must be incognito about our desires?

God is the great gift-giver. James 1:17 says, “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”

Why does He gives us gifts? They’re not to hide or bury in the ground. “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (I Peter 4:10).

God gifts us to build up His church!

As ironic as it is, my now-husband’s FIRST introduction to me was a blog post. Yes, this is a true story. It was called The Best is yet to Come. After messaging me for several months, he even bought my fiction book One Summer’s Desire. We hadn’t even met in person and he read the book I wrote when I was sixteen! *cringe* Talk about seeing a small piece of the picture without seeing the whole.

Somehow, now I’m married to that reader (Luke) and have a new last name and a renewed vision for writing, but I’m STILL shy about writing. Turns out, it wasn’t entirely the fear of potential creepers to blame. What IS my excuse anyways? Is it fear of man? My introverted personality? The fear of people thinking I think I’m a big deal, when I know clearly that I’m just learning and growing, too?

I shared this with Luke, and he asked me, “So why do you write?”

I know that I am gifted with a passion to form words. GIFT implies that it’s been given to me — and I humbly offer it back to Him. He’s already used this in numerous ways in my life and other people’s, too. I want to continue to be a good steward of the grace He’s bestowed on me . . . with no fears attached.

What are God’s gifts of grace to you? Are you shy about them? How can you employ them without fear?

As I’ve followed my own blog over the last couple of years, I’ve noticed a theme. God keeps chipping away at different fears in my life and delivering me from them. Even the fear of sharing my own writing!

The living God is worthy to be proclaimed in all of my words. If I had a 1,000 tongues — or a 1,000 blogs — I hope I would use all of them for His glory.