How Blogging Has Changed My Life

I never really wanted to write a blog. 

But this month marks three years of writing my blog and I'm not sure I'll ever get over being surprised at how it has changed my life.

A friend {that I met through blogging} recently asked me what aspirations I had for my blog and I had to admit that I’ve never had any goals for it. Writing a blog kind of happened unexpectedly. 

With a degree in journalism, I'm a writer of corporate communications  -- speeches and electronic bulletin boards and content for my company's intranet -- not personal stories. I was a reader of blogs but I had no desire to write my own. I wasn’t much of a user of social media. I had a Facebook page but I deactivated it for a year because I cringed when I posted anything about myself.

Then I found myself wanting to write a guest post for the website incourage but I noticed that the guests all had blogs. I told a friend what I wanted to do and did she think I should just give up the idea since I didn’t have a blog? 

While I sort of hoped she would tell me to forget the whole thing, she instead said, “Let’s create a blog for you. You could write about all the stuff in your house.” 

{She was right. I guess I did have a lot of stuff I could write about.}

She opened a template and told me to think up a name for my blog. Before I knew it, I was hitting the publish button on my first post.

And I didn't quite know what to do after that. So I bought a camera.

I took some photos and wrote about my family traditions and thought that even if no one was reading, I could keep the posts for my niece and nephew to help them know our family's history.

Six weeks after starting my blog, I sent off my guest post to incourage and to my amazement it was accepted.

Now three years later, I think that writing a blog is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. But it's also changed me in ways I never expected.

It has inspired me to think more deeply, motivated me to do things I never thought I could do, and stirred in my heart a desire to know God better than I ever have.

And that’s why I keep writing my blog.

Blogging has taken the neat little corners of my life, which were pretty close and contained, and flung them out and stretched them wide.

Instead of drawing me inward to the world online, blogging has expanded my perspective of God, broadened my corner of the world, and connected me with others I'm not sure I would have met any other way.

It’s lifted my eyes upward. 

Writing about my life has prompted me to take steps of faith. I used to think my life was just fine the way it was, but I realized I was living a life that was too small. 

Motivated by finding content for my blog, I took a six-week culinary course. I traveled to New York City and took a pastry class in a bakery in Manhattan. 

Determined to overcome a bunch of little fears that had accumulated over time, I crossed the ocean for the first time and traveled to Paris. 

Ignoring the little voice that constantly told me I didn’t really know what I was doing, I jumped in to co-lead a small group for incourage on Facebook, joined a group of writers helping an author launch a new book, and become a part of the blogger review team for Revell publishers. 

And this summer, to connect with other writers and artists and take leaps outside my comfort zone, I’m traveling to Italy for a faith and art retreat in Lake Como. 

I wouldn’t have even known this trip existed if it weren’t for the connections I've made with my fellow bloggers.

It’s taken my soul deeper. 

Writing my blog is more of an artful and personal partnership with God. 

When I think I have no words to write, I contemplate his words. These words reveal and renew, while he rearranges my life, stirs up desires long buried, and holds out his hand saying, there’s more here for you.

As much as I’d like to know what’s ahead so I could plan for it, I know God often reveals the next step only when I move forward in faith. 

Trusting that he is working in my circumstances even when I can’t see it makes me aware of him in my life. 

It’s fixed my focus outward. 

A few weeks ago, I followed the trip of several bloggers traveling to the Dominican Republic with Compassion International. Last year I followed their trip to the Philippines and thought about sponsoring a child, but I never did. 

This year, as I read the stories by the bloggers, I scrolled through the photos of children waiting. Waiting for hope and a chance to dream and a place where they can get to know God.

So I decided to sponsor a girl the same age as my niece. 

Akshika is eight and lives in Sri Lanka. Her name means the one with beautiful eyes. She’d been waiting almost a year for a sponsor. 

But actually, I think I’ve been waiting a year for her.

I'm linking up with my friends at Holley Gerth's place at Coffee for your Heart and with Bonnie Gray at the Faith Barista. Click the images for posts from my blogging friends.