My Name Means Sword A Collection of Writings

Brenda Blakely Howard was baptized and accepted Jesus Christ as Savior at the age of nine years old. However, it was not until 37 years later that she accepted Jesus Christ as Lord over her life and was filled with the Holy Spirit. She was re-baptized in the Pacific Ocean to seal her commitment to God. She wrote her first poem at the age of six and with the encouragement of her 1st grade teacher, an A+ written in red ink and the words 'Very Creative, ' a love for poetry was birthed within her. Although she continued to write poetry throughout her life, her gift for poetry remained largely hidden. For her poetry was the means to speak freely without asking permission to be heard. A voice can easily be silenced but a pen bears no limits and needs no audience save for God who sees and hears every word that is written. Long before she accepted Christ as Lord the change in her life first began in her writings. The Lord not only changed the way she wrote but also the content. He began to reveal Himself more as she began to acknowledge Him as the Source of her creative writing gift. He then led her through old poems she had written and showed her where He was in the midst of the text. Her creative journey with the Lord allows her to heal from longtime wounds through her own poetry and more profoundly through the poetry of His written Word.