...A Very Good Place to Start

The Joyful Nonconformist Blog ^ | 02/24/11 | Joyful Nonconformist

[MintyHippo1980]

It took me a looong time to finally decide to start a blog.

I love to write...I love writing little things on Facebook to make my friends smile...but I just sort of feel like blogging has been done to death. I mean, who isn't blogging?

But then I realized that, like everything else, this isn't something I need to do to please (or displease) other people...and this isn't something I should do only if I think I can find a niche in the blog-world that hasn't already been filled (which I'm thinking is pretty impossible at this point).

God has given me the gift of gab, and I need to be a good steward of my time and talents by using what He has given me. Even if I don't really know what purpose it could possibly serve. He knows.

All this to say...what you are reading here (or not, I guess) has been a long time coming.

I had fun finding a name for my blog...I had a blast laying out my layout...I even had a remarkably easy time of writing my bio...but sitting down to actually write my first post has taken me DAYS! Why, you may ask? Go ahead...ask. OK, I'll tell you. I'm really at a loss as to what my focus should be!

I'm a Bible-believing, fundamentalist, conservative Christian. You know...seven days of creation, the inerrancy of Scripture, the bodily resurrection of Jesus...all of it. But when you read that in print, I really, really don't think that gives you a very three-dimensional picture of me. I'm also a homeschooler. I have 11 children! I'm the wife of a Baptist pastor. But I don't think any of that, in isolation, really does it either. I have arrived at this point in my life after spending way, way too long chasing after sin and poor choices, leaving a path of destruction in my wake...but thank God, I'm not just the sum total of the mistakes I made before I allowed Him to really get ahold of me.

So where am I supposed to even start to write about 42 years of trial and error, obedience and faithlessness, heartbreak and hilarity? That's my question! And it has taken me days and days to realize that I just don't have an answer. And maybe that's really fine. Maybe I just need to do what I used to make my creative writing students do: Start writing and see what it turns into. Maybe I'll find a cohesive focus...or maybe this will prove to be simply a collage of the happenings of our day-to-day life, held together by my desire to see God glorified by it all in the end.

I just love to travel, so I guess I'm going to treat this like an extreme vacation to a yet-to-be-determined destination.

Blessings! Missy

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

[MintyHippo1980]

I love the way this lady writes! And her husband too!

[kimmie7]

Thanks for sharing. If I add one more blog to my “daily reads” list, I won’t ever get anything else done! lol