Focus on Today with Kirstyn Mayden (Re-Air)

In this episode, you’ll also hear:

• The unique approach Kirstyn took in her devotional journal’s table of contents
• The importance of taking action
• How to relieve the pressure of worrying about tomorrow
• Why you should seek a professional editor for your book — even if you are an editor yourself
• Kirstyn’s advice on moving forward a little bit each day

Receive God’s Grace & Take Action

When Kirstyn Mayden was putting together her devotional Merciful Moments: A Devotional Journal for Moving Forward With Grace Each Day, she decided to take a different approach to the table of contents than many authors use for their devotional books. Instead of labeling the sections as “days,” she labeled them according to their action-based topics. 

“I wanted the reader to have freedom to look at the topics and scan whatever topics they may be going through in that season, and whatever resonated with them,” she explains. “And I didn't want anybody to feel like, ‘Oh my gosh, I missed day one! I'm gonna freak out!’ Because that's the purpose of receiving God's mercy: to give yourself that grace. So I wanted that to start while reading the book.”

It was also important to Kirstyn that each of these sections have a clear action step for readers to follow so they can move forward in faith after receiving God’s mercy and being encouraged by His word. Of course, we can trust that God will take care of our needs, but Kirstyn argues that we also have a responsibility to fulfill the role God has empowered and equipped us to play. 

Focus on the Present

According to Kirstyn, part of that responsibility is to understand that we can’t always control our circumstances — but we can choose to keep ourselves encouraged and moving forward even in the midst of difficult circumstances. Often, this means focusing on the present day instead of letting ourselves get distracted by worries about the future. 

“When we take the time to focus on today, it's a way to relieve the pressure off ourselves of having to carry all that weight of wanting to know the outcome,” Kirstyn says. “Then we'll be able to focus more on giving gratitude and focus more on, ‘What needs are being met for me this day?’ As opposed to what needs I may not have tomorrow.”

Choosing to focus on one day at a time like this allows us to be present and appreciate the small moments of beauty God gives us each day. Scripture tells us that His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23), but if we’re always thinking about what’s happening tomorrow or next week, we may miss the mercies of today. 

Let Go of Perfection

When it came to actually writing and publishing her book, Kirstyn says it was not a quick process by any means. Although she knew for years that she wanted to write a book — and kept telling herself she would do it — she kept putting it off. Even after she’d started writing, she hesitated to share it with others, because she wanted it to be “perfect.”

“I just gave myself a list of all these reasons why it wasn’t ready to move forward,” she recalls. “And in that moment, God was like, ‘You know what? You’re just going to have to step out and move forward. It’s never going to be perfect.”

Once Kirstyn accepted that it was time to share her work and hired an editor, she found herself getting frustrated by how long it took to undergo multiple rounds of editing — and then to get it all finished up and ready for publication. 

“It's been a journey,” she says now. “But I'm glad that at the top of the year, I didn't tell myself again the list of reasons why this wasn't ready to move forward. So it's been about a two year process, but I'm glad that I stayed the course. And I'm glad that I didn't let my pursuit of perfection and my fears totally deter me from moving forward.”

Stay the Course

Maybe you, like Kirstyn, are afraid to share your manuscri