Good evening everyone, I hope you guys are enjoying your weekend so far. I know I am. I am writing again after a weird short break from writing. This wasn’t really a break as it was taking time to understand the season that I was in. It has been a season of re-establishing my identity, my calling, my purpose, my understanding of the different lessons God will help us get through that I needed to learn from and experience as I advance unto the next level.
This picture is taken from my new poem called: The Beloved. it’s about a woman finding her self-value and worth.
Have you ever been through a season, where you start losing pleasure in everything you do? From your work, to writing, to purpose, to disengaging in relationships, with how you look and communicate and many more? Well, I know some of you have and know exactly what I am talking about. That’s called burnt out, and not taking enough time to rest mentally, spiritually or physically, so finally your body takes things into its own hands with symptoms that you don’t desire nor want. I experienced a bit of depression, stress, pressure, lack of motivation lack of pleasure, fear, and of-course exhaustion of the body and the mind.
Me meeting Heather and Cornelius Lindsey at their London Revival Tour. I loved it and it was lovely hanging out with Heather.
I have good news for you though, if you cling onto the lord he won’t let you down and will reveal what the issue is as well as what the solution and God did exactly that for me. He reminded me that no matter the victories and the work that needs to be done; my wellbeing: emotional, mental, spiritual need to come first and I need to be well so I can help others- So hence the long break, though I have been active on social media I just needed a break from the hard labour of writing, preaching, so that when I do come back, it is with wholeness of mind and emotions not burn out.
So, you are wondering what I did- well I cut back on what I attended, I went out with my sister, went to the cinema, visited Richmond Pier, had a Cupcake, went to the theatre to watch the Matilda the Musical, I also joined hundreds of people at the Lindsey’s revival tour which I joined and as time as gone on I am getting back to being myself again. But the most important thing I stopped doing or was not doing much of is spending time with God and meditating/Confessing his word daily.
I met up with an old friend of 15 years for a catch up: and we refreshed each other with the word of God. @Lydia, I LOVE YOU
Sometimes, we became successive, feel so good and we forget the principle we lived by to get to that point and as always if we stop doing the right thing we will get the wrong results. Like I say in all my blog, ensure you spend time with the lord on a regular basis, love him, and feed on his word so that your spirit is not malnourished. When you meditate on the word of God- it feeds your spirit and keeps you strong through lives challenges, victories, changes and seasons.
Matilda the Musical was amazing- great way to do something for myself.
Anyway, how have you been? How is life treating you. I hope you haven’t been as silly as I have been running myself exhausted. I want you to know that you are worthy, and amazing, you are incredible and there’s so much you can do on this world to make a difference to others and to yourself. So, seek the lord, ask him to grace and strengthen you for the journey and he is faithful to do it for you.
The word of God has been healing to my soul, mind and Body. its life itself
Okay so its blogging time. A lot of have been asking about blogging- and how one can start blogging or simply how one becomes a writer and since I have been getting the same questions for months I thought it best to do a blog on it- this is the first blog I have written in a while. So, let’s move along to how to blog. Whoever you are; whatever you feel like you want to blog about you need to have a purpose and a vision behind your blog.
- Have a Vision and a Purpose
Why do you want to blog, who do you wish to reach and for what reason? What difference will your blog make to those that read it. You need to know why you were born, what purpose did God give you on this earth to accomplish and how does blogging fit into it- I am assuming that you are led by God to write this blog. Let me give you a little background behind why I blog. In 2014- I discovered by purpose. God showed me that I was born to help people, young people and children value themselves. I always had a desire to talk, communicate, encourage others, as well as become a writer but I did not have a purpose or vision behind it so the drive was never there. However, once I found my purpose and my vision, I had passion, inspiration and a message behind my blogs which gave me more fulfilment and the holy spirit helped me along the way.
So, what were you born to do, why were you created? Do you know that it was for a purpose? That you are not just merely here to live and die but to be a world changer, and history marker? Do you know what God will equip and empower you to do what he calls you to do? Let me back it up with scripture. Philippians 4:13 AMP: tells you and me, the following:
“I can do all things [which He has called me to do] through Him who strengthens and empowers me [to fulfill His purpose—I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency; I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses me with inner strength and confident peace.”
God has you covered- ask him why his wants you to blog, ask him the purpose for your blogs, and who to blog to, ask him who he desires for you to reach and believer me he will help you. I recommend you also read and listen to messages on purpose. I recommend Myles Munroe’s book the Power of Vision. It changed my life after I read it and it was during that week of fasting and pray while reading this book that I discovered my purpose.
I READ THIS BOOK AND IT CHANGED MY LIFE- IT WILL CHANGE YOURS AS WELL.
