Hello, friends! Friday is finally here, which means the weekend is just around the corner. Are you as excited about that fact as I am?
Well, I missed doing a Friday Favorites post last week, and I'm afraid that will be the case again today. I really have no excuse for the last one I missed because I didn't post at all last Friday. But today, I have a good reason for not having a "favorites" post for you: there is something that is heavy on my heart and I feel like I HAVE to get it out. Hope you don't mind...
*Deep Breath*
Here we go...
Yesterday was my birthday. It was also the day that my husband's family came together to say goodbye to his Aunt, whom they all loved so dearly. In the post I shared yesterday, I mentioned that due to the circumstances, I found myself in a deeper-than-usual contemplative state. I want to make sure that I am living for the glory of God in every single aspect of my life. I was determined that yesterday would be my new beginning.
So... how am I doing on my first day of my "new beginning"? Well, I'm evaluating EVERYTHING! The biggest thing on my mind right now is my blog.
Now, I know what you're probably thinking: "Oh, Lord, what is she going to do/change now?" But, don't worry. I don't see any huge changes taking place. Don't get me wrong, there will be some changes... but nothing too drastic.
Before I get to those changes, let me back up and give you a little bit of history about this little blog of mine:
When I started Domestic Bliss Diaries, my goal was to encourage and equip women to pursue domestic bliss {which I define as: utter joy and contentment with their home and family}. I even had a series called Intentional Heart, Intentional Home that I started to give us all a renewed sense of purpose in our homemaking {whether part-time or full-time} that would spur on a change in our home, community, and ultimately, the entire world.
But, something happened as I began to submerge myself into the blogosphere: I began to feel a strong urge to compare. I was a blogger writing about general homemaking/womanhood and I was getting lots of pageviews, but few followers and few comments. I felt like I was doing something wrong. I mean, I knew other Christian homemaking blogs that were doing well as far as being "successful" {whatever that means...}. After all, I wanted what they had: a way to supplement my family's income while still writing about my love for the Lord.
Because I thought I was doing something wrong because I wasn't doing as well as those other ladies, I felt the need to conform. Problem is, at the same time I was trying to be like other bloggers, I was having a bit of a blogging identity crisis: I felt that my decorating and organizing hobbies were somehow conflicting with my faith.
Thankfully, I found the blog of Darlene Weir {Fieldstone Hill} and her Master Designer Manifesto, I learned that my love of decorating and organizing stems from being created in the image of God, who appreciates beauty and order. Plus, decorating and organizing are the ways in which we literally make a home.
I said all that to say this: I want to be a good steward of this blog. I don't want to copy anyone else, because God has given me a unique voice to be used to bring glory to Him. I want to share my decorating and organizing hobbies within the context of making a home, because I can help those who either are not gifted in those areas {as long as those of you who are gifted in the kitchen promise to help me!}.
Bottom line: this blog is going back to it's roots. In other words, it's definitely a homemaking blog. Basically, I still want to encourage and equip you to pursue domestic bliss. But, I want to do it in light of biblical truth. Which means, I am going to try to include posts about decorating and organizing {of course}, as well as intentional living, womanhood, motherhood, faith, family, marriage {etc}.
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Do you ever struggle with comparison and conformity when it comes to blogging?
If so, what do you do to combat these two joy-stealers?
*Blessings*
I hear you! I wrote a whole post about this, about comparing my blog to others and being discouraged and jealous. What helped me was realizing that I blog for myself and I write what I love and believe in, so getting many comments or making a profit doesn't matter that much. It's def. nice but it's not one of goals anymore. And after that, I stopped comparing slowly and love blogging even more. And props to you for putting god first, you can't fail If you do that.:)
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