No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:11, NLT.
There’s an old mantra in the exercise world that says,”No pain, no gain”. It means you have to be willing to endure some pain during exercising before you can see the results of your workout. If your muscles don’t hurt after you’ve exercised, you will not gain any additional muscle.
I believe this same mantra applies to us as aspiring writers. We must train to become excellent writers for the kingdom. But before we can achieve our goal, we have to be willing to endure some pain. The pain of rising up early or staying up late to write. The pain of carving time outside of our busy schedules to study our craft. The pain of rejection from various publishers. But just like you cannot gain strong muscles if you don’t feel any pain as you physically exercise, you also can’t gain any writing muscles if you are not willing to endure the pain that comes from training to become a professional writer.
So yes, aspiring writer, your training may be painful as you stretch your writing muscles, but after the pain comes the gain!
Sharing the journey,
Jeaninne
Aspiring writer’s prayer: Father, thank you that after the pain of training to write for publication for the Christian marketplace, comes the gain. Amen.