Why I blog: one year in

Some of you are new here and some are already dear friends, so since I've been writing here a year now, I thought I'd spend a post reflecting on why I do this!

Some of these reasons weren't clear to me when I started. I simply felt the need to share things I was learning and drawing, and thought this might be something God was leading me to do.

"A man’s steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way?" Proverbs 20:24

Here are some reasons I blog:

Writing helps me put my scattered thoughts into coherent words and ideas. I am an introvert who is constantly mulling things over in my mind, but not always sharing them out loud. As a mom of three with not much quiet time, the act of writing disciplines me to distill and filter my thoughts, to ask if they are true and to test them against Scripture.

Writing about God's word helps me love Him more. As I sit down to write, I long to hear those precious thoughts of God and then turn them over and admire their beauty. Writing helps me listen.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!  Psalm 139:17

I want to write about, not just how I've grown and what I've learned, but about what I'm struggling with right now. I want you to know that your struggles are mine too, because when we know we're not alone, the burden is lighter.

"Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Galatians 6:2

I want to point you to God's faithfulness. I don't want to point you back to yourself and how you really can have it all together if only you follow these six simple steps . . . or maybe it's 10. We've tried that, haven't we? Only Jesus is enough, and He is faithfully at work transforming your life through the various ways of His choosing.

I want to be a cheerleader for the grace of God in your life. If you're like me, you feel under scrutiny in the way you dress, the way you decorate, the way you parent, and the way you do the Christian life. You alternate between despair at your failings and pride at your measuring up. But God, through the perfect life and sacrifice of Jesus, has set us free to follow Him in the way of the Spirit, not the way of measuring up. We are bound by His kindness to joyful and wholehearted service.

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:1

(I could just camp out at this verse for a few blog posts, but I'll save that for another day.)

I want to point you to God's love for you as I try to comprehend it too. I love how Charles Spurgeon said it:

"It has been my one and only business to set forth the love of God to men in Christ Jesus. I heard lately of an aged minister of whom it was said, "Whatever his text, he never failed to set forth God as love, and Christ as the atonement for sin." I wish that much the same may be said of me. My heart's desire has been to sound forth as with a trumpet the good news that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."  --Charles Spurgeon, Immeasurable Love

I blog because I like to write and draw! The best way for me to get better at drawing and writing is to practice!

Finally, I blog because I'm trying to follow where God leads me and doing what He's shaped me to do. I have waves of self-doubt and fear when I hit "publish." I'm not the most eloquent and wittiest writer, or the best Bible scholar. I'm not always going to say the right things, and you're not going to love everything I write. But if me trying to follow Jesus, however awkwardly, encourages just one of you, dear readers, or helps you grow just one more step in following our Savior, then I have achieved my goal for being here.

Thank you for your words and notes of encouragement along the way. They mean so much.

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