At the end of February I began the journey from moving from Blogger to WordPress. I say journey because that is exactly what it was – a journey. A journey that just ended at the end of March.
Photo Credit: Creative Commons
Now for those of you who are tech-savvy and knowledgeable in all things computer, count your blessings. That is one skill that I wish I had because it would make life a whole lot easier (and cheaper). But even though I have learned a lot over the past few years blogging, there are some things I am still not comfortable with and moving my whole blog to another platform without knowing what the heck I’m really doing in not one of them. It takes me a long time to figure out just the smallest online tasks, and even then I usually have a hiccup. The threat of losing everything was enough for me to hire someone without a second thought.
And so that’s what I did.
I hired a person who was recommended, has a beautiful website, seems very talented (and I’m sure she is), AND was half the price of what I expected to pay. Bingo! She landed the grand prize for the job.
Except that the job ended up being bigger than what she expected – I think. I am assuming she is better at designing than the really techy stuff. As days turned into weeks with glitch after glitch, finally communication stopped. Yes, stopped, and my blog was in an upheaval and not completed. It’s hard to get someone to respond to an email when that’s the only form of communication you have – no phone number, no address (not that I would really pay a visit), nothing. And so I was stuck.
Luckily, the wonderful, wonderful women at DIY Ministry – Lisa Boyd and Amy Bayliss – came to my rescue. I know that sounds dramatic, but that’s truly what it was – a rescue. Come to find out my blog was in more of a shambles that I had known. (Blogger even contacted me saying that they were deleting the blogspot URL because they found malicious code? or something?) It became a bit of a nightmare.
So my advice for moving from Blogger to WordPress?
1. Don’t go with the most inexpensive business to do the migration.
2. Ask for references that you can contact.
3. Request daily emails or updates on how the migration is progressing, and when it is expected to be complete.
Are you considering making the move? What questions do you have? Or if you’ve made the move from Blogger to WordPress, what is your advice?
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We stood in the chapel on the sixth floor of Duke University Hospital. Hands clasped, heads bowed, and eyes closed. The circle tight – there were seven of us in all, some related by blood and some related by spirit – our hearts focused as one.
Each person’s turn shared the same begging to God – please help John recover from his heart transplant, please help his organs wake up, please let him wake up, please don’t let him die.
Then it was my sister-in-law’s turn – John’s sister. She prayed for all of these miracles just like the rest of us, and then she prayed for something extra – something a little more. She prayed for new life – not of the soul kind or of the life-span kind, but of flesh and blood, a new life that may just possibly come from this man who lay down the hall with a different heart in his chest than the one that was there the day before.
“Please, Lord” , she asked, “please, bless Brenda and John with a baby one day. Maybe even many babies”.
And there in the depths of despair and feelings of hopelessness there was hope.
So through the next several weeks when I sat daily in the same chapel on the sixth floor, alone and quiet, I, too, began to pray for a flesh-and-blood life to come out from the new heart John received.
Today that child is here with me in this room tucked deep inside my womb, a prune length size, only eleven weeks old.
We’re going to have a baby . . . The miracles continue . . .
The man whose life ended abruptly, without warning or hint that his time had come, gave his heart to John to live some years longer here with me. And now, that same heart made it possible to create a brand new life – of the flesh and blood and soul kind. Who knows how much more life his heart left behind will create as it now pounds in John’s chest.
And our donor’s family. How I wish I knew them by name. Just to show them how their selflessness in the middle of agonizing grief produced miracles – more than we can count.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your continuous grace upon our lives and for giving us the precious gift of this baby. We give you every ounce of the praise, glory, and honor.
The month of April is Donate Life Month. Are you registered to be an organ donor? I encourage you to please consider it. I am happy to answer any questions you may have based on our experience. You can email me at brenda@brendarodgers.com. And please visit Donate Life America for more information.
So now I begin preparing to be a mommy. I can’t wait to share this new journey with you. I know I will need more of your words of wisdom than my words here can give, so please offer them graciously! And if you have a spare prayer, we would be most grateful for prayers for our sweet child!
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A little over a month ago I decided it was time to take a blogging break, and so for the past month Triple Braided has been somewhat of a ghost blog except for a few wonderful guest bloggers. (If you did not have a chance to read their posts, they are great reads, and I am so blessed to have them featured. You can check them out here: A Long Distance Love Story Part 1 and Part 2, The Thief of Joy, and What are the Desires of Our Hearts as Single Women?
Photo Credit: Creative Commons: Baddog_
So why a blogging break?
