The Beginning

Well this is interesting huh?  Something fresh? Something never before seen!?! It’s a blog!! This reminds me of the time when I got my first iPhone, I was super pumped.  The year was 2012.  I had finally given into the smart phone craze and gotten not just any smart phone but the iPhone, the Mother of all smart phones.  I immediately texted my friend Brandon, an avid iPhone user (the text was now blue this time, eek!) and shared the news with him.  His classic response was….”welcome to 2008 bro!”  Talk about bursting my bubble…..

Needless to say this time around I realize I am not on the cutting edge of some new fangled technology or trend.  But nevertheless this is a big deal for me.  After months of thinking about this, I have decided to start writing a blog.

It really kind of began with Lyla’s birth.  As most of you I’m sure know (or maybe, since this is my first post, I should say both of you…..hi Mom and Grace!)  the birth of my daughter was very scary.  In case you don’t know I will give you the short and skinny.  Grace went into labor 3 months early, they tried to keep Lyla in, they were successful for 2.5 days, Lyla was born, she is perfectly healthy, God is good, Amen!

During those 2.5 days in the hospital I had an idea to write a blog that people could check for updates, that way they heard directly from me what was going on, not word of mouth.  Also they could get updates almost immediately and know how to pray for us.  It turned out being WAY more successful that I ever even dreamed.  The blog ended up getting well over 50,000 hits from around 1000 different visitors over just a few weeks.  It was amazing to see how much people enjoyed the updates and pictures.

I would like to say thank you for those of you who stopped and prayed with us during those 2.5 days.  It has been awesome seeing/meeting people over the last 18 months and them getting to meet Lyla and tell us their story of how they were praying for us the whole time.  So if that was you, i say THANK YOU!!

During that process I found that for me writing out my circumstances, thoughts, emotions, etc. was very cathartic (thank you Lindsey Haeger for that $5 word).  It helped me to process tremendously.  Which brings me to explaining how this blog will work.

FORMAT:
A soliloquy.  What is a soliloquy you ask?  Great question!  

Soliloquy: an act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers

Imagine me standing in front of a mirror talking to myself in order to process things and hash them out in my mind.  The nice part about doing this via blog is two things:
1) The built in accountability (I have to check my facts)
2) There is an opportunity for the things I talk about to be beneficial to you.  As I talk about what God is teaching me, God could use something I say in your life in a profound way.  Our God is awesome that way!

CONTENT:
– My thoughts, probably mainly in the form of challenging the believer (myself)
– Struggles I am going through
– I will do my best to keep my posts short and sweet for readability

PURPOSE:
– To glorify His name (this is the first and most important)
– For me to process, organize, and compile my thoughts
– To share/encourage/challenge and provoke thought in the believer

I am not committing to any type of time frame for posting or even to the content or format.  I will not budge on the purpose section, however.  But this will be a fluid thing for me and I will see where God leads.  Though it is not my main goal I do hope you find future posts helpful, encouraging, and challenging.