2. Have a Audience in mind
Now that you have discovered your purpose, find out from God who he wants you to reach. For me at first although I desired to reach adults but he led me to work with children and young people and there was a reason for that. So for a while, I blogged for teenagers, shared my experiences and even went into schools to speak to young people about their strengths. However my audience is for all, especially women, even though my blogs are not gender based, I find myself at times writing to address my sisters, and women in Christ because of the stage of womanhood I am in now. Then there times when I blog generally and its for everyone. So, the Holy Spirit will lead and guide- listen to him because he knows your purpose and vision more than you after all he Is the one that created it. as he says in Ephesians 2:10 that:
For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us].
Do you see why it is important to know your purpose? Everything follows after that. And who better to ask than the creator of the universe, who loves you so much. He says to you in Jeremiah 1:5, “I knew you before you were formed within your mother’s womb; before you were born I sanctified you and appointed you as my spokesman to the world.” If he knew you, then he knows who you are to reach and how to reach them, he knows the blogs you need to blog and how they will impact you. Yes, there are a lot of bloggers out there but you are different, you will and do stand out because God has called you and anointed you for such time as this.
3. Write a list of blogs you want to write.
If you are called, and when God has called you to do something he will give you ideas and it is not always in a place where you have your laptop, so I would recommend that the moment God gives you an idea, write it down so you can remember it. Also writing it down will help make your vision for the blog more concrete. It shows you the ideas that God have deposited in you. You could make a schedule of when you want to blog, this will help you to develop a habit of writing and discipline so that it becomes a regular thing for you. You will discover however that as you do that on a regular basis you will slowly find your voice and a writing style will become natural to you. That is what happened to me. I blogged for about 6-12 months where I finally discovered my writing style and voice. I discovered I was quite funny, yet very open and transparent as well as anointed to write. So I encourage to write your ideas down and start.
4. Find out what you like to write/blog about. what you are passionate about
When I started blogging, I did not always write in the context of faith. I did not know at the time that God had called me to preach the gospel, but it became natural to me than it was not to. The reason for this is I find it natural, but it does not mean that you have to preach necessarily although your readers can know what you believe. It was so natural to me and it helped me to discover my purpose and my voice in the family of faith. Some of you care about eating healthy, animals, the environment, style, exercise, women, marriage, dating, faith and many more. So now you can ask yourself, what I am passionate about and why, and how can I convey it through my blog?
Then write that down as well. What are you passionate about? what changes do you desire to make in the world and why? why do people need to read your blog. Your readers need to feel as if you are in-front of them helping them out with their situation, they need to feel your passion and desire to help them. When they can see and feel that through your blogs, you wont have to worry about them coming back to read your blog. You could blog about what you have learned about life so far. You could write based on what has inspired you. I am often inspired by God and what he has done for me, and at times it is not necessarily a blog so I have a poetry section on my website where I write down inspiration from the Holy Spirit. This leads me to the next point.
5. Just start- Choose a platform
I started blogging around 2013- before I discovered by purpose, but I knew I was supposed to blog and eventually become a writer, I just needed more direction so I researched a few blogging platforms where I could have an account and blog for free. Especially for those of you who don’t have £200 or more to put up your own website; these blogging websites which houses many users are great for starters and those who want to test the waters for while. Free Blogging sites to try:
- WordPress.com (online) …
- Blogger. …
- Tumblr. …
- Medium. …
- Ghost. …
- Squarespace. …
- Wix
I was blessed that I had the money eventually to create my own website from the vision God had given me. God showed me spiritually what I could do and how it should look, he showed me what to include and how it linked in with my overall purpose, gifting and talents. So if you have some money to spare- create your own and hire someone you trust to create a blog for you, take your time so that you create something that is of the spirit. As you prepare write, write and keep writing, don’t wait for a perfect time to create, you need to create it and do it, that way once your blog is up you can just put your blogs on other. Your web developer should ensure your website is protected from hackers, from copyright, from wrong comments, update regularly e.t.c. you can decide to approve the comments if you wish; include your social media links and make sure that your hosting, domain and c panel are renewed annually or you can pay in advance for a number of years that you like if you fell like you will forget to renew annually. Follow these web developers that designed my website: http://cedardesign.co.uk/
6. Proof Read your work and share it
Finally, Proof read your work over and over again. This is something I need to work on greatly. I know some of you have said my blogs need proof reading and I am planning on getting time out to read thoroughly all through them to make some corrections. Maybe ask someone else to read it or read it out loud, and again after you have made the correction. You have a gift but that gift can be down sided if there are so many mistakes that the readers lose focus on what you are trying to say. I am going to work on it and I hope you do too. I hope this has helped and you enjoyed yourself reading my blog.
Love Sarah
