God's Voice vs. Satan's Voice

God is all that is good.

Therefore, God's voice:    Whereas Satan's voice:

Stills you Rushes you

Leads you Pushes you

Reassures you Frightens you

Enlightens you Confuses you

Encourages you Discourages you

Comforts you Worries you

Calms you Obsesses you

Convicts you Condemns you

Until recently, I was letting Satan push, worry, and confuse me. He was telling me that I was being unreasonable and hateful, while I was trying to follow what God said. I struggled until we read this in my Bible Study:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

-Ephesians 6:10-18

Listen only to God; His voice is the only One that matters.

Creative Writing Club: Clock Taboo

Yesterday, I introduced to you a new series: Creative Writing Club! This series outlines the activities that my high school Creative Writing Club does in order to get inspired.

Yesterday, I shared the first activity that we did in this week's meeting. Today, I will share the second (and final) activity that we did in our meeting for this week.

To start, our club listed several specific topics we could hypothetically write about. These topics included clocks, Stonehenge, Jerry Seinfeld, etc. We chose one topic as a group and then brainstormed a series of words commonly associated with the first word. Our teacher challenged us to write about the first topic without using any of the words we listed.

So we had to write about a clock without using any of the following words: clock, tick-tock, hand, minute, hour, time, second, face, number, pendulum, antique. Basically, this was like the game taboo.

I wrote this:

Running around, stuck in the eternity that ends only when midnight is struck. There's no need for me to carve hash marks into the walls of my prison, as this round cage already contains them. These hash marks dictate my life. Each hash mark passed is life lost, and every 360 marks, an infernal dinging rings inside my head. Those outside this dome jump with fright at every ding, but I envy them: they are free.

Now, I'm challenging you to write anything about a clock without mentioning the taboo words (clock, tick-tock, hand, etc. as listed above).

If you participate, feel free to post below!

Creative Writing Club: I'm Sorry But...

Hello, random Internet dweller who has stumbled onto my modest and long-abandoned blog! It's been almost a year since I actively blogged, but now I've decided to return to my blogging days, so here I am!

In my nearly-year-long absence, I helped to create a Creative Writing Club at my high school, which is, unfortunately, named Creative Writing Club still (feel free to throw some ideas out there for a new name!). We meet every Tuesday as a club so I've decided that I will post the club activities to serve as inspiration for anyone who may be reading this.

This week, we read a poem:

This is Just to Say
by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Our teacher then challenged us to mimic Williams in both his style and tone. The resulting poems were hilarious and also slightly morbid. I wrote this:

I'm Sorry But...
by Bria

I didn't see
you there
on the sidewalk
in the midday sun

I'm sure
you were happy
dreaming of
anthills

You know
until I squashed you
and you lay
crumpled

Now I challenge anyone reading this to write a quick William Carlos Williams-ish poem, like his "This is Just to Say." Don't shy away if you're not a poet or if you "don't have time." This activity is really quick (it took me five minutes) and really easy even for those who are not particularly skilled in poetry.

So have fun and if you participate, feel free to post your poem!

Dear Voices in My Head

March 22, 2014

Dear Voices in My Head,

It was as if I hadn’t thought or spoken in my own voice for a really long time. It was like you and your multitude of voices slowly invaded my headspace and merged into my thoughts and made me Bria plus Voices.

For a while there, I was slugging it out, dueling you word for word, but you were so many and I was so few; you trampled my voice and mimicked my voice and all but became my voice. You left my voice struggling for breath, whimpering in the sewers of filth and trash in this world. My voice was often silent then, because it couldn’t remember if it was the real me or a copy of a copy of a mimic.

See, I let too many of you in. I let too many voices get inside my head and tell me what and what not to think. All I could hear were your voices, for you yelled at me to let you have your turns to speak and then you never shut up; you never relinquished control.

I had unlocked the door to sheep, but you proved to be wolves. You devoured my voice and murdered my ideas. You scarfed down even my meek protests. You said I was wrong, hateful, ignorant, prideful, judgmental, stupid.

And I believed you. My voice was drowning in your sludge.

From https://fashionedwithpurpose.wordpress.com 

But that’s not how it is anymore. I was rescued. I was rescued by the One you fear above all else, for even the demons shudder at the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ.

He washed your dirt off of my body and made me clean. He reminded me that He is strength and truth and that I can do all things through Him.

So now it’s my turn to speak.

It’s not my time to cower or to sneak or to behave or to apologize or to listen or to nod in what seems like agreement or to diffuse my anger and not let you have it for once or to let my concerns go while I stay mute and silent in your filthy ideas.

No, it’s my time to kick you all out of my headspace. I’ve heard what you have to say. I’ve heard you yell, scream, cry, whine, seduce, persuade, moan, howl. I’ve heard it all. Now, it’s my turn to say that I respectfully disagree. For me and my house will serve the Lord alone.

There is a time for everything and so now it is time for me to be me again. Not you. Me.

My voice is arising from the ashes and it will conquer with the tongues of fire as Christ lights up my life again.

You will hear my voice and it will speak the truth, for I am armed with the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, and my feet are fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

Sincerely,

Bria, 

the one and only