Questions for Blog Readers & Creators
I struggle with a completely insatiable curiosity. I have a few questions for any of you brilliant, extraordinary, wonderful people who care to answer. I know you are busy, but if you feel like it, I would be honestly grateful and absolutely riveted to read your responses.
- If you read this blog, what do you see here that blesses you the most?
- If you maintain a blog of your own, what first motivated you to start blogging?
- Has your motivation changed? What motivates you today?
Here is the situation.
Today, I look at Hallee’s blog and her blogroll, and all of your blogrolls, and honestly, I see a sisterhood of kindred spirits — a sorority of excellent and extraordinary people. Your written voices are so joyful and so very packed with purpose. I admire each of you for many reasons, but mainly I admire each of you for your heart. I wish I could thank you all personally just for being who you are. I suppose — if I had the means — I would buy each of you a house or something by way of expressing my gratitude for just how utterly cool you are.
When my gorgeous, wonderful wife discovered the world of blogging, she felt so very thrilled and so very excited by the personalities she found in the blogosphere. Every single day, her faith was affirmed or reaffirmed, her values were bolstered, and her heart was lifted. She loved getting to “know” and see how much she had in common with you all.
My beloved bride found herself inspired.
When Hallee wanted to start her own blog, I asked her to wait until I had time and resources. I wanted everything to be “perfect.” In hindsight, I am so happy she didn’t wait. I am thankful she listened to the Holy Spirit directing her not to bury her talents, but to use her talents and get started on this mission, even if it wasn’t perfect from day one. When she launched her initial site back in August of 2009, it convicted me to make time, find resources, and reprioritize some things so that she could have the perfect blog I had envisioned providing.
Before she started her blog in earnest, I asked her what her motivation was. My main concern was that maintaining a site of the very high quality I knew she would demand of herself would take TIME.
My beloved bride maintains a home while her husband is thousands of miles away wearing fashionable Kevlar. She has three children, each with their own needs and specific sets of demands. She has weekly obligations at church, weekly obligations supporting the Tuesday night fund-raising activity of the Glen Eden Youth Center, and regular obligations playing taxi-driver for those aforementioned children. She has one novel at a major publishing house at the moment and the looming necessity to revise 9 others she has written, which means she has an obligation to work on her books six days a week before the kids get up and around. She is the Secretary of the Kentucky Romance Writers and a nominee for the Faith, Hope, and Love Chapter of Romance Writers of America. When would she have time?
It’s a ministry.
She informed me that she wanted to approach blogging much like a ministry, just as we approach our diet, our many obligations, and so many other facets of our lifestyle. She felt she needed to take it on as a responsibility.
Today, I have the opportunity to interact with my beautiful bride on her blog or behind the scenes from thousands of miles away almost every day. It is a means of communicating and sharing with my wife that has opened up so many previously unexplored avenues.
The question I really have for the bloggers is this:
Do you feel a weight of responsibility?
Do you feel a weight of responsibility to your present and future audience? To yourself? To a higher power?
Thank you, excellent, brilliant, extraordinary people. Thank you in advance for satisfying my ridiculously irrepressible curiosity. May God bless each and every one of you in your walk.
— Gregg
If you read this blog, what do you see here that blesses you the most? I absolutely LOVE the straighforwardnesss of having God first in your lives! I love that you are raising your children to love Him and to follow him. It’s refreshing to see a family who has so many of the same morals that we try to live by ourselves, and raise our children with as well.
If you maintain a blog of your own, what first motivated you to start blogging? I just started about a week ago. For me, it is to keep my family up to date on what our immediate family is up to. I’m also trying to help show my extended family, why we do things the way we do in our immediate family. One of my upcoming blogs is about why we use cloth diapers. Another will be why we are choosing to homeschool our children.
Has your motivation changed? What motivates you today?
My husband, my son and my soon to be here daughter motivate me. I want the best for each of them. I turn to God more often to help me gain the energy I need, or the motivation, or the inspiration. I feel that He helps me with all these aspects and more in my life.
I started reading this blog because it was written by a very dear friend of mine. I didn’t realize at the time that it was going to make such an impact on my life. Each day that I read it, I felt such a lifting of my spirits. It didn’t take very long for me to realize that through Hallee, I was being blessed with guidance and inspiration to help me through each day.
With Hallee’s permission, I have started a notebook with printouts of the blogs. It has an inspiration section, a recipe section, and a craft section. I intend to make copies of these and give them to my daughter and my daughter’s-in-law for Christmas.
Thank you Hallee for this blog. Thank you God for all our blessings, especially for wonderful friends.
Great questions!
I decided to begin my blog at the encouragement of one of my friends who said, “Laura, you know a lot of things about a lot of things. You need to have a website to get all of that out there for people.” I also started it because our family was going through a very difficult time financially and I saw it as a possible way to help out.
Do I feel the weight of responsibility? Oh my yes. Sometimes it overwhelms me if I let it. Most of the pressure I feel is self imposed…but still. :) I feel “behind” almost always on my “computer work”. I’m always behind on emailing people back (which you have learned already about me, since this email is quite old!). I always have a lot of questions people want answered. I feel a big responsibility to my readers…they are loyal…I need to provide them with good content.
More importantly, I feel the weight of responsibility of being BALANCED. My website work should never take the place of family time and my own personal relationship with God. So, I am always working to find the right balance. I guess that’s why I’m always behind on computer work and answering emails?! :)
Thanks for your interest!
Laura
Gregg & Hallee,
1. What I see here that is such a blessing is your obvious devotion to each other and to your family. Your support in Hallee’s blogging adventures is so neat. I’m thankful that my husband is very supportive of me, too. :)
2. I first began blogging to get the TRUTH out about Real Food and to organize it all into one place that would help others easily find the info they’re looking for.
3. This is still my primary motivation, but wow, it sure has been a wild ride! It’s been more work than I EVER could have imagined, but emails like the one I got recently make it all worth it. A woman said that she found my blog a few months ago and began implementing changes in her diet. She told her sister about it and her sister started changing some things, too. Both had struggled with infertility for years. The other day she found out she was pregnant! She was anxious about telling her sister, and when she did there was a long silence…and then her sister told her that she is pregnant, too! I of course told her that God is amazing and I’m thankful to have played a tiny little part in His sweet plan.
Kelly,
Thank you so much for all that you do. And thank you very much for satisfying my insatiable curiosity.
God Bless,
Gregg