Blogging...my motivations

You may notice a new, little pink button on my sidebar from Circle of  Moms asking you to click and vote for my blog as one of the "Top 25 Adoption Blogs by Moms".  To be frank, I am not altogether comfortable with marketing myself and I tend to cringe at the thought of reading "How to" helps on how to make your blog grow in numbers of followers, site traffic, revenues, etc. Let me be clear in saying that I don't believe there is anything at all wrong in doing those things--many moms help to provide for their families and benefit wonderful organizations by using their blogs to make money in one form or another. I think the world of blogging and virtual marketing,  just like any enterprise, are tools that in and of themselves can be used for a variety of purposes and reasons, some wonderful and some less so.  But I honestly have felt that from the first post, my blog was supposed to be used for some specific purposes. At the beginning, it was to tell our adoption story and to bring awareness to the plight of orphans around the world. Now, it has expanded, and I believe it is primarily supposed to focus on life with Christ, celebrating and living in God's glory as we journey to show His love and grace in tangible ways to people around us and around the globe.  On my blog, it is my prayer that in every post you find the very heartbeat of my life in Christ, and that you also find one of the following: Encouragement, Story-Telling, Advocacy, Truth, and/or Vulnerability.

I tell my own stories, and I share the stories of people who inspire, touch, encourage, and show me the face of God in some way. And with each post, I am surprised at how God speaks to and changes me through typing these words on a screen. Somehow, I am able to better absorb and be changed by a story or truth when I have "translated" it into words. I don't blog to get attention or comments, although I am encouraged by and grateful for the comments people leave. And I don't blog to gain a large group of people hanging on my every word. (In fact, that very though frightens this desperate child of God living by grace alone). By God's grace, I blog what He is teaching me and what I am experiencing in relationship to Him and who He is and what truths He has revealed through His word, through experiences, through people in my life, through family relationships, and through circumstances. So, when I put that little pink button on the side bar, I just felt the need to clarify my motivations. If you want to vote, go right ahead. If not, no big deal. If my being in the "running" for this list brings a reader who might be encouraged to my blog, that makes me smile. If it only serves to remind me that blogging is about His glory, not mine, then that is even better.

Gratitude and blessings for reading this very introspective post if you have read this far! And since I have spent way to long talking about me on Good Friday, a day that I am broken over what Jesus did for me and for you, I will leave you with His words, spoken just days before he was crucified,  in Matthew 25:31-46.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Loving and Learning,