Top 3 Posts from the Past Year
This is my birthday week, and birthdaysare a big deal in my family. It’s a month-long celebration filled with specialmeals out, lots of desserts, and everyone calling you to sing happy birthday.
Last October was also when Igot back into the swing of blogging. I had written on-and-off for five yearsbut working from home had given me more margin in my schedule to write forpleasure. It also was a way for me to exercise some creative muscles I wasn’t usingin my freelance and teaching positions. While I was writing for myself, Ishared my posts on social media and was amazing when people actually read what Iwrote! Every time one of you messaged or commented saying how you wereencouraged from my post, it reminded me why God gave us the ability to createin the first place—to give him glory!
In case you’ve just startedfollowing my blog, here’s a recap of the three most-read posts since my lastbirthday. I can’t wait to see how God uses this platform in the next year!
A Prayer to the God Greater than Google
I wrote this after a year and half long hiatus from my blog, the busyness of life crowding out my writing. But when I got the call that my mom’s cancer had spread, I knew I needed to put my fingers to the keyboard to work out what I was feeling and believing. I wrote this blog on the front porch of a beach house where we were staying for my husband’s family reunion. It was my manifesto that I would not let the word cancer shake my faith. No, instead of turning inward to my own knowledge and ability, I would trust in God who had infinite power, knowledge, and (most importantly) goodness. Whatever you’re going through, you were created to rest in the sovereignty, goodness, and omniscience of our loving Creator.
3 Things I’ve learned in a Year of Transition
I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about thisblog. It was coming up on the anniversary of our move, and my nostalgictendencies got the best of me, and I started thinking back over the past year.After it published, I had so many comments of people who were in similarseasons who were encouraged by this. To me, it wasn’t my strongest writing, butGod used my weakness to teach others what he had been growing in my own life. Thatis why I started this blog in the first place, so that through Christ dwellingin us we would admonish one another to grow.
Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality
I published this blog in response to Rosaria Butterfield’s book, The Gospel Comes with a House Key, arguably the book that has most impacted me this year. The blog tells the story of how God transformed my view of hospitality and then gave me an opportunity to practice “radically ordinary hospitality” when my brother-in-law’s family came to visit. If you haven’t read this one (spoiler alert) while visiting us they went to an evangelical church for the first time ever and soon came to know Christ! This blog is a testimony to God’s faithfulness and his invitation for his children to be part of his kingdom work.
Looking back, these blogs aren’tjust a creative and spiritual outlet for me. It is a way for me to remember andproclaim the faithfulness of God in my life. How are you remembering andproclaiming his goodness in your life?