When I first started blogging, I didn’t know how it would greatly influence me. I started out hoping to influence many and in the process, I was the one who had been pruned, and fertilized. I was developed at the same time that my blog evolved.
My first blog, which was with a free host was very simple. But to me, it was a dream come true of having a website of my own. I was very new at blog design and templates and CSS codes that compared to the many other looks my blog achieved, it looked so simple and ordinary, even corny at times when I look back. But even then, it was a big leap for me. And I learned many things from then.
What’s more important however, are not the technical things I’ve learned, though I’ve learned so much in there. What’s significant are the life changing lessons blogging taught me:
- I’ve learned that sharing is crucial to learning. At first, I was afraid to share my best articles. There was a fear that it might be copied, stolen or plagiarized. But then I realized that there is really no worth to what I’ve written if I cannot share it with others who may benefit from it. So I wrote prayers, inspiring poems and healing articles which I hope to comfort even the most downtrodden people. My first readers were the sick, the hurting, the grieving. I connected with them, through my writings, even if they haven’t even met me in person. Words truly have power, and words must be uttered, written, shared in order for it to bring forth its fruits.
- I’ve learned that if one truly desires to live in full, one must welcome change and move on. The first theme of my blog was okey, it reached the audience my writing spoke to at that time. But then later on, an old friend gave me a feedback that my blog was a sad blog. I knew it was, for I had the sorrowful in my heart when I wrote most of the articles there. Yet I learned that even sadness has a season, and the people I desired to comfort should not remain in their sadness forever. They must move on, they will move on. I’ve realized that comforting them in their darkest hours was only a part of my prayers for them. The second part is how to reach their joy, how to protect it, how to expand it endlessly as God’s beloved children were meant to experience.
- I’ve learned that I was hiding myself just like the templates I initially used, which were dark and not so easy to understand. I was deep. But I was not easy to read. I was mysterious, but mystery is nothing if it could not reach the people whose lives you’d really want to touch. You can’t stay in heaven if you want to be of use to earth. You have to go down that dark valley so you can help people living in the darkness find their way up to heaven as well.
- The time I spent developing my blog was also the time I relearned my life principles. As my blog evolved, I passed through stages of questioning my life principles, setting my core beliefs, strengthening them, and now, of applying them in real life.
- I’ve learned that there is always room for growth. When I reached writing 300 articles, I thought it was the end, that I couldn’t share or write anything anymore. But I was wrong. As I write today, I have this good feeling – that I’ve only just begun. 🙂
When blogging, you don’t have to think you’re writing for the whole world. Think that you’re writing to one person, and one person is a whole universe of significance which God has given you.