Why Blog?

It's 12:32 a.m. and I can't sleep.  No one is on Facebook, nothing good on t.v.  So I check in on my blog for the 15th time today.  See who's visiting, where they are from, if there are any comments pending, etc.  I have to admit - I'm really addicted to checking out where in the world you people are - literally :)  Nothing excites me more than to see a new country added to the list - except seeing that new country actually get more than one hit meaning it wasn't just chance.  The other day I had an "odd" experience.  I was checking the list and became overwhelmed with a need to pray for you.  You were in Singapore,  checking the blog as I was looking at the stats.  I don't know who you are - but I know the Lord laid you on my heart - so I prayed.

Why do I blog?  It's a good question and a valid one.  For the most part, my reasoning's have stayed the same over the years.

When I was a kid, I loved to journal.  Problem was - I was not able to freely journal.  My Dad read my journal and if I ever said anything that was really going on - well - you don't want to know what would happen.  I got real adept at hiding that thing.  I would remove vents from walls, tuck it in there, pull out my dresser drawers and put it behind there, find some place to tuck it out of his reach.  He was just as adept at finding them - but that's another story for another day.

I do enjoy writing.  It's an outlet for me - a place where I can be who I am - fully - without excuse, without apology.  In fact - you'll probably get more of me here than you will if you met me in "real" life.  I don't know if that's a good thing or not - it's just who I am.

I like to share with you all the awesome things God has done in my life.  I love to share of His healing power, of His amazing love.  I love to tell you about my 2 beautiful blessings named Elyse and Jon.  I love to tell you about the handsome guy I married.  Sometimes I'm spitfire hot, sometimes I'm cold.  All the time - I am real.

I'm not perfect.  There have been times over the years I have used my blog as a place to vent.  People don't always like that - but I stand without apology.  I have "matured" - or at least tried to - and I'm much more careful about what I say than I was a few years ago - but I'm still - me.  Some people call me "opinionated", "stubborn" and "bullheaded" - my hubby calls me - passionate.  I like that better :)  I do try to filter things better now through the grace and compassion of Jesus Christ.  I try to respond instead of react more than I used to. 

My blog is my canvas - a place to be creative.   A place to share the music of my life.   A place to connect with friends and family near and far.  A place to share my tears, my joys, my sorrows, my past, my present, my future.

These are the reasons I blog.  It's my life on paper and maybe one day if my memory begins to fade - this will be a place I can come back to and remember.

Deuteronomy 8 - The Msg.

 ^1-5 Keep and live out the entire commandment that I'm commanding you today so that you'll live and prosper and enter and own the land that God promised to your ancestors. Remember every road that God led you on for those forty years in the wilderness, pushing you to your limits, testing you so that he would know what you were made of, whether you would keep his commandments or not. He put you through hard times. He made you go hungry. Then he fed you with manna, something neither you nor your parents knew anything about, so you would learn that men and women don't live by bread only; we live by every word that comes from God's mouth. Your clothes didn't wear out and your feet didn't blister those forty years. You learned deep in your heart that God disciplines you in the same ways a father disciplines his child.