Changing It Up

I know it's been a long time since I've posted anything to the blog, and I don't have the excuse of leading a super-busy life, or not having a working computer. The reality is that I just haven't blogged lately, and I recently discovered that my lack of participation in the blogging world has more to do with the reason I blog as opposed to what I'm communicating through the blog.

At first, my whole purpose for creating a blog was to have a way to easily communicate with everyone we knew as we prepared for our missions trip to Russia, and also to post updates during our time there. When I first began, it was fun coming up with items to post and getting to express myself through writing again, albeit in a very public manner.

Since that time, I have seen God teach me a whole lot more about who I am in Him, but more importantly, who He is to me, and to the rest of the world. He is daily showing me how much I have to be grateful for, the freedom I have in Him, and the awesomeness and wonder of His grace.

You might be asking yourself, "What does this have to do with her blog?"

The answer is pride. I think it is becoming very easy for me to care too much about what I am posting and the words flowing just right, and getting some sort of self-satisfaction from my zippy little posts.

When I was in Russia, my posts truly were a way to express what God was doing there, and how this missions trip was changing my life. Once I came back home, I found myself dwelling more and more on blog posts that didn't really have much to do with God at all, which did not make sense since He was the whole point of starting this blog in the first place. I found myself less and less interested with blogging because I would get mired down with all the different ideas I had in my head, and started to lose sight of what purpose this blog would serve.

Now you may be asking yourself, "So what?"

What this means is that instead of posting stuff for other people to read and enjoy, I will be using this blog more as an online journal rather than a bulletin board for any random stuff I want to write about. I will be moving to more of a "Doogie Howser" type of journal, where I can record what God is teaching me and specific prayers requests to help give me a timeline of His work in my life. If you want to continue reading it to see what God is doing in my life, that's great, but I am hopeful that I can stay focused on using this tool as a way to ultimately glorify God, and not focus on what people may think of my writing.

This does not mean that you will be forbidden to post comments or even have an opinion on my writing. It's posted in a very public forum, and I am continuing to pursue writing here. To those who have posted comments, read the blog, or discussed it with others, I thank you for visiting, and for your feedback. I am glad that the posts about Russia were special to our friends and family.

Since I have never been good about journaling or writing down prayer requests, it is my hope that this outlet will be a constant reminder of the refining work He is doing in my life, and how faithful He is to us.

"Oh LORD, you are my God;
I will exalt you and praise your name,
for in perfect faithfulness
you have done marvelous things,
things planned long ago."
Isaiah 25:1