The Gospel is Great in a Really Hard Way

I'm a really big chicken, so I ended up having my husband give me my feedback, and I had him read the section on pregnancy in my Growing Up is Hard to Do post. In some ways this was maybe not as helpful as it could have been (Brad was, in fact, around during my entire pregnancy and delivery so he didn't really need to know more about any parts of the story), but I think it helped him delve deeper with his feedback in other ways.

He talked about my form. He'd like more of a story arc and better transitions from one day to another. He also said he wouldn't mind more commentary along with the story, which was interesting because I worry about being to tell-y usually.

Brad told me that he really liked "the voice inside my head" and the feelings I shared not in dialogue. Since voice is one of the biggest factors that makes someone enjoy or not enjoy writing, I took this as a good sign. :)

Lastly, Brad encouraged me to continue talking about hard topics and suffering. The gospel is good to us and makes our lives good in so many ways, but that sometimes stops us from exploring the hard parts of the gospel or from wishing to share the not-as-fun-things. But the trials can turn out to be some of our greatest ways to build others up in the gospels. After reading my post Brad said, "sometimes our trials or not just for us."