In his mellifluous voice, I can hear Winnie the Pooh gently suggest to his friend, “You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”A.A. Milne’s words characterize why I started blogging. It was time for me to move from my quiet corner of our farm to engage with others by crafting words and sharing them on my blog.
So what in the world is my holy and healthy blog about?
Nourish Your Body
Nourish Your Soul
While our physical bodies depend upon nutrient-dense food, our spiritual life requires daily nourishment from the Word of God. My articles on Christian living serve as a supplement never the main course to an insatiated hunger know God through scripture. Your heart should crave sound bible doctrine that transforms your life, influences your finances, molds your career choices, and restores your relationships.
Tips for New Bloggers
Who Are You Writing For?
Know you audience-avatar and treat them like a friend. Pen your posts to solve her pain point. Write as if you are sitting down having coffee with her at your kitchen table.
Check Your Season of Life
I declared my calling as a writer the summer I turned ten and peddled five miles to the local convenience store for a pack of loose leaf paper and a Bic pen so that I could write my novel. However, not every season in life lends itself to pursue a calling. Once my children arrived on the scene, I happily and willingly temporarily shelved my endeavor to be a writer. Because writing runs through the marrow of my bones, I never really ceased to write. I just did it in a way that conformed to my particular season of life.
As I nursed babies, I voraciously read novels that fed my intellect so that when the season opened for me to write again my words flooded onto the paper. During my hiatus as a writer, I spent years reading the words woven by great writers which sharpened my wit and honed my style.
Those sabbatical years, afforded me time to collect precious memories by living in the present with my children unhindered and unencumbered. I like what cartoonist Bill Watterson said: “We’re so busy watching out for what’s just ahead of us that we don’t take time to enjoy where we are.”
Develop Strong Writing Skills
Writing is a skill that requires practice. Few are gifted with an ability just to sit down and compose a compelling piece of writing without numerous drafts. Ann Hadley offers this priceless advice to writers “taking your writing muscles from puny to brawny is to write every day. That writing is a habit, not an art.”
Effective writing will impact and minister to your readers more than developing a product. Product chameleonism is no surprise to a blogger. However capricious the market, it’s a sobering and necessary fact that products pay the bills.
In all honesty, paying the blog bills and technical development are my least favorite attributes of blogging. The part of blogging that causes me to race enthusiastically to my desk every day is the opportunity to craft a post that might resonate with just one soul in this vast world brimming with people. Writing posts that inspire, encourage, and equip people to move toward change is the heartbeat of my blogging.
George Washington and my blog… say what?
In 1789, George Washington traveled to New York for the first inauguration hoping for a serene trip. Instead of a low-key, tens of thousands zealous citizens filled the streets eagerly greeting the first President. After the fan fare subsided, Washington humbly walked back to his temporary residence embarrassed and frightened. Washington is noted saying, “I greatly fear that my countrymen will expect too much of me.”
I don’t mean to elevate myself to the ranks of George Washington, but his humility is a characteristic that I aspire to replicate. Washington’s inaugural address references that he thought himself unqualified for the position of president of the new nation.
When I opened my inbox and read the nomination for the Blogger Recognition Award, from Timberley Gray at Living Our Priorities, stunned, I could not imagine how I obtained such an honor. After all, I am a fledgling blogger whose site stats pale in comparison with so many other bloggers who are far more worthy of this recognition.
I remind myself and pray that my writing reflects the grace that I receive from God, the grace I offer myself when I fail, and the grace I should bestow upon others.
Nominees for the Blogger Recognition Award
Limited to nominating only fifteen bloggers for the award, I spent the past month visiting and revisiting blogs, then returning to leave comments, and just hanging out at sites as if I dropped by a friend’s house for a steaming cup of Earl Grey tea.
Trust me; I realize the time involved in accepting this award. Here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, there exists a community of esteemed artisans who craft replicas of waterfowl out of wood. Our local duck carvers hold a Rockwellian celebrity status. The carvers start with a piece of ordinary wood, and they meticulously chisel life-like details until a piece of artwork evolves.
Much like the carver, a writer’s art starts from something blank and ordinary. Writers are word-architects who chisel words into stories with the intention of showing love to someone by putting ourselves in their story. Writer Megan Garber speaks of writing like this: “Writing is a craft in the way that carpentry is a craft: There’s art to it, sure, and a certain inspiration required of it, definitely, but for the most part you’re just sawing and sanding and getting dust in your eyes.
At the end of a writer’s day, it’s not about the length of our subscriber list. Our writing is more profound and more significant than a list. It’s about pouring our words onto a page that will sooth a battered and broken heart. Maybe our carefully constructed words will offer some small measure of hope to the overwhelmed mom with the tear-stained face. Continue to offer your writing as a holy sacrifice.
Rules To The Award
Nominees that accept this award, please follow these rules:
1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
2. Write a post to show your award.
3. Give a brief story of how your blog started.
4. Give pieces of advice to new bloggers.
5. Select 15 other bloggers you want to give this award to.
6. Comment on each blog and let them know you have nominated them and provide the link to the post you created.
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