Leaf on Water

Leaf on Water photo by Marcia Lee Laycock

by Marcia Lee Laycock

I thought it might be the last day in which to enjoy our beautiful autumn so I took my camera and went for a walk. The sun was still high, making the trees glow as they shivered in a cool breeze. A single yellow leaf floated down from a poplar tree leaning out over the pond. Landing on the still water, it created a slight ripple. It was more like a tremor, really, that shimmered and radiated out across the pond. Such a small thing, I thought, yet it created a still moment, a focus of beauty caught by my camera that triggered thoughts which carried me on for the rest of the afternoon.

I’ve recently made the decision to launch my own publishing company, Small Pond Press. As the name indicates, this will not be a grand effort. The company will mostly publish my own work and the work of other devotional writers I will mentor in the future. But I have no doubt it will, in its own way, cause a tremor. It will publish, Lord willing, words that are a focus of beauty, words that will create still moments, moments that will carry readers into new streams of thought, new perspectives, perhaps even new awakenings.

I love what the great artist Vincent Van Gogh said – “Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”

I like to remember that when I feel that my writing career, my body of work, has been too small to have any affect at all. And I remember what Mother Teresa once said – “We can do no great things; only small things with great love.”

Jesus continually asked His disciples to do small things: “Let down the nets for a catch,” He said in Luke 5:4 and His sovereignty over all things was revealed. “Take and eat ... Drink,” He urged them in Matthew 26:26 & 27 and they learned what dying to self was all about. “Give them something to eat,” He commanded in Matthew 14:16 and showed them a generosity of provision that was astonishing. “Wash in the pool,” He directed in John 9:7 and revealed the depth of His compassion. Such small, ordinary actions. Such wide-reaching ripples when they were obeyed and executed in love.

Has God placed you in a small pond? Has He given you seemingly insignificant things to do, to say, to write? Do you wonder if what you are doing has any significance at all?

Remember His words to the prophet Zechariah - “Do not despise these small beginnings,” He told the prophet, “for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin” (Zechariah 4:10).

Small things done in obedience, in love, leaving tremors that may very well create ripples that will never end. Like a yellow leaf landing on still water. 
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Marcia Lee Laycock writes from central Alberta Canada where she is a pastor's wife and mother of three adult daughters. She was the winner of The Best New Canadian Christian Author Award for her novel, One Smooth Stone. The sequel, A Tumbled Stone was short listed in The Word Awards. Marcia also has two devotional books in print and has contributed to several anthologies including the Hot Apple Cider books. Her work has been endorsed by Sigmund Brouwer, Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and Mark Buchanan.

The ebook  Abundant Rain, a devotional for writers of faith, can be downloaded here in all formats. 

It is also now in Journal format on Amazon. 

Visit Marcia’s Website

And sign up to receive her devotional column, The Spur

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A REAL LIVE RED-HEADED, GREEN-EYED HEROINE?

Well, that’s Cindy Sproles in the flesh, complete with a beautiful smile, a contagious laugh, and outgoing personality. You can’t miss her. And I’m sure glad I didn’t.

I met her at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference in 2004. She was a beginner, said she was scared, not sure what to do, but it sure looks like she’s done the right things.

“First,” she says, “I realized in order to write my best for God, I needed a deeper relationship with him.” She began to pray for understanding and ability. Then she put her fingers to the keyboard and focused on devotional writing. Not just occasionally. She wrote a devotion every day for four years. That’s determination!

Now, with all her other activities, she writes one devotion a week. Cindy, along with Eddie Jones, founded Christian Devotions Ministry (ChristianDevotions.us). The two of them penned He Said, She Said devotions for over seven years then collected them into the best-selling devotional titled… ta dah… He Said, She Said.

As she began to take her steps along her writing journey, one thing led to another. She learned the craft of writing devotions and began holding retreats for others wanting to write them. Her efforts did not always come easily, but typical of Cindy, she said, “When things get tough, God doesn’t call us to retreat. He calls us to advance.”

 One thing led to another and before long, The Billy Graham Training Center, The Cove, in Asheville, NC opened its doors for Cindy’s next venture. Now she is director of Writers ADVANCE! Boot Camp.

"I understand how it feels to not know the lingo or understand what to do at a conference,” she says. "So I make it my goal to help new conferees make the best of their conference time.”

She has a love for the beginner, and delights in teaching new conferees, but the Workshop also offers a strong track for advanced writers. Between the amazing venue of The Cove, to the unique format of Writers Advance, conferees walk away filled up and sent out. That’s only one facet that makes Writers ADVANCE! so special.

Registration is limited and fills quickly for this reasonably priced conference held at The Billy Graham Training Center, better known as The Cove, in the panoramic mountains of Asheville NC. The conference dates are February 21-23, 2014 and registrations can be made through www.writersadvancebootcamp.com.

 I, Yvonne Lehman, am privileged to be included among the faculty. Some others are Steven James, Lynette Eason, Mike Dellosso, Ann Tatlock, Lori Hatcher, Edie Melson, Denise Loock, Janet Roller and of course, our red-headed, green-eyed heroine who makes ADVANCE such an enjoyable, instructive, happy time for writers.

In 2011, Cindy’s collection of devotions, New Sheets, was a finalist for a Selah Award. She has a very unique, creative concept for this book. She writes: Need to change your husband? Change your sheets. Want to change jobs? Change your sheets. Long for a new life? Just change your sheets.

God uses our life experiences to shape us. When the friction of frustration chaffs the skin, God offers us respite and rest. Sleeping on worn-out sheets meant holding on to the past, but new sheets...new sheets marked a fresh start. The slate wiped clean. Crisp. Fresh. New.

With each monumental event in her life, she tossed out the old and ushered in the new with a set of fresh new sheets. From the cheapest muslin to the most expensive Egyptian cotton, she saw how God was shaping her into the woman she needed to be.

Cindy has come a long way in her writing journey. She speaks for women’s conferences and writers conferences nationwide. She is an acquisitions editor for Lighthouse Publications of the Carolinas.

In 2014 Kregel Publications will release her first novel, Where the River Begins. Cindy sounds like a heroine to me… and she’s very likeable!

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