A New Year - A Renewed Walk with the Lord

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope you all had a very blessed and meaningful Advent and that your Christmas was filled with His presence.

I so enjoyed my respite from blogging during the last few weeks of Advent.  Did I just say that?? 

I confess, as the year was drawing to a close, I was beginning to feel the weight of blogging.  The tasks related to it were overtaking my time with family as I tried to keep up with the pace I had set...  Worst still, my blogging schedule, along with all my other responsibilities related to home and a part-time job, were keeping me from the most important aspect of my spiritual walk - PRAYER.

Those three weeks refreshed my spirit, calling me to be still in the presence of the Lord - allowing me to hear Him speaking with more clarity.   Oh what enjoyment I found!

It seemed in the few weeks I was not blogging, the Lord provided me with many topics to blog about in the coming new year!  All inspired by John Piper's Advent Devotional, The Dawning of Indestructible Joy, and the First 5 App devotional which is currently going through the book of Matthew.   

Last year, which was my first year of blogging, was a different story as I literally went week to week depending on the Lord for a topic to blog about - many times at the 11th hour!

I believe the Lord veiled His blog topics from me until the last minute so that I would solely depend on Him and Him alone for the words I would write from week to week.  I must say, it strengthened my Faith incredibly to see how a blog post would suddenly come about, knowing that the Lord was providing the topic and helping me to write the words - keeping me humble through the process...

And now, here I am, about to celebrate my very first blogging anniversary, yet having found incredible blessing in my time away from blogging these last few weeks, leaving me all the more refreshed, enriched and prepared for the coming year to write for His glory.

I am very excited to share with you in the weeks and months ahead all that the Lord has shown me in these last few weeks.

I am also excited to share with you two opportunities that were presented to me which will be posted soon.

I was humbled by the request of a dear sister blogger to write a guest blog post on one of the fruits of the spirit, gentleness.  In the months leading up to the writing of that post, the Lord has been so faithful to show me so much about gentleness which I can't wait to share!  I will be sure to let you know when the guest post goes live.  :-)

Additionally, I was humbled by the request of another dear sister blogger to participate in an interview series she is currently doing on her blog.   The interview questions were incredibly God-centered - intended to bring Him all the Glory.   As I answered the questions, I was reminded of all that the Lord has done and is doing in my life.   It was an honor and a privilege to be a part of this sweet sister's interview series.  I will be sure to share links when the interview is published.  :-)

My time away from blogging has also caused me to reassess myself, my spiritual walk and my blog...  

It became evident that changes needed to be made on all counts...

In future blog posts, I will be sharing what the Lord has taught me recently about myself and my spiritual walk that I hope will be an encouragement and blessing to you as well.

But for now, I wanted to tell you about changes I will be making to the blog.

First of all, I want to thank you all for the warm and gracious welcome you gave me to the blogging community.  Your encouragement and words of affirmation over this last year have blessed me more than you know.  They have caused me to want to be accountable to you and give 110% in every blog post I write.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works...

Hebrews 10:24

Late this summer, I began a weekly, daily features series that you all encouraged me in so much, and for which I am so grateful.  However, I feel it is time to return to the original format of the blog by providing once a week content which I hope will continue to help us all grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus.

I certainly enjoyed journaling my thoughts and blessings.  They drew me so much closer to the evidences of God working in  my life.  And I found the stories behind the hymns so interesting and an encouragement to my own walk of faith.  Delving into specific Scripture verses was also very edifying.  

All of it good, but...   

It began to consume more of my time where I was spending less time in the ministry of my home and personally in prayer, and too much time on the blog.  It became very evident that I needed to cut back.

For my own personal circumstances, I think I like the idea of my blog being more of a living blog whose content is not constrained by set, scheduled features.  I know there are bloggers that do a specific, scheduled feature approach wonderfully, and I look forward to reading and enjoy them very much. But for me, and my quirky personality trait of becoming hyperfocused in my own writing of weekly, daily features, it became more forced and less authentic.

Having said all of this, that is not to say that in the future I won't publish a random additional "blessings post" or "thoughts post" or write about a hymn that touched me in a special way.  It is just that these posts will come as the Lord leads, not on a set schedule.

I hope it doesn't sound like I've been rambling here.  I consider you all my friends and wanted to let you in on how the Lord has been working on me during these last few weeks.  I consider it a high calling to blog for the purpose of sharing His Word, and want to ensure that I am representing my Lord and Savior in a manner that brings Him all the Glory and Honor which requires that my life outside of blogging is preserved for Him first.

I praise and thank God for all that I have learned in this last year through blogging, the friendships I have been blessed with and the faith that was strengthened in my utter dependence on Him through writing.

I look forward to a brand new year and all the promise it holds in Him!

You might find me on these link-ups:
Grace & Truth Link-up, Woman to Woman Ministries,  Growing in Grace Link-up, 3DLessonsLif4e, Livefree Thursday,Everyday Jesus, SDG Gathering, Inspire Me Monday Titus 2 Tuesday, A Wise Women Builds Her Home, A Look at the Book,  Sunday Stillness, The Weekend Brew, Spiritual Sundays, Soul Survival,  Give Me Grace, A Little R&R, Testimony Tuesday, Women with Intention Wednesdays, Still Saturday, Good Morning Mondays, Tell His Story, Faith & Fellowship Blog Hop, Motivate and Rejuvenate Mondays, Be Salty, Monday's Musings, The Art of Home-Making Monday, Tuesday Talk, Waiting on Wednesday,Dance with Jesus, Reflect His Love and Glory Friend Sharpens Friend Link-Up, Words of Comfort Link-up, Wholehearted Wednesdays. Tell it to Me Tuesday, Faithful at Home Fridays, Faith 'N Friends, TGI Saturdays, Sitting Among Friends