Plans

I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope.
Jeremiah 29:11

I've heard that the one way to make God laugh is to tell him you have plans. The rest of my life is stretching out in front of me. I need a job, and the only thing certain is that I don't want to be "Director" of anything. Perhaps God has other ideas. My suspicion is that, while He values human work, He isn't terrible concerned about specific jobs. Perhaps I'm wrong.

I know he gave me marriage and family as my primary concern and that won't change. I know he wants me to write. The inclination is most certainly from him. But what shall I write? I won't tell him my plans. He might laugh. He sends me ideas when I remember to listen.

You will surely have a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
Proverbs 23:18

Writing

If you bring forth the precious without the vile, you shall be my mouthpiece.
Jeremiah 15:19

How do we bring for the precious without the vile? By taking in only the precious but not the vile? How do we live in the world without being a part of it? How do we then speak to it?

The word says "If you repent so that I restore you..."

To tell real stories about real people, is to deal with the ugly along with the beautiful, the good along with the bad. We have to sift for the precious in the midst of the crass. Between the vast moral wasteland of popular culture and the contrived fictions of inspirational romance and family-friendly programming lie the lives of real people making their way to God. To tell those stories requires the hand of God.

The Jerusalem Bible translation is this:

If you come back,I will take you back into my service;and if you utter noble, not despicable, thoughts,you shall be as my own mouth.

1. Repent
2. God acts to take you into his service
3. Utter nobel thoughts
4. God is in charge of the results.

That will work.