Hi everyone! Today I’m so excited to be interviewing Anna, one of the writers for 30 Days of Surrender: a devotional for teen girls. (Check out Anna's bio below!) "Anastasis Faith is the founder of Morning Glory Ministries, an organization encouraging girls to pursue Jesus with their whole hearts through the Morning Glory Daily Devotional and blog. She is passionate about writing, blogging, and teen girl discipleship. When she is not blogging, she is typically studying, working, playing piano, or spending time with her family. You can connect with her on her blog at MorningGloryPursuingJesus.blogspot.com or on her Instagram @anastasisfaith." Anna, along with several other writers, has been working hard to put together this e-book and I am so excited to heartily recommended it! Don't forget to check out Anna's interview below, and get the chance to pick up your own copy of 30 Days of Surrender! First off, tell us a little about yourself Thanks so much for having me, Aleigha! I am passionate about writing, teen girl discipleship, and blogging. I love my church, my family, and the community of godly people in my life. Back in 2014 I started Morning Glory Ministries which has been thriving ever since! It started as the Morning Glory Daily Devotional and then expanded into the blog a year and a half later. When did you first have the idea for 30 Days of Surrender? Around Christmas time I was brainstorming ideas for an ebook and 30 Days of Surrender kind of popped out of nowhere, but I instantly knew it was something I wanted to pursue. I emailed all my friends to ask if they wanted to participate, but no one seemed to really be interested. I emailed again over spring break and the response was crazy. God has been working ever since to move this project along! What did you enjoy most about writing this book? Reading the devotionals submitted to me was the best part. Some of them had me near tears, others grinning, and some were so convicting. I was so thankful that I had such a solid team of girls. Each of them came from such different backgrounds and could talk about certain topics in a way that I could not. What’s one thing you’ve learned during the process of writing this devotional? I’ve learned that God holds all things in His hands. :) He truly has control over everything and He will order things however He pleases. My goal is that my plans, priorities, and desires line up with His, and that has been my prayer. Unless God is glorified, this project is for naught. Daily I pray that this is an ebook that glorifies Him. Have the other writer’s devotions affected you in any way? Definitely! It was both ironic and convicting to realize that I was stressing about all the edits—and the current devotional I was on was about anxiety. A line in that particular devotional kept coming back to me during the most stressful weeks was “Don’t doubt the goodness of our Father by giving in to anxiety.” Do you have any dreams or visions for 30 Days of Surrender? Yes, I have plenty of dreams and visions, but every day I have to surrender them to the Lord. Ultimately I want this to be a pleasing offering to Him and a tool that He can use to impact girls all around the world. Do you have any tips for other aspiring writers? My biggest tip would be to read! Read everything that you can. Not only that, but take good solid English classes. My sister has been taking English from an excellent English teacher and now she’s teaching me writing techniques! Finally, I would encourage you to pray before you write. Doesn’t matter if you’re writing fiction or non-fiction. I try to always pray before I write that the Lord would bless my time, bless my words, and bless my heart. I pray that it is all to His glory and where my motives are impure, I pray that Christ redeems me. If you could pick one piece of advice to give to younger writers, what would it be? Aside from what I’ve already shared, I would encourage them to keep writing. Keep writing on one project until it is done. Set aside designated times for writing. Read, research, study. But most of all, just pick up your pen and write. About Anna: What age did you discover a love for writing? When I was ten, my best friend plopped down next to me and announced, “I’m going to write a book!” I promptly responded, “Me too!” We both then wrote our books about fairies (the books were practically the same) and spent time critiquing and editing each other’s books. That’s when I was hooked. For about four years, I would read and write books like crazy. In fact, I wrote about twenty novellas during that time and entered and won numerous short story contests. It was my passion. Sadly, the crazier life got, the less I’ve had time to work on my novels. However, since I started blogging two years ago, I’ve been able to keep it up. The years spent working on my novels prepared me for my years of blogging. Where did your love for writing come from? Honestly, I think it came from the Lord. Writing is so much a part of who I am I cannot imagine anything else. I remember during school when I was burdened with homework, I would write in the margins of my math notebooks, “I MUST WRITE! I AM A WRITER! I AM SO TANGLED BY THIS MATH! ALL I WANT IS PEN AND PAPER!” Sometimes they were stupid, terrible poems about hating math and being deprived of my writing. God created me with this passion and I am so, so thankful for it. What inspires you to write? When it comes to blog posts and projects like 30 Days of Surrender, I am inspired by Scripture, things that come up in my daily routine, and things I hear or read. I’m always sure to write down my ideas for blog posts or notes for ebooks which is helpful when I need to sit down and write. What do you like to read in your free time? A good novel is hard to beat. I have been avoiding romance novels, however, for the past several years. You can read my reasons why here. But I also love Christian non-fiction. Some of my current reads are Girl Defined, Do More Better, and The Gospel Changes Everything. What projects are you working on at the present? Right now, my big project is finishing up 30 Days of Surrender. That, and moving out. ;) After that, blog posts for the coming semester will be my next big project. Even though things have been insane with this ebook, I am already brainstorming for the next one. :P What do your plans for future projects include? A new website, Lord willing, and hopefully more ebooks! We shall see! Who are your favorite authors? This question is too hard for a writer. :) I love Francine Rivers, C.S. Lewis, Bethany Baird, Kristen Clark, Nik Ripken, and Darlene Deibler Rose, to name a few. If you are interested in purchasing your own copy of 30 Days of Surrender you can do so by following the link below: http://morningglorypursuingjesus.blogspot.com/2017/08/30-days-surrender.html And may you be truly blessed as you read the stories and godly lessons that lie within the pages!
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