Why I Blog...

On my About Me page, you can read a little bit about who I am and why I started this blog. But with all the goals we are setting as a family and myself this new year, I've been thinking a lot about why I blog.

There are many reasons why I continue to write here:

• As a creative outlet
• To hone my communication skills
• To stay in the Word 
• To hold myself accountable for my plans, dreams, & goals
• To rant, rave, and vent: Writing is cathartic!

But perhaps the main reason why I blog is this: 

To Grow

More than anything my desire is to become more Christ like each day, to be self-sacrificing, peaceable, gentle, meek, and humble, to love like Jesus did, to be the very best wife, mother, and child of God that I can be in the short time I'm given here on earth.

But in order to grow in God's glory, I need something more than myself: I need community.

Like many writers, I'm a loner by nature. I like to have a few close friends who I meet up with on occasion, but other than that I have little time or desire for a social life. I simply prefer to be at home. 

Still, I not only need community, I crave it. Why?

Because only in community do we truly grow.

As much as I prefer my comfort zone with its cushy pillows and familiar noises and smells, I desire to grow far more.

In her amazing book Everything: What You Give & What You Gain to Become Like Jesus, Mary DeMuth writes: 

"Profound growth happens in the context of community" (153).

...we never grow in a vacuum, away from people. We grow when we risk in relationships" (171).

Without community--whether fellow bloggers, a handful of Godly friends, a Bible study group, or a small group at church--we won't grow.

Without community, we have no one to share our struggles with, no one to hold us accountable when we want to give up, no one with whom to practice all the skills we're learning on our own.

Without community, we stagnate. We may do some really great stuff by ourselves, but who benefits from it? Myself? Maybe. But who else? No one.

 

We need community--friends, family, acquaintances--to throw out a lifeline to us when we're sinking, when we're doing all we can simply to stay afloat. 

We need community to share our stories with, to be real with, to connect us to something bigger than ourselves.

We need community to spur us on when we're beat down, run over, and bone tired. 

Paul wrote: 

"Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing."

1 Thessalonians 5:11

As a Christian, I have a duty to edify other believers. If I want to grow as a follower of Jesus, then I have to participate in community--like it or not.

I don't blog for fame or great fortune; I blog because I desire to grow. And in order to grow God-ward, I need you. I need the love, support, and encouragement of other wives, mothers, and women who are walking the same road, who have been there or are there with me now, and who can cheer me on along the way. 

Community

It's why I blog. 


What about you? Do you have a community of your own? If so, what does it look like?

If you're looking for an online community where you can grow by being encouraged, uplifted, and cheered on, might I invite you to join me here?

If you would like to have Growing in His Glory delivered to your inbox, click here: Subscribe to Growing in His Glory. Or join me on Google Friend Connect, Facebook, Twitter, & Pinterest.



Blessings to you,

Linking up with:  The Better Mom, Raising Arrows, Time-Warp Wife, Teach Me Tuesdays, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Leaving a Legacy, Women Living Well Wednesdays, Raising Homemakers, Cozy Book Hop, Raising Mighty Arrows