Who’s your Builder?

Who’s your Builder

by Amanda Garner

 

“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it”

(Psalm 127:1 – NASB).

 

I attended my first writer’s conference this year and left feeling overwhelmed. What I had envisioned as a leap of faith into the realm of “real writers” turned out to be a fall into the vast unknown. One publisher, however, showed interest and suggested an agent and I looked him up as soon as I returned home. Soon my balloon of enthusiasm started leaking.

I thought I understood the term platform until the agent clarified it in terms of thousands of followers. Suddenly, my tiny subscriber list of less than fifty seemed laughable. Not to worry, I told myself; I had a Facebook page, and could easily add Twitter, throw in a dash of Pinterest, maybe a pinch of Snap Chat, and voila—instant platform. But when I considered the numbers I needed, my balloon of enthusiasm burst. I flopped into bed that night feeling defeated and discouraged.

My husband asked, “What’s bothering you?”

Tears and fears spilled from my crumbling dam of determination. “If the internet is so vast and everyone has a blog, channel, or website, how can people find me? If I spend so much time trying to build my platform, when will I have time to write? Do I even have what it takes to be successful?”

He gently reminded me of a video we had watched that evening about a master craftsman in a dying trade who continued his work for the love of the craft. His simple advice helped restore my damaged dream. I’d persevere for the love of writing. I’d do my part to invest consistently and creatively in social media, and trust God to help me balance my time between writing and reaching out through the many options on the internet.

King David gathered an abundance of materials for his son Solomon to build a house for the Lord (1 Chron. 22:2-5). That took time. Yet he understood that unless the Lord built it, the work was in vain. We must take the same approach. We compose as ready and willing workers developing our skills and offering them in multiple ways, but ultimately we rely on the Lord to do the building.

Lord, please bless our efforts as we do kingdom work with our words and trust you for the results. We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

 

 

 

 

Amanda Garner writes from the small town of Franklinton, North Carolina. She is the homeschooling momma of four and passionate about home education. She offers support to homeschool families through her blogging, writing, and speaking. When not teaching or writing, Amanda can be found hiding with an espresso and a good novel. www.dropsofdelight.weebly.com