I saw a message on a picture pop up on my news feed a while back and I saved it. And I’ve read it quite a few times since then. And I’ve thought about it. And I’ve prayed about it. And I’ve thought some more.
The picture says, If you put your career in God’s hands and trust Him you can’t account for all the ways he will bless you.
That sounds great. Doesn’t it? But my blog is my career. Which poses the question, How do I honor God with my blog?
Because I want to. Honestly, sometimes this blog is a source of anger, frustration, disappointment and a lot of other negative things. It used to be so easy to have a blog. You wrote posts. People read them. The world was in balance.
But now if you post your blog posts on Facebook, Facebook decides who gets to see your posts (and it’s not very many). Google has changed a lot of their policies that make it harder for blogs to be seen and has bloggers terrified that their blog will be shut down if a Google Bot flags it for some reason.
And now there’s Pinterest. And if you’re not posting content to Pinterest you’re losing readers. And “pinnable” content takes longer to produce. So you’re working harder.
And there are some blogs that don’t have to work to get traffic. The traffic just comes. And their posts go viral. And you’re working twice as hard as some bloggers for half as much traffic.
So there are some days I sit at my desk, staring at my blog, and my list of all the things that have to written, edit, posted, managed, replied to and handled, and I think……. this doesn’t feel like a blessing.
And somewhere at the bottom of that to do list….waaaaay past the point of things I actually manage to get done, are the bullet points that tell me to write those posts about God and Faith and Family. And I ask myself….
How can I honor God with my blog?
If my blog is my career, then I have to put it in His hands. But how is He honored by it?
Does it honor God when I write about Operation Christmas Child? I certainly hope so.
Does it honor God when I write about giving, helping others and using your coupon skills to make donations to food pantries, etc…? Maybe….
Does it honor God when I write about my faith and post scripture around Christmas and Easter? I think so…
Does it honor God when I write about our homeschooling journey, our reasons for it and encouraging others in the same situation? That one, I’m really not sure about. Homeschooling is a calling on our lives and I feel by doing it we are honoring God’s plan for our lives – so I guess sharing that with others is a good thing too?
Does it honor God when I spend Sunday afternoons working on my blog? Probably not… and I’ve struggled with this. Once I did No Blogging on Sundays. It worked for a while. Ok, it only worked for 3 weeks. Until I realized that Sundays are my most non-disturbed days in which I can get the most done. So do I let the housework pile up during the week to spend more time on my blog and then do all the housework on Sunday? I’m not sure that would honor God either.
So I guess it boils down to what I write about. But, what does God want me to write about?
I wish I had an answer to that question. But for too long I’ve listened to my feed reader more than I’ve listened to God. I really want to help others save money for many reasons… for many of the reasons I was determined to save money for my own family. Financial security, money for a rainy day, to be able to do more as a family (trips, vacations, staycation activities like the zoo and local museums) but also, to give more. Since I’ve started my blog and my money saving journey, I donate more goods because I have more to donate thanks to using coupons, and I’ve been able to do more with Operation Christmas Child, not to beat a dead horse by continuing to bring that up, but I really, really, really, LOVE that charity. And we have been able to tithe to our church. And I’m not saying, hey look at me and all the money I have. But I’m saying, that was one of the reasons I knew our finances needed to be in better shape. There was no money left to give back. Now, that money comes out first and all our needs are still met. I’m not saying we don’t have difficult times but we have faith. And we are blessed.
Now I realize I can show people how to save money, but I can’t control what they do with the money they save. So if they choose not to give back, that’s not on me. But am I talking about it enough? Am I encouraging it enough? When people visit my blog, whether it be for 30 seconds or 30 minutes, can they tell there is a higher purpose? That it’s about more than money and stuff?
I don’t want to get preachy with my blog. That’s not the purpose of it. But I want it to be God-honoring. And that may mean talking a little more personally from now on. I’m called by my faith to show Jesus to the world. This blog is my outlet to do that. So bear with me while I figure out how I’m going to do it.
Do you write about your faith? Do you use your blog as an outlet to honor God and share Jesus to the world? Please leave a link in the comments, I would love to visit you!
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