Back in January God revealed to me that my One Word for 2012 needed to be Focus – something that I have an extremely hard time doing. I am the girl who goes into the kitchen to clean out the pantry then decides to organize the spices. And after walking into the garage to search for that one plastic basket that would be great to use to organize the spices, starts cleaning out the Christmas decorations. Needless to say, focus is hard for me, and I end up with my hand in a dozen unfinished projects feeling unaccomplished, overwhelmed, and scattered.
The same has been true for blogging and writing. I began blogging for fun. Then it became therapy as I processed my husband’s sickness and heart transplant. At that point I realized how much I love to write and found myself writing in my head constantly. And I realized what influence people can have in the world through their words. I wanted to be a part of that. First because I loved it, and also because I could see a bigger picture. Quickly I learned that blogging and writing is hard work when you’re serious about it. Since I did not go into it seriously my hand was in a dozen blogging projects and ideas without any focus. It was time for me to get focused, ask God about His will for this space, and commit to only working on those goals.
How a Blogging Break Helped Me
During the time that I took away from blogging a big event transpired in my life. I cannot wait to share it with you, but today’s not the day. I am going to reveal that news later this week. But with this news my world changed pretty drastically. It opened up into a whole new realm. A realm that I was not used to considering or thinking about or all of a sudden being passionate about.
The problem became that this new world did not fit into the place where I thought God was calling me in the blogging world. And there was no way to make it fit. I struggled with making my present fit into what I feel so strongly about from my past – my single years – and helping young women make wiser choices in this season of life.
I went back to God and asked Him again where all these places from my life – the past and the present with all the passion that I have for both – fit into Triple Braided . They are me, so I want to share them and talk about them and learn more about them. He revealed to me how to make all the seasons of my life fit.
I discovered my blogging niche.
I read over and over again that blogging is not for you, the writer. I read that it really has nothing to do with the writer, and no one really cares about that person behind the keyboard. Blogging is about your readers. It is important to constantly think about your readers’ wants and needs and not your own.
I agree with this, and I want blogging to be about others and not about me. I want to use it as a ministry to maybe, just maybe, encourage, inspire, and give hope to women who read these words. But then I find myself getting too focused on others and stats and “bigger bloggers” and what more I should be doing. And again, I lose my focus.
I also want to be an upside-down blogger as Ann Voskamp so beautifully wrote about in a Blogger’s Prayer. After all, shouldn’t my whole life be upside-down, only looking to God with surrendered eyes? I want this space to be filled only with thoughts, ideas, and words that bring Him glory and point myself and others back to Him – thinking only of pleasing the One who gives me breath.
If He is the One my eyes are fixed on, then of course they will also be fixed on others. After all, He called me to love Him and love others. Being an upside-down blogger satisfies my need to please my readers.
But there was a piece of the purpose that God revealed to me even further as I focused on my place in the blogging world. Yes, I write for Him. And yes, I write for others. But I discovered another way God is using this blog in my life.
I discovered that He uses my writing to heal me.
“He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings utter darkness into the light.” Job 12:22
Through my writing God searches my heart (Psalm 139:23) and brings to light not just sin in my life, but the connection of dots between my struggles and my past. And as I search scripture to verify my thoughts, He reveals truth to me.
So maybe for some reasons I do write for myself, not directly, but indirectly so that God can continue to use it to bring my dark places to light. Dark places that I may never even reveal to the readers, but the places that I know about, the places that have become my holes.
The Temptation During Breaking
Over the past month I have kept loosely involved with the blog world. I have read some other blogs and participated some on Facebook. There were times that I wondered if taking a break was a bad idea. Were my readers going to stop reading? Was it going to be too hard to “catch up”? Would I miss out on some opportunities?
The answer to each of these questions is yes. Taking a break is risky, and it does require sacrifice. I focused on focusing – focusing on what was best for my family, my readers, and most importantly God. There were times when I missed out on participating in link-ups or writing exercises or guest posts, but by focusing I came out of it with a clearer purpose and a calmer spirit.
I am happy that my blogging break has ended, and I am excited to see all that God has in store for the future of Triple Braided. If you haven’t noticed I moved from Blogger to WordPress which was a feat in and of itself. (I will write more about that soon too!) This week I will also be sharing my new purpose for Triple Braided and some very exciting news. I hope you will join me!
Have you ever felt called to take a break from something – blogging or otherwise? What did you learn from the experience? Tell us about it in the comments below.
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The truth came out when I was about twelve years old. My mom thought I was an ugly baby. Well, at the time she didn’t