31 Days of 5-Minute Free-Writes

Day 9: Inspire

To say that Scripture is inspired is to say that it is God-breathed.

Nothing that I write is inspired in the same sense that the Word of God is inspired, but I can hope to be inspiring in what I write. To be inspiring means to infuse spirit or courage into someone. When I share my story with you, it is with the hope that at least some part of what I say will resonate with you and encourage you.

Today is only the ninth day of my baby-book shower for Reflections of a Mother’s Heart, and already I feel a deep need to breathe.

One of the first things I like to do with a word is to look it up in the dictionary, and I often turn to the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary, since I have it conveniently installed on my computer. Now, I have already had a pretty good sense of the meaning of inspire before looking it up, but I did the search anyway, just for fun. Sure enough, I was floored by what I found.

Inspire. Intransitive verb, from the Latin inspiro; in and spiro, to breathe.

To draw in breath; to inhale air into the lungs.

Naturally, this is not the only definition, but it was the first one listed. As I read it, I instinctively drew in a long, deep breath. Then I let it out slowly and thoughtfully.

Our heavenly Father always knows exactly what we need, and at just the right moment, doesn’t He? Whether in the Word of God or in the dictionary, He can tell me to breathe. But I’d have to say, I like it better coming from the Word of God.

Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Today we could have talked about what inspires us to write. I did briefly mention how we can be inspiring in our writing. But I truly believe the take-away for this moment is that we need to inspire in its most basic sense—breathe, just breathe.

Kate Motaung, host of Five-Minute Friday, has challenged us to 31 Days of Five-Minute Free Writes, in which we will explore the telling of our story. This isn’t the first such challenge of hers, but it is the first for me. Thank you for sharing it with me.

For a list of links to all my posts for this challenge, click here.

¹Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, part of the Deluxe Library Version 8.1 of StudyLamp Software: Broken Arrow, OK, 1995-2017.