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The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World…Word by Word

The Steve Laube Agency

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » Encouragement

Encouragement

Against Laziness (A Writer’s Prayer)

By Bob Hostetleron August 24, 2022
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God, save me from laziness as a writer.
Save me from the error of thinking my first draft is good enough.
Save me from settling for second best.
Save me from low standards,
pedestrian thoughts,
stale words,
and pat answers.

Grant me the grace
to reread
and rewrite
with diligence and insight.

Grant me the courage
to invite
and accept
valuable and insightful critique from others.

Grant me the stamina to edit
and revise
with patience and perseverance.

Grant me the wisdom to be utterly unsatisfied
until every piece,
every page,
every paragraph and sentence
shines in such a way as to delight
both the reader
and you,
in Jesus’ name, amen.

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Category: Encouragement, Inspiration, Theology

You Can Be the Best

By Bob Hostetleron August 11, 2022
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I’m not the best. At anything, it seems. I flunked out of C Ball in Little League. I squeezed four years of high school into five. I’ve written a lot and even won a few awards, but many others are far better writers than I am. I strive for excellence in virtually everything I do; but as a writer, speaker, preacher, literary agent, and blogger, I fall short of “the best.” Maybe you can identify. …

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Category: Encouragement, Inspiration, The Writing Life

Why I Read

By Bob Hostetleron April 28, 2022
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Writers write for many reasons. Therapy. Self-realization. Compulsion. Etc. But professional writers, those who are published with regularity, find an intersection between why they write and why their readers read. Sure, sometimes that intersection is at the corner of “I’m brilliant” and “Everyone loves everything I write.” But more often, we start not with our own need to express ourselves but …

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Category: Encouragement, Inspiration, Personal

Be Proactively Lazy

By Bob Hostetleron April 7, 2022
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In James Clear’s excellent, bestselling book Atomic Habits, he writes about a man who set up a number of systems and habits that impressed others, who commented on his energy and hard work in getting so much done. He shrugged off the compliments, however, saying something like, “I’m actually not that hard-working; I’m just proactively lazy.” I love it. I think “proactive laziness” is a good modus …

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Category: Career, Encouragement, Inspiration, The Writing Life

Stormy Writing

By Dan Balowon March 31, 2022
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It is safe to say we all tend to learn and grow more spiritually from difficulty than from the good times. Both reveal God’s presence in our lives, but our hard heads and hearts seem to need a good bit of humbling before we “get it.” Most people write more powerfully under duress. A couple months ago, while reading a manuscript of a long-time acquaintance, the tone surprised me a bit. I wondered …

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Category: Encouragement, Inspiration

In Your Time (A Writer’s Prayer)

By Bob Hostetleron June 30, 2021
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Heavenly Father, you make everything beautiful in your time (Ecclesiastes 3:11). I submit to your timing. I await your timing. I desire what you will, as you will, when you will.  That goes for my writing, too. I long to touch lives with my words … in your time.I want to write passionately, effectively, impactfully … in your time.I yearn to think and …

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Category: Encouragement, Faith, Inspiration, Theology

31 Ways to Pray for Your Writing

By Bob Hostetleron June 17, 2021
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I consider prayer to be an important—indispensable, even—part of the writing life. I’ve written about that here, in fact. I’ve also written and published 31-day prayer resources (here and here). So, I thought I’d offer here a 31-day prayer plan specifically for you and your writing. See how nice I am? (Pray for me.) 1          “Alpha and Omega, First …

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Category: Encouragement, Inspiration, The Writing Life, Theology

Strategies to Self-Pity Proof Your Writing Life

By Guest Bloggeron June 9, 2021
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Today’s guest post is by Lori Stanley Roeleveld. She is a blogger, speaker, coach, and disturber of hobbits who enjoys making comfortable Christians late for dinner. She’s authored four unsettling books, including The Art of Hard Conversations: Biblical Tools for the Tough Talks that Matter. She speaks her mind at www.loriroeleveld.com and is represented by Bob Hostetler.   To persevere in …

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Category: Encouragement, Inspiration, The Writing Life

Every Book Doesn’t Need to Shake the Earth

By Dan Balowon March 11, 2021
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If you look at any list of best-selling books expecting every one of them to be a literary masterpiece, you are probably setting yourself up for disappointment. “Are you kidding me? A book about famous racehorses of the 20th century is a bestseller? People bought that instead of my 1,200-page book on linguistic anomalies in Hebrew and Greek biblical texts? For Pete’s sake, half of the horse book …

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Category: Encouragement, Inspiration, Pitching, Platform

The Devil Is in the Procrastination

By Steve Laubeon December 7, 2020
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You have heard it said that “the devil is in the details”? But what about the idea that “the devil is in the procrastination”? Alistair Begg said, “The devil’s favorite word is tomorrow. The Bible always says, ‘Today is the day of salvation’” (2 Corinthians 6:2). While he was talking about being prepared, as a Christian, for the return of Christ, I thought about the challenge of …

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Category: Career, EncouragementTag: procrastination
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