Blissdom ’10 Christian Women Bloggers Meet-Up

*Update* We know the tickets to our meet-up "sold out" fast. Wow! What a response. We will be opening up 18 more tickets on Monday, January 4, 2010, at 2PM Central Time. After those are sold out a waiting list will be started.*

We know how hard it is to meet face-to-face the women we form relationships with in bloggyland. This is usually due to the fact that our online friends generally live far away. Because Blissdom '10 is coming up in Nashville, Courtney and I will be hostessing a Christian women bloggers meet-up so you can meet these blogging friends in real life.

Here's the info:

When

February 6, 2010 at 7:30 pm

Where

TGI Friday's 433 Opry Mills Drive # 5 Nashville, TN 37214

Why

Have you ever wanted to meet other women bloggers who share your faith? So have we. We understand that blogging brings about many wonderful friendships but oftentimes these new found friends live far away. While at Blissdom '10 in Nashville, TN, Faithful Bloggers will be hostessing an opportunity for Christian women bloggers to meet each other. Why not come for fun, fellowship, and laughter? Make sure to bring your business cards and money for dinner!

Ready to sign up?

Sign up here! (But hurry! Tickets are going fast!)

What to write this Christmas season

The last post I wrote here at Faithful Bloggers was about taking time off during Christmas. Whether or not you choose to do that it is inevitable that you will want to write up some kind of holiday post. Just in case you are stuck on what to write that will show your blog is honoring Him this season, here are a few ideas:

1) Share what Jesus has done in your life this year. You don't have to get too personal but it can be such a blessing to see what He has done in the past year.

2) Share the Christmas story, straight from the Bible. Type it out, verse-by-verse. Add a picture of a snow-covered scene and you have a simple yet effective way of bringing the point of why there is a Christmas in the first place.

3) Is this a hard time of year for you? Many people grieve the loss of a loved one around Christmas. Share your story of that precious person whom you miss so much. I've been told this will often help alleviate the grief, if only for a little bit!

4) If you paint, draw, computer animate, etc., share your special pictures and graphics that you have made personally. Share with others the talents God has given you!

5) Ask someone to guest post for you, sharing why Christmas is so special for them. This gives you a bit of a break at this busy time but also gives someone else a chance to shine.

6) Write out your favorite Christmas carol.

These are only a few of the ways you can write about Christ in Christmas. What ideas have you personally used in sharing the joy of Christ this season? I'd love to hear!

Time Away

Whenever I go away for coffee by myself I am reminded of how much getting away for a while is good for one's soul. I come back from Mommy-time totally refreshed and ready for all the challenges that come from being a homemaker. Periods of stepping back and reassessing are necessary for me for blogging as well.

This hustle and bustle of the holiday season seems to affect many. Bloggers included, we are pressured to publish the perfect post with perfect pictures of our perfect homemade goodies. As with real life sometimes we all need to take a break. Even from blogging.

I want to encourage you to take a step back this Christmas season. Step away from the computer and revel in being with family. Forget posting for a day or two (or more!) and build those relationships. Make cookies with your grandchildren, take funny holiday pictures with your little ones, and make sure to kiss your hubby under the mistletoe at least once.

Above all, take a moment to hide away quietly beside your Christmas tree. Snuggle under a warm blanket and grab a cup of your favorite hot beverage. Pick up your Bible and read of the precious story of the first Christmas.

What a gift. Let us never forget!

Photo credit: bjearwicke

Christmas Carnival at Mentoring Moments

Isn't it fun to help out and support fellow Christians in their ministries? Over at Mentoring Moments the ladies there have put together a great Christmas Carnival that I think our Faithful Bloggers friends will want to join in on. I encourage you to read a little bit about it here and then head on over and join in on the fun!

Homespun Christmas Traditions Blog Carnival

-Molly Evert

Some of our favorite Christmas traditions are just simple, inexpensive things we do at home.  My family likes to read A Christmas Carol by the fire.  We sing songs and drink steaming mugs of hot chocolate, too.  It costs little to make these special memories, yet they enrich our lives in priceless ways.

What are your home-spun Christmas traditions? Mentoring Moments for Christian Women will be holding a blog carnival from December 6^th through December 12^th.  We’d love to hear about the little things you do at home to make the season special.

To participate, write a post about something simple you do to make the holidays special and publish the post on your blog.  Then visit our site sometime between the 6^th and the 12^th and add the URL for your post in the MckLinky box below our carnival post.

