LETTER

2 a: a direct or personal written or printed message addressed to a person or organization

Letters have been on my mind lately. Here's why:

A) A friend of mine wrote a sweet letter to her newborn niece on her blog (so sweet, in fact, that I cried a bit).

B) A friend in my writing group shared that she writes letters to missionaries and is focusing on making her letters more than just catalogs of her daily life.

C) Our Sunday School class talked about ways to communicate and build relationships and written letters were very late to make it into the discussion.

D) We are studying Philippians this spring and unlike many of Paul's letters, I think this one sounds more like a letter and less like a sermon in writing.

I write a lot - grants, short articles, blog posts, fiction - but I rarely write a letter to anyone. Both A & D above make me think about writing letters to my daughters. With the exception of K, they are old enough to read anything I would want to say to them. But what would I say in a letter to A or B? Would I, like my friend, tell them the things I hope and pray for them and the things I am looking forward to? Would I, like Paul, tell them how thankful I am for them and then encourage them in Christ?

After some of these thoughts, I decided to write blog posts to each of my girls about their names. I've written two of the three and scheduled them to be published on their birthdays. (The next of which is in May, so you'll have to wait a bit to read them.) That's a good start, but there is something special about a handwritten letter, especially in today's digital society.

I think I need to make time amidst all of the other writing I am doing to write letters to those I love. I'll start with A, B, K and J, but maybe I'll be inspired to move on to others that I love. I think Paul's letter to the Philippians is a love letter. Not a love letter like we think of them, but the kind of love I want to express - one filled with joy, gratitude for the friendship, encouragement through the hard times and confidence in who the people I love will become.

If you wrote a love letter, who would it be to and what would it say? The words we think, say and write have value. I hope I can use that power to bless others through letters and the words that compose them.