TELL YOUR STORY

Here are over forty tips to guide you on your forty-day storytelling journey.

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1. First "Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10. Find a favorite place where you can be still and God will find you.

2. Meditate daily as Jesus did. Use guided meditation.

3. Meet with Jesus daily - Lectio 365 and Daily Hope

4. Practice Lectio Divina

5. Go to the  P.R.A.Y. toolshed

6. Use the Prayer Wheel.

7. Learn to pray starting with the Our Father and then a daily prayer guide.

8. Keep a Journal - Use the Penzu journal App to write down all the experiences that inspire you, all your thoughts, prayers, and most important struggles. Your Jesus journal and letters to God will be the main source of inspiration for telling your story. 

9. ​Write a love letter to family members. Open God's Word and let it speak to you about the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the ultimate love He has for you. Meditate and pray on that love as you write each letter. Don't be afraid to tell each person about God's love and how you have seen that same love in them.

10. In your mind go back and visit the home you grew up in and look for love if you can. Then feel that love like the love Jesus has for you as a child seeing it for the first time through the love of others.

11. Surrender your secrets to Jesus. You can either write it down in your Journal, on an anonymous postcard or surrender it as you pray.

12. Realize True Discernment - Find your "sixth sense"--a sense of how things look in the eyes of God. It's when we think like Jesus, understand His Word, and experience His grace and the progressive unfolding of the true condition of our hearts that we can be truly discerning.          "I am your servant; give me discernment that I may understand your statutes." ​Ps 119:125

13. Look at the people with the character of Jesus that influenced you in your life and share why they did in your story.

14. Study the Fruit of the Spirit and apply it to your life.

15. Study why Jesus was the greatest leader of all time.

16. Talk about how Jesus transforms our pain into His purpose - not ours.

17. Examine your SHAPE - Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experiences.

18. Be a wounded healer and help someone that may have the same wounds.

19. As Picasso said, "The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose is to give it away." Use your SHAPE to serve others as you give away your gifts.

20. Look into the parables of Jesus as they relate to your life.

21. Read and re-read the bible verses that feed you and have had an impact on your life.

22. Go to spiritual sites such as the Billy Graham Library, Ark Encounter, or the Holy Land.

23. Find and read or listen to books such as Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, Box of Butterflies by Roma Downey, and/or The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson. 

24. Join Gravity Leadership

25. Create a playlist of your favorite songs and listen to Christian radio.

26. Get in touch with your creative side and maybe Jesus with activities like painting.

27. Look for and take photographs that tell your story.  

28. Watch videos and TV programs like Countdown to Calvary,  The Story of God, and The Bible.  

29. Meet Jesus at Jacobs well through your daily devotionals, prayers, scripture, meditation, worship, church community, personal conversations, articles you read, songs, imagination, hobbies, praise, and the Holy Spirit. You’ll never know where you will find Him!

30. Join a church and a bible study where the love of Jesus is always present and debate is encouraged.

31. Be a Missional Disciple. A follower and witness of Jesus Christ with a mission-shaped heart for people. Where mission simply means translating God’s love into human form, putting every cultural tool—stories, symbols, attitudes, language, practices, and patterns of life—at the gospel’s disposal. To engage in missional practices that restore, redeem and care for all of creation.

32. Put on a pair of Disciple Sunglasses and see the world in a whole new way.

33. Learn to live vicariously through Jesus. That means God in us and we in Him. Because we are united to Him by His Spirit. Or maybe we should let Him live vicariously through us?

34. List the other eleven Disciples in your life. Family and friends that you want in your inner circle as you follow Jesus. And then be active in their life.

35. Practice the presence of God. Check out Brother Lawrence if you need to know how to do that.

36. Be curious - “Never lose a holy curiosity,” Albert Einstein advised. The same God-given curiosity that led to his theory of relativity was at work in simpler ways on the day my kids tossed ice onto the pond and when my daughter dreamed of her treehouse. And curiosity can inspire each one of us daily. Curiosity leads to Awe. Check out the article Nurturing a Holy Curiosity By Faith 

37. Go to the source and ask Jesus daily for the treasures that you should be storing up in Heaven. See My Fortuna treasure chest.

38. Create your vision board.

39. To get started with telling your story write down a few chapters using your journal as your main source of inspiration. Start at home and talk about the people and scripture that have moved you. As time goes on your story will evolve into a blockbuster book with many chapters that all your family and friends will want to read.     

40. Find a campfire or go for a walk on the beach where you can tell parts of your story to family and friends.

41. Look for opportunities to speak to people about your God moments--where He showed up to have a significant impact on your life.    

42. Never stop writing and editing your story. "I'm convinced that God, who began this good work in you, will carry it through to completion on the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6

43. Celebrate by enjoying the sabbath with just Jesus!  

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If you haven’t realized it yet, Jesus is where your story begins and where it will end. If you cannot find Him, it may be time to go to Jacobs well as the Samaritan woman did. Jesus is always there waiting to hear every one of your stories, and guess what? He is the best listener that you’ll ever meet. When you get there like the woman you may not recognize Him. It took me years of searching before I looked into the eyes of family, friends, and even the eyes of strangers before I was able to see the heart of Jesus.

 

I would recommend that you pick up His book the bible and start reading it. ​If you have a hard time reading His book then try reading His parables. If you're blind listen to His music and audiobooks. If you're deaf create a painting that moves you. If you cannot see, hear or speak then feel His presence. That's where we experience the true love of  Jesus...

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To read the stories that I wrote about my life select the My Story button below. It's about how Jesus has shown me the way. I hope that my story can inspire you to walk with Jesus every step of the way as you write your own story.

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And last, I will leave you with this familiar scripture:

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever.”

1Corinthians 13:4-8

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