Photo credit: Molly Evert

Are You Blogging the Bible?

photo credit: khrawlings Are you a Christian blogger that is blogging the Bible? You may be asking what exactly does “blogging the Bible” mean, so let me explain. As Christians we are instructed to show the love of Jesus to others in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all [men] know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” and to teach others about Christ as noted in Matt 28:19, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:” Blogging is a great way to show people Christ's love. You don't even have to blog about your faith or post biblical devotions to do so either.

It is estimated that 346,000,000 (source*) people read blogs. Of course a number of blog readers are Christians. I imagine a large portion of those blog readers are not Christians and have never even heard about the love of Jesus. That is a lot of people we can be witnessing to. You never know who may be reading your blog so it is imperative that you write about your faith and the Bible in a way that even non-Christians will be able to understand and see the love you have for Christ.

Of course incorporating Bible verses in your blog is a great and easy way to show the love of Christ. After all the Word is God according to John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” You could even add a Verse of the Day widget your sidebar. But what if you don't have a blog in which you can easily add scripture into where the topic is not faith related?

Having a loving attitude towards others is another way we can show the love of Christ on our blogs. Do you help a reader or fellow blogger when the need arises? Jesus is known for helping others. He is the ultimate good Samaritan. Do you live hurtful or hateful comments on other blogs? Leaving rude or hateful comments is not following the commandment given to us in John 13:34, to love one another. How you deal with people goes along way in showing the Jesus' love for others and this applies in the blogging world too.

Another way to tell you readers about Christ is to use personal examples in your posts. If you are writing about the power of prayer include a story in which you asked for something in prayer and then how you saw the Lord answer your prayer one way or another. Showing how God has worked in your life is a great testimony for others to to see and hear. Maybe even consider creating a video instead of writing a blog post. A lot of times our words can be misunderstood and at times Christian principals can best be explained by speaking. When quoting scripture also consider the Bible version you are using. Some Bible versions explain a verse more clearly than others. Just remember not to choose a Bible version that changes the meaning of the verse.

No matter how you write your posts or interact with your blog readers just remember that you are representing the King of Kings, your Lord and Savior. Pray before you write and always write the truth and you can't go wrong.

How To Write Title Of Book In Essay

< H1>Essay Writing Service Illegal

If it is not argument and if the reader assumes that it is a question then definitely there is some mistake and these sorts of mistakes are mostly cannot be catch. Solution: For fragments, make sure you have a subject and a predicate. A narrative paper can also be a challenge to students because it requires a lot of time in drafting, pondering on the details significance and presenting an outline of the experience. Your personal essay should still contain the basic components of an essay like the thesis statement, body and conclusion while being creative enough to captivate an audience. It is important for your thesis statement to be clear as it serves as a sort of road map for the reader.

Before you write the essay, you are expected to think through what you will write. The last but not the least is to proofread your essay. They should have expertise in education, biology, computer and nursing to do my essay. Narrative essay is simply a personal story, and we all have at least a few of these to tell. A five-paragraphs essay which can be short or long is long enough to explain a topic, support it with details, and write a conclusion. Write My Essay Cheap write my paper with Essay 4 Students professional paper writing service. If there is any main claim or point to make, you should do it towards the end of your introduction. Read the words, listen to the words, and pick out the meaning of each word. some sites even run sales and summer blowout specials. Students use various styles when completing their assignments such as MLA, Chicago and APA. Descriptive language includes adjectives and adverbs describing words, but also figurative language.

For details on how to write the award winning essay, get "Essay 101" through here. As my friend, will always say, “Ph - D, Masters, BSC, HND without M. The reason why this is the case is because what admissions officers are looking for in the essay is information about the student’s character that cannot be captured in other parts of application. Among those companies, we are the one who is the masters of dissertation writing help as well as essay writing help. First, you may write you introduction, then the method of experiment and lastly the par of the results.

Revising your essay is detailed work involving rereading, rewriting, reviewing, rethinking, rearranging, restructuring, tightening, deleting, moving, expanding, unifying, correcting and checking. So do not be worried on who will write my essay for me within a day, or even 2 hours. I will cover all food related topics such as food and beverages, cooking tips, home cooked meals, food recipes, health and nutrition, from the simplest drinking water to baking delicious strawberry cakes. I learn from my own mistakes that I have had ample opportunity to make over these last 20 years. Quotations should be in quotation marks, with the author's name and year of writing written in brackets at the end of the quote.

