Thoughts On Blogging

As I contemplate my plans and goals for blogging in 2011 I consider many things and make many plans.  How to get to a certain Christian Blogger Conference (Relevant 2011).  How to be more faithful in blogging often.  How to build up my readers.  How to use the voice God has given me.  How to apply what I write to my life.  How to network and make profitable connections.  But what I really want to define is my purpose as a blogger.  I want to make sure that what I share uplifts and inspires. 

One thing I have considered in this is what version of the Bible to use.  I have been using NIV because it’s the most familiar, but on occasion use other versions that fit with what I’m writing more.  I’ve recently started to use The Message and am loving the way the language it uses is so real.  Definitely the way I want my writing style to be, real.  But all this has brought a key question to my mind.  One that I think is good for all bloggers, writers, preachers, etc. to ask themselves.

Do you look for a version of scripture to use that will most support your point, or do you look for the version that most clearly portrays the true meaning of the verse?

Hmm.  The true meaning of God’s word is what holds the power to transform and inspire.  We as bloggers have the opportunity to apply that power to our lives and chronicle the effect.

I want to be your voice Jesus.  I don’t want to use You to make my point.  I want to be used by You to make your point. 

So, get going.  I’ll be right there with you - with your mouth!  I’ll be right there to teach you what to say.”
 
Exodus 4:12

I Want That Glow

I packed up a box of Caleb’s baby clothes that don’t fit anymore today.  They are going to a friend of a friend who will be having a boy soon.  When Josiah saw me he asked “What is that?”  I told him we were giving away the baby clothes because we weren’t going to have any more babies.  I actually said “no more babies in the Sanchez house.”  He got a worried look on his face and pointed to Caleb and said, “Yes!  We want baby!”  I think he thought we would be packing Caleb up in the box to. 
 

But it’s true.  No more babies for us.  Now if someone could just tell my subconscious that.  I keep dreaming that I’m pregnant.  That I have that beautiful rounded tummy again.  That I have that pregnancy glow.  I’m fighting against the desire to have that glow.  It tells the world there’s something brewing inside me.  It’s a sign of new life.  Of purpose.  Of a God given destiny.
 

Moses had that kind of a glow.  His was from words and truth God was birthing to his people through him.  His was from spending time in the presence of his Maker.  From seeing and conversing with the Lover of his Soul.  It was so strong that the people couldn’t see past the glow to see the person.  Now THAT”S the kind of glow I really want!  One that comes from God and comes with the promise that He is and will continue to use me for his purposes.

I want that glow.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai carrying the two Tablets of The Testimony, he didn’t know that the skin of his face glowed because he had been speaking with God

Exodus 34:29

Giveaways

I’ve recently entered the world of Twitter and with it the world of Christian Mom Bloggers.  There’s a lot of them out there and I never knew I’d find them on Twitter.  This has also opened up the world of giveaways to the Sanchez house.  I’ve entered many in the past month and won several.  I’ve won a beautiful pitcher, a crayon roll, baby toys (the above pic is of Caleb playing with his favorite giveaway win), a baby shirt, and a year long membership to a site that helps with planning and offering resources for teaching children about the bible.  Yesterday I won something special.  

I had asked my husband for a certain necklace for Christmas. He got me something else that I totally love instead. I entered a giveaway yesterday and what did I win?  A gift certificate that will completely cover the cost of the necklace I really wanted. When my husband got home and I told him (I was SUPER excited), He smiled and said he wasn’t surprised. He had been praying that God would provide for everything I desired! Amazing how God (and my hubby) care about even the smallest details.  My happiness and wellbeing is important to God.  He’s paying attention and in subtle and very personal ways He shows His great love for me.  

. . . for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Matthew 6:8

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Matthew 6:28-30

This post is appropriately linked up to The Rusted Chain’s “Fingerprint Friday”  Thanks for the giveaway!  How cool is it that you were part of my seeing God’s fingerprint on my life this week.

http://www.blog.therustedchain.com/2011/01/fingerprint-friday.html

Check out the necklace I’m going to order.  http://therustedchain.bigcartel.com/product/three-names-necklace 

The Old Becomes New

It’s cleaning day at the Sanchez house.  Well actually cleaning afternoon.  We took the boys to Abuelita’s (grandma’s) house this morning, so I could come home and work on the house.  Cleaning, taking down and packing away Christmas decorations, laundry and writing.  We headed out this morning with the intention of dropping off the two older boys and coming home right away, but we love my mother in law way to much not to sit at her table, have breakfast and chat.  Besides as soon as we got there my father in law pulled Samuel away to help him with some kind of project.  So by the time we left it was after noon. 
 

As I’ve been packing up the tree and decorations I look around and my house seems to be becoming new again.  It’s getting cleaner, more spacious, more streamlined.  It’s starting to look just like it did a month ago, but it seems new to me.  Funny how the old suddenly seems new.  It’s like fashion I guess.  Changes bring old things back and makes them look new. 
 

It also reminds me of scripture.  The first King James Version of the Bible was published in 1611!  That’s OLD!  And the Bible was around long before that.  But when we read it and put it into practice it becomes new to us and it renews us.  It’s incredible how some of the oldest things written can make a man’s soul new!  And there it is.  It’s happening everyday.  The old becomes new.
 

Have you been made new by the power of Christ?

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
2 Corinthians 5:17

A New Year, A New Start

What a year 2010 was.  A year of challenges and a year of favor.  A year of struggle and a year of provision.  A year of illness and a year of healing.  With everything that happened and everything we went through God showed himself faithful in ALL things.

The most memorable?  Baby Caleb of course!  After beginning the pregnancy with a month of bleeding and bedrest at 30 weeks I went into labor and my water broke.  At the hospital they gave me too much medicine and at one point I turned to the nurse.  I said “I’m going to pass out now.”  And I did.  Within seconds I was seeing a beautiful, pure, and radiant light.  My soul responded and said “Senor, estamos en tus manos.”  (“Lord we are in your hands”)  I was in perfect peace.  Then I started to hear my name and the nurses asking me if I could hear them.  A few minutes later I was able to respond.

Years ago when I was in college I wrote a goal for my life.  It was “To live in such communion with God that at the end of my life I will neither run towards the light nor away from it, but that my first instinct will be to fall to my knees and as the Lord what HIS will was for me in that moment.”  What a confirmation that I am on the right path.  After this I spent a week in the hospital and miraculously God resealed my womb.  I went home and spent the rest of the pregnancy on bedrest and on July 15th Caleb was born full term and in perfect health!

This really sums up 2010 for me.  There were many difficult times, but God brought us through them all and in the end we have his perfect divine health physically, spiritually, and emotionally.

So now I’m looking forward to 2011 and believing that it will be better.  I feel we have been through a purifying fire and come out ready to see God use us in new ways.

When I began to read and look for a verse for my first blog of the year I was looking for a declaration of victory, for a promise.  What I found was a possibility.  That with the Lord’s blessing what we begin to plant now, we can reap a hundredfold by the end of the year.  I was looking for a verse where God was declaring a year of abundance in all good things, what He showed me was that it takes two.  We need His blessing but we also need our planting.

What do you want to reap this year? Start planting! 



Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him.


Genesis 26:12