January prompt: new start

Happy New Year and welcome to our first monthly writing prompt!

This month the challenge is to write about a NEW START.

Lots of Bible characters had new starts, similar to the types of new starts we experience (though I don’t recall any of them celebrating the new year…)

• Noah and his family had a new start when the earth was finally dry enough for them to exit the ark (Genesis 9:18-20)— a new start after confining circumstances.

• Abram made a new start when he moved, at God’s direction, away from his parental home to an undisclosed destination (Genesis 12:1-4)—a new start after leaving home.

• Job got a new start after his oppressive streak of calamity and illness – (Job 42:10-13)—a new start after regaining health.

• Joseph got a new start when he was finally sprung from prison—and what a start! (Genesis 41:39-46)—a new start after unfair treatment.

• Jesus gave the woman caught in adultery a new start (John 8:3-11)—a new start after being forgiven.

Fiction prompt:

Become one of the characters in the above stories or invent a new character and retell the story as you imagine it. Or use one of the plot lines above to tell a contemporary story of a new start.

Non-fiction prompt:

Relate an incident of a new beginning from your life or the life of someone you know.

Poetry prompt:

Brainstorm symbols, smells, tastes, colors, and touch sensations you associate with a new start. Use your results in a poem that reflects on one of the incidents above, or of a personal new start.

If you use one of these prompts and post your writing on your own blog, I’d love to know about it and share what you’ve written. If you leave a comment with the URL of your posted piece, I’ll update the article with a link to it.

Happy writing!

You wrote:

• Jeanne Poland writes a poem about the new start of motherhood for Jesus’ mother in Miriam of Nazareth: Maiden to Mother.