We Need You!

I hope that all of our American visitors were able to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday. I know that I did. I was able to slow down and spend some much needed quiet family time. What a blessing!

If you subscribe to our newsletter you know that we put out information that we are searching for someone to volunteer for our brand-new Contributing Editor position. I realize that not everyone may receive the newsletter and so I am going to do the ol' copy and paste routine here.

"Courtney and I are busy juggling all the God has called us to: family, Faithful Bloggers, and personal businesses, as well as our blogs.  With the holidays coming up we know that in order to keep everything running smoothly we are going to need YOUR help. Please prayerfully consider volunteering for the following position:

Contributing Editor

If you've visited Faithful Bloggers at any point since our launch date you probably know that our articles are the most favorite item of our visitors. Bringing wisdom on how to ensure we stay true to our heavenly Father while blogging is an important goal that we feel is necessary. After all, that is why we began Faithful Bloggers in the first place!

To this end we are looking for someone to take on the volunteer position of Contributing Editor. We know there are many talented Christian women amongst our visitors. If you are an organized person who wants to polish off those writing skills, we would love to have you! While this is a non-pay position you will gain experience in reaching a broader group of women and you will also have the extra exposure needed to bring traffic to your own blog. You will also be included in our "About" section, receive a free Premium blog link in our blog directory, and get your very own "Contributing Editor for Faithful Bloggers" button.

If you are interested, please email us at faithfulbloggers@gmail.com ."

We know that God has a very special someone out there to help us with this. Please prayerfully consider if this may be you!

Photo credits: DeclanTM

Christian Tweeters

Are you looking for Christian twitters to follow?  I always am.  Over the weekend I saw someone tweet about Twellowship and thought I would give it a try.  Basically by signing up you agree to follow all the "VIP" members and 20 other members that have signed up.  Supposedly all the members are Christians. Signing up was easy to do, just enter your Twitter username and password.  You are then presented with a page that allows you to automatically follow the required members.  After you have follow the required number of members your Twitter profile now appears as an option for new members to follow.

The "VIP" membership is a paid option that guarantees you new followers.  You are basically paying for followers and that is not something I will do.  But as a regular member there is not a payment required but you are allowing Twellowship to send tweets out of your account every Friday about Twellowship.  I didn't care for this either.  To not have the automatic tweets sent you have to upgrade to the "VIP" membership or close your account.

I like the idea of the Twellowship but don't really care for the way it has been executed.  Have you used it and if so, what's your opinion?

Being Who God Made You to Be

One blessing of being part of God's family is that we are able to use our God-given gifts and talents for His glory. Some of us have the talent of hospitality or encouragement or service. Others are able to write effectively or paint or decorate a home beautifully. Whatever your gift is we all have them. Not one of us was made the same as another. As individuals we are truly uniquely different from any other human being.

Questions is: Have you brought that uniqueness into blogging?

If you remember my previous post on not being popular you will recall that I talked about how as Christians we probably will not be the most popular bloggers around. It is hard to not want to "be like everybody else." We want to be funny like one blogger, witty like another, a great photographer, or write in a way that makes people tweeting about it all over the place. Those things get attention and attention can make us feel good. But if we are not blogging in the style that God created us to, then really we are just being fake.

You will hear all over the place about "authenticity." But did you know that being truly authentic is really following in the path that God set for you? He wants you to use your gifts to glorify Him. Setting those aside for what you may think is better is shunning who He made you to be. Blog posts that are not a true reflection of who God made you to be reflects poorly on you and your Creator.

I recently decided to overhaul my blog. I had struggled for some time on just what kind of blogger I really was. While I have been blogging for over five years now I still hadn't quite found my niche. I felt discouraged and I did not know which direction I should take my blog. Inevitably it came about that God used some dear friends of mine to remind me to write about things that I cared about and did and what God had put in my life. I was trying to be someone different. Someone whom God had not made me to be. Of course I struggled and I still laugh at myself about that.

If you are feeling down and discouraged about blogging take a step back and examine your life. Are you truly writing in the way that you were made to write? Pray about it and ask God if you have stepped outside of the gifts He gave you. Ask a friend if you are being authentic or if you are putting on a front.

He made you different and it is wonderful.

Photo credits: Hamed Saber

Daily Posting - Monday's Challenge!

How did you do on last week's challenge? Were you able to comment daily on the same five (or more!) blogs? Commenting on a regular basis is one way to grow relationships with other bloggers.  If you would, please write a post describing how this challenge went for you. Did you find it hard? Easy? Will you continue to do this on a regular basis? Once you are done, link that post up to the Mr. Linky below! I would love to hear about your experience!

This week's challenge is almost as important! One way to keep yourself motivated in blogging is to post daily. This also encourages people who stop by your blog to continue to visit. I do this myself and have noticed a huge improvement in traffic as well as more loyal commenters.  Go ahead and take a piece of paper. Write down at least the days Monday through Friday. In each day's slot jot down what you plan on writing about.

This may be hard to do at first though for some of those more "chatty" this may be easy peasy.

Make sure to come back next Monday to share how this daily posting challenge went!  Also, we still do not have a Monday's Challenge badge to provide you with. We are working on that and will post it as soon as we are able to.

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Beginning Blogging - Do YOU Have Questions?

Courtney and I are putting together an article series for you. The focus is on answering questions from you about basic blogging techniques that maybe you are wondering about. You will hopefully learn something along the way that will help you build a stronger blog.

Because of this we would love to hear from you just what you may be wondering about? Is there something about running a blog that you need help with or is confusing you? Just what are memes? How do you handle trolls? Does social media have a place in blogging?

So go ahead and ask away!

Photo credit: cobrasoft

Comment Love - Weekly Challenge

Starting today you will find every Monday a new challenge. These challenges will help you in building up a strong blog. While the badge for this challenge is not yet ready for us to put up, we will provide it very soon. Next week will feature a new challenge. On that day you can put up a post describing how the previous week's challenge went and if you were able to accomplish your goals. Today's challenge is:

Comment daily on five blogs!

That's it! And while it is a relatively simple challenge, if you are not currently commenting on blogs regularly this is the perfect way to "make a presence" in the blogosphere. All you need to do today is pick five blogs and leave them a comment every day for the next week. Make sure you comment on the same five blogs and don't just pick five new blogs every day. Also, if you are already doing this - and I believe many of the Faithful Bloggers are - up your current daily comments by 2. That means if you are currently commenting on the same 7 blogs every day you should start the challenge at 9. [blenza_autolink]

Meet Wendy - Featured Member

Y'all are such a joy to me. Every week when I put up these Featured Member's spot I am so thankful to meet such sweet new ladies. Isn't is precious to be Sister's in Christ and to know that we belong to the family of families?

This week we introduce Wendy from Faith's Firm Foundation. Make sure to visit her blog after you read all about her!

Faith’s Firm Foundation

Hi! Thank you so much for the honor of being featured on Faithful Bloggers this week.  I guess I’ll start out by telling you a little about myself. My name is Wendy. I’m a Homeschooling mom, wife to Jerry, mother of Dane, 23, and Kelsey, 20. We’ve homeschooled from “the beginning of time.”  I’m a newbie to blogging—only since March of 2009.  I love the opportunities it’s given me and the people I’ve met!  I’m so grateful for people like Kelly and Courtney at Faithful Bloggers and I share their vision to commit your blog to the Lord and use it for His glory and purposes.  I ask God every day to lead me as I write and to lead more and more people to Faith’s Firm Foundation, as He has been doing.

I grew up in a religious, but not Christian, home.  I professed belief in Christ, while still trying to be in the driver’s seat, until I “crashed” my life, so to speak. I asked Jesus Christ to come in and take control of my life and surrendered everything to Him at the age of 19. He has been my Savior and Lord, in the driver’s seat, these past 34 years. He has shown Himself faithful in my life as my Comforter and Guide, through His Spirit and the Word, as I’ve experienced the deaths of loved ones, a miscarriage and cancer.

Titus 2:3-5 is the goal of my blog: to be a “teacher of good things,” “to teach the young women to be sober” (sober = to have a sound mind, be disciplined and correct), “to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet” (discreet = safe/sound in mind, moderate as to opinion or passion/self-controlled), “chaste” (chaste = freedom from defilements or impurities), “keepers at home” (keepers at home = one who looks after domestic affairs with prudence and care), “good, obedient to their own husbands, that the Word of God be not blasphemed.”  I do this through writing on themes like showing Hospitality, Homeschooling and organization tips, and my own experiences, but also by connecting my readers with Godly people and great books through interviews, reviews and an aStore.

I am so blessed to be a stay-at-home mom--I love it—and want to help women by coming alongside as a friend and mentor, because God has blessed me so much through other women in my life. I love people and meeting new friends from all over the world which is one of the many blessings I’ve experienced through blogging. It is such a pleasure and honor to be featured today. Thank you so much!

Bible Based Wordpress Plugins

Hey Christian bloggers I have a question for you.  Are you blogging the bible? For those of us who blog about Christian and faith related topics it is easy for us to do so.  We quote scripture in almost every post.  For those who do not, it can be as simple as just adding you favorite Bible verse to your header, sidebar, or footer.  For you bloggers that use Wordpress as your blogging platform I have found some pretty neat Bible based plugins that make it easy for you to include Bible verses on your blog.

1. Favorite Bible Verse - This plugin allows you to random display a list of your favorite Bible verses.  In the admin panel for the plugin you add you favorite Bible verses and it will automatically display them for you randomly on your blog.
2. Bible Verse 1.0 - This WordPress plugin lets you search for and embed Bible passages directly onto your blog post.
3. Bible Text - This plugin automatically adds the full text of any Bible passage to your Wordpress post/page in your choice of Bible version and language.
4. Bible Reading Plan - This plugin places a different Bible passage in your sidebar each day. It takes you through the Bible in a year.
5. The Holy Scripturizer - Scripturizer uses PHP-based filtering to automatically convert Bible references in your posts, pages, and comments into hyperlinks which point to major online Bible websites, such as the Bible Gateway, NET Bible, the ESV Bible, and others.
6. eBibleicious - After installing and configuring the plugin options you just continue blogging and all posts past, present and future with Bible references in them will be linked to eBible.com.
7. WP-Bible - WP-Bible searches your posts and pages for any reference to a Bible passage and converts the reference to an actual biblical text - which can be any of the 38 translations (in 14 different languages) that you can see at BIBLIJA.net.

Those of you on Blogger don't worry.  Next week I will have a post all about how you can add Bible verses easily to your blog too.

Is Your Blog "Established?"

"And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands." -Psalm 90:17

Recently this verse especially spoke to me while I was reading God's word. You see, I have a problem called tryingtodoitonmyownitis. Perhaps you can relate? I see something that looks interesting and I start making plans and lists and goals. I set my sights on achieving my goal and away I go. As I am going on my merry way I usually stumble and fall. Picking my bruised self up I attempt to try again. As always I fall again and soon I am complaining about why everything is going wrong.

When this happens it is usually because I have forgotten something: my attempts and goals and dreams must be established by God. Going at it on my own will never be a successful venture. He created my life, and He ordains it and sustains it. Everything is guided through His hands and I can either willingly follow or muddle up my journey with human attempts.

Now since this is a web site dedicated to blogging I will speak specifically about that. However this is a godly concept that needs to be applied to all of life so keep that in mind. And just for a little background we'll go ahead and look up in Noah Webster's handy-dandy 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language just what "establish" means.

"Set; fixed firmly; founded; ordained; enacted; ratified; confirmed."

Do you remember the podcast with Sarah Mae? She touched upon in an eloquent way how our blogs need to be given over to Him. And what she said was plain truth. If you have not dedicated your blog, your words, your posts and pictures to Him what are you truly trying to accomplish?

We must give our everything, including our blogs, over to Him. He will direct you where to go with your blog. Read His word daily and make sure you are writing according to how He would have you write. Pray about it. Pray about it some more.  Ask our heavenly Father if your blog is accomplishing what He wants it to accomplish. Talk to Him. Give your blog over and say "Here it is, Father! You can have it! Show me what to do."

I would go so far as to say that each and every time you write a post you need to pray that God will give order and foundation to what you are about to write. (And yes, I am doing that with this post. Promise!)

In the end, this is all for His glory.

Photo credits: djweitzner

Meet Loren - Featured Member

This week we have the privilege of meeting Loren from The Magoos News!  Make sure to take the time to stop by her blog and leave her some comment love.

*************************************************************************

1.Tell us a little bit about you and your family.

I am a SAHM and a Noni (grandma) I have been married to my husband for 19 years and we have 3 beautiful children, the oldest being from his first marriage ~ but mine none the less :)  My husband is an Executive for the Nations 2nd largest Appliance Parts Distributor. He spoils me rotten, makes me laugh pretty much every day and doesn't mind when I blog about his silliness! But honestly, God truly made him JUST for ME!  Our oldest daughter is married to Casey and they blessed us with our first grandchild last December.  Our middle daughter is a junior in highschool and is an athletic trainer and an aspiring photographer and witty like her Father. Our youngest is 12 going on 80. Just kidding but seriously, he is a young man with an old soul. He loves life! He is entreprenuer ~ He has started his own company making dog treats and also takes cooking classes at a local Gourmet cooking school. Up until last May I was a Hair Stylist. After much prayer  we felt the Lord was leading me to step out from doing hair. I fought HIM tooth and nail but now I see and I praise HIM that I am able to be at home fulltime!

2. Would you share a little of your testimony with us?

I have to say that I didn't know the Lord until I was married and we had our daughter. When she was born I knew I wanted to raise my children knowing the Lord and living for HIM.  I went to church with a friend one Sunday and the next week I asked my husband to go with me and we have grown in our walk and deeper in love with the Lord ever since!  I am a Faith girl! I learned early on in my walk that I have a strong Faith ~ like mustard seed and mountain moving Faith ~ I know it is a gift from the Lord. Personally, I think a testimony is a continual thing :) I am a firm believer that God is never done growing, healing, and changing us from glory to glory.

3. Why did you start blogging?

Ha! Well, I started because a friend of mine (Nicole) had a blog and she shared her love of blogging with me so I thought "hmmm, I want to learn how to do that!" I thought it would be a great way to share our lives with my family but again the Lord had other plans. HE has shown me clearly the scripture... "In his heart a man plans his course but the Lord determines his steps" (Prov 16:9) I walked into blogging to share pictures and events of our kids with our family on a daily basis, but the Lord directed me to so many who have given me and my family an unbelievable amount of support, love, friendships and prayers ~ OH MY! Bloggers are prayer warriors in the most amazing form! I have grown in HIM and seen HIM move through various posts that I read and/or participate in.

4. How long have you been blogging?

My first blog post was January 15, 2009 so a little more than 10 months!

5. What are your favorite things to blog about? Why?

I love to blog about my family and the funny things that they do! This week was a perfect example of that with my husband cleaning out the coat closet and my son having different dress up days at school. They know now that if I take a picture it could very well be on my blog!

I am grateful to participate in three meme's. Thankful Thursdays(host varies month to month), Friday Funnies (by Kim,last weeks featured member) and Spiritual Sundays (by Charlotte and Ginger). These are all hosted by such precious women and I love watching them grow each and every week.

I blog about my Dad. He was diagnosed with lung cancer this past May. I have seen the move of God in His people like you can't believe. Prayers buttons, Prayer blogs for him and even more than that they have sent him cards filled with love, prayers and encouragement that have touched him and my stepmom beyond what words could ever say. I know it would have been so hard to make it through this without the Lord allowing me this blog and these amazing prayer-filled friends.

My Favorite subject to post on would definately be about families, specifically our personalities and most importantly, encouraging women in marriage. I seek the Holy Spirit and am led to post at times about some very deep issues ie; Spiritual Head of the Household, Infidelity etc.  but other days it is light-hearted and encouraging and hopefully fun.

I love to post my book reviews! I am an avid reader and because of blogging I have been able to review books for a couple of publishing companies! How awesome is that! When I left doing hair It broke my heart because that was my ministry but in blogging the opportunities to minister come in so many different ways!

Not Popular

Blogging is an exciting, challenging world.  One can learn much from those who write about experiences.  You are also able to share and encourage and shine for Jesus in a way that has the capacity to reach people all over the world.  I don't know about you but I find that pretty exciting!

Something that might quickly come to your attention is the fact that there are bloggers who are more popular and those who are, well, not popular.  This is an unfortunate consequence of living in a sinful world.  The good news is that you do not have to be popular in order to spread the Good News!

We are called to be different.  As Christians we must reject worldliness and change our sinful desires to holy ones.

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." -Romans 12:2

This should be reflected in blogging.  Our faith should be evident whether or not we are writing specifically about God's word or are just sharing stories of our lives.  Our blogs will be different because of this.

So what does this have to do with being popular? (Yes, there really is a correlation!)  Simply this: strive not to be in the popular crowd.  It may feel good to be a blogger who everyone wants to meet.  A blogger in which companies are scrambling to get your attention.  A blogger in which a crowd follows whenever you are at a blogging conference.

But in the end, that is not what matters.  Being a Christian blogger will probably put you in the category that will not get all of the attention.  And that is okay.  God says that we belong to Him.  Wow!  I don't know about you but that is all the reward I want.

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." -1 Peter 2:9

Photo credit: lusi

Should You Join Sponsored Tweets?

There has been a lot of talk lately about making money on Twitter with sponsored tweets. While there are a couple different sites that offer you money for placing ads in your tweets, the one I have been reading about lately is Sponsored Tweets by IZEA.

Before I blogged about them and shared with you all my opinion, I wanted to give the site a test drive. Signing up for the site was very easy. You simply authorize Sponsored Tweet access to your Twitter account. You also have the option of signing up by email. Sponsored Tweet notifies you via Direct Message when you have offers, when your tweets have been approved, and when you have been paid.

My main concern about tweeting ads is being able to maintain my honesty and Christian character. I don't want an ad to undermine my testimony on Twitter. As Karin said in a guest post, "When we call ourselves Christians we are representing our Lord in all that we do and all that we say."

So I really liked that I am able to decline ads and actually write my own ad through Sponsored Tweets. With the ability to write my own tweet ad for the product I am able to make sure it is something I would actually say, it is the truth, and is not jeopardizing my testimony in any way. This is a BIG plus for me in using Sponsored Tweets.

Overall, I like Sponsored Tweets. It automatically adds a disclosure hashtag to all tweets so that you

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are FTC compliant and transparent. The only aspect I do not like is that you have to have $50 in your account before you can cash out. From the average rates of ads I have gotten that would take me about 25 ads to accomplish. It's not get rich quick scheme that's for sure.

Have you used Sponsored Tweets? If so, what did you think?

Show #5 - Continuing our interview with Debbie Pendell

For today's podcast we have the second installment of our interview with Debbie Pendell from DebbiePendell.com.  Today Debbie talks to us about managing our blog as a business and gives us some great tips.

Meet Kim - Featured Member

I have been thoroughly enjoying meeting you ladies through Featured Members Friday.  What a blessing to experience the many different, yet wonderful, personalities.  This week we are happy to introduce you to Kim from Homesteader's Heart.

************************************ 1.Tell us a little bit about you and your family. I have a wonderful husband to whom I've been married to for 13 glorious years and 3 great kids, 1 girl and 2 boys. We live on a barrier island on the east coast of Florida. I am a SAHM and homeschool our children. God has been very good at providing for our family so I am able to do that. My husband is an electrician and all around hunky handy man. I so love being married to some one who can take my ideas and build them for me! LOL. My children are a joy and keep me laughing and praying all at the same time!

2. Would you share a little of your testimony with us?

I asked Jesus into my heart at age 7. I started to do my own thing at the age of 16 and thought I knew what was best for my life. I look back now and realize how incredibly selfish I was and how many wrong decisions I made because of it. When I met my husband we both knew that we couldn't do life or marriage without the Lord as our head so we both rededicated our lives back to Him and have been going strong ever since. I love Him with all of my heart and realize my need for Him on a daily basis. He has been so good to me and I am yet so undeserving.

3. Why did you start blogging?

This may sound crazy but I had never heard of a blog until I watched this movie where they mentioned a blog and being a blogger. It was like a foreign language to me, so I decided to see what it was all about and I haven't looked back since. I'm hooked and the blog world is stuck with me!

4. How long have you been blogging?

I've been blogging for a total of 2 1/2 years now. Wow, where does the time go? Just don't go back in my archives because I'm sure I've repeated myself on many points by now! LOL

5. What are your favorite things to blog about? Why?

I love to make people laugh and my life seems to offer up the perfect opportunities, and then I just share them on my blog. People seem to really like laughing "with" me. If you look at my left sidebar you'll see that I like to post about a lot of things. It really does change on a day to day basis. I kind of take it as it comes and then just go with it. So far it doesn't seem to drive people to crazy! Or maybe they like crazy! Either way I blog what I like and like what I blog! LOL. I do host a Friday Funnies each week. It's your opportunity to link up YOUR funny and share it with everyone. We have a really good time with that and everyone gets a good laugh to end the week on. And that's about it I guess. It's hard to talk about yourself without sounding prideful, so I hope it was boring enough to be humble but exciting enough to keep you interested! LOL Oy! Yup! This is pretty much what my blog is all about!

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Please make sure to visit Kim and give her some comment love over at Homesteader's Heart.  Also head on over to 5 Minutes for Mom for more Say it Forward links!