Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Resource; Encourage, bring hope, inspire

When I first started blogging all of those years ago it was because I was a youth pastor and felt the need to provide a positive space on the internet where my girls could be encouraged and inspired. I was tired of logging onto facebook or the like and seeing these beautiful girls get trashed by their friends, succumb to temptations and be someone I knew they were fighting so hard not to be.

I set about to change their internet space. I blogged about depression, identity, self worth, healthy relationships and Jesus. Blogging was fufilling and I found a lot of people outside of our youth group reading my words and telling me how encouraging they were.

Obviously, I'm not a youth pastor any more but the heart still remains - I am still eager to encourage young girls and have them know how much they are worth. Life and seasons change. Now I also aim to educate people on pregnancy birth and all the afters - to have them know that they have rights and can seek help and to encourage them that they are great mums and dads. I have started to use this space as a journal to record our families years with letters to my husband and our baby, I hope that one day they will be kept and shared. And now, The Sisterhood, of which I am ridiculously proud of what we have achieved already.

So you see, to me, my blog is a resource; It's a space to encourage and bring hope and to inspire. That was my aim and still is. I feel like I have been focussing on other things for a while now. Crafty things. Design things. Baby things. Food things. I love those things but they do not reflect my heart.


I am having a bit of a blog-dentity crisis.

There, I said it.


Sometimes I'm hesitant to post what I really want, I worry that it will be too mushy, or you'll get sick of me and my 'fluffy thoughts'. You'll say "She's so naive!" and I'll say "Just be kind to one another!" and you'll stop reading. So I don't and I limit what does get posted.

A part of me is also hesitant to post about the Sisterhood. I don't want recognition or glory for it. I don't want people to say "well done you". I just want to spread the word. Do you have any better ideas for doing that? I fear that if I post about the Sisterhood here too much you'll feel like I'm always asking you for something or you'll give me glory that I dont deserve. Both scenarios would hurt me.

I just enlarged those words up there. Resource. Encourage. Hope. Inspire. That's what I want. Doesn't that warm your heart? Make you feel wonderful inside? Don't you want to belong to a positive place that is moving towards something greater and better? I do. Seeing those bold words awakens me, makes me zing inside. At nine-o'clock at night I feel alive inside. I feel powerful.

So in the short term future you may notice a change in my posts. Maybe you wont like it and you will unfollow me. Maybe you'll love it and you'll spread the word. Maybe you wont even notice and this is actually all in my head and I'm making a big deal out of nothing.

If anything I want to thank you for reading my words up until this point. You yourself are generous and encouraging and I would love to hear from you about anything. I would love to get a conversation started. I would love to know that I'm not talking to myself as it so often seems like. Please comment, email, share, discuss, suggest.

Love.






5 comments:

  1. Great post Sophie - I often feel this too - I started focussed on craft, then I started to include our family journey, then my 'voice' on things i think about and now also doing things like wardrobe weds. All of these are part of me and I guess by having a 'mixed-up' blog like mine I won't get hundreds of followers but that's okay. I genuinely hope the people who do read feel inspired and encouraged - because that's what my blog is about for me. Be true to your voice there are people who need to hear it x

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  2. I think every blogger goes through this at some point, whether at the start of their foray into blogging or a few years in. The way I see it, this is YOUR blog, therefore it should be the representation of yourself that you want it to be. And if you feel that what you write will represent those bold words, then that's all that matters. Like Miriam, my blog is definitely a mish-mash of stuff, but that's me, and readers can read what interests them, and ignore what doesn't.

    Would a FB page for the Sisterhood work? Then interested people could "like" the page and be kept up-to-date, contact you in a separate forum? Just a thought.

    xx

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    Replies
    1. You read my mind!! www.facebook.com/sophieslimsisterhood

      :D

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  3. Write for yourself first and foremost, forget the reader... If it's genuine "real" you stuff, people will read it and will get involved...

    Don't stop being you. You have a unique voice that deserves to be heard :)

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  4. Thaose words sum up a blog very much worth reading, Sophie.

    I can't get enough fluffy fluffy and talk of kindness, so fire away! I just read your earlier post as well and the "respecting husbands" teaser sounds intriguing. Hmmm... do go on. x

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