Blogging: one year later.

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Well gang. It’s been a year. A year of sharing thoughts, experiences, good quotes, scripture, inspiration, and my scrambled-together-little-pieces-of-writing that I like to call poetry.

If you’re reading this….thank you. Thank you for thinking that a girl from north Idaho who wears yellow boots, ferments tea and still loves pooh bear has something to say. Thank you for your encouragement.

If I’m being honest, I have struggled with this blog. If you’ve been my friend for a while you know that my feelings about social media sway back and forth. Social media is a tool. An incredibly useful tool. But it’s also a trap. One that can do the exact opposite of what it claims to. Instead of connecting us, it can isolate us. Instead of bringing us together, it can tear us apart.

Because of these feelings, my blog hasn’t “grown” the way some might say it should in order to be successful. I don’t have thousands of followers on instagram. I don’t have a facebook page or a twitter. I don’t spend hours editing photos and designing web pages. If I did, I would probably have a larger audience. But I didn’t start this blog because I love editing photos and designing web pages.

I started this blog because I love to write.

I started this blog because there is a hunger in my soul to share with people in the best way I know how-not coming from my academics, or athletics, or from specific talents, or my tongue, but from words.

There have been times over the past year where I’ve become discouraged. There’s some really beautiful blogs out there.
What is mine in comparison?

But that’s exactly where I’ve gone wrong. We aren’t meant to compare. We’re just meant to obey and fulfill the unique calling that God has for each of us. KEY WORD: UNIQUE. Your calling won’t look like mine. Just like mine won’t look like yours. So why are we comparing?

If we all had the same jobs, lived in the same city and had the same hobbies, not only would our world totally fall apart, but it’d be so boring!! That’d be like eating oatmeal every day, for every meal.
Plain, lukewarm, soggy oatmeal. Yeah. Bleh.

So stop. Stop comparing. And please stop being discouraged. Especially during this time of year, where everyone is sharing their new years resolutions and bragging about all the things they’re going to accomplish. You don’t have to run a marathon. You don’t have to travel to Europe or save a certain amount of money or drink a certain amount of water. You don’t have to go to school for biochemistry. You don’t have to read 100 books. You don’t have to serve at the soup kitchen every week. You don’t have to have the perfect budget, or the perfect garden, or the perfect hair, or the perfect car.

You just have to seek Gods kingdom first and surrender your life to him. He made us each for a reason and he rewards those who diligently seek him. He answers those who call upon his name.

He doesn’t want us with our eyes on each other, constantly competing and comparing. He wants us with our eyes on him, thriving and striving to love him and obey him alone.

So if I can encourage you at all in this new year, it’s to just keep seeking him. Like my pastor said last Sunday, stay right on Gods heels. Don’t get ahead of him. Don’t get behind him. And don’t run away from him. Just stay right on his heels.

He’ll lead you where you’re supposed to go.

Just like God led me to start this blog. And in 2020, to keep blogging. I definitely have more hopes and dreams for my writing and one day this little corner of the internet may dissolve. But for now, I’m here to stay.

And I’m not going to compare myself to the other bajillion blogs that are out there. Some people have a love for social media and engaging with others online and thats great!! I don’t really have that gift.
But thats ok.

Stars don’t compete against each other. Stars just shine.

Whoever said we needed to compete against each other in order to be successful was wrong. This survival-of-the-fittest mentality is not from God. We are all fearfully and wonderfully made.

You are fearfully and wonderfully made.

And I don’t want to compete with you.
I don’t want to compete with anyone.
I hope we all make it.