A Dirty Little Secret About Blogging

I really enjoy blogging. It allows me the opportunity to express myself, get the creative juices flowing. To look at things from different perspectives, to see things outside of my own four walls.

However, I feel that blogging also has along with all those great things I mentioned above a dirty little secret. If allowed, blogging can tear one down just as much as it can lift one up.

While I love seeing a beautifully designed blog with all the graphics and buttons one could dream of, it can also make me feel like my little cookie cutter blog is just the opposite of that, plain jane and average.

I can be inspired by all the beautiful homes I see, decorated so tastefully and painstakingly planned and executed. Then I can go from being inspired to being resentful over my little two room duplex with just a little over 725 sq feet with old drab white walls and yicky brown carpet.

I look at the delicious, nutritious recipes that are being created. With exotic spices and organic ingredients all wrapped up in a full serving of perfection beautifully photographed on transferware that's to die for. It can make our lunch of peanut butter and jelly on melamine plates look downright unpalatable.

I see the beautiful family portraits of everyone in white shirts, perfect hair and makeup on Mom and everyone is looking at the camera and smiling. Then my favorite family photo of us sitting on the lawn at the park with three kids looking in three different directions seems like just some random picture.

I read about women who have felt led to add to their families by adoption. I hear the yearning in their words as they pour out their hearts about the journey that God is taking them through in the process. I then look inward and feel guilty, why don't I feel this way? Am I cold hearted because I don't feel that same pull to adopt a child?

I truly feel that blogging can be a cathartic experience. It can challenge us to think outside our box. It can inspire us to create, to nest, to reside in a home that we truly love. However I think that if not careful in our intentions that the exact opposite can happen and what once brought positive can instead bring negative.

We don't need blogging to feel accepted. We don't need yet another yardstick by which to measure ourselves to the world's standard. The amount of comments, followers or page hits we get doesn't determine our mark on this world. It doesn't matter whether or not our posts are featured or liked by others. While it's nice to be recognized by others for our contributions it is not a marker of who we are and it doesn't gage our success. Blogging can both welcome us into a body of others as well as make us feel alienated and unworthy.

Guard your hearts and minds while online, be mindful of what you are reading and posting and why you are doing it. You know what you struggle with, what your triggers are. You know what inspires you and what causes discord. Be watchful of what you allow in. Even words written with the best of intentions can bring upon unintended feelings if they focus on things that cause you to focus elsewhere.

"And he said to them, 'Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.' " Luke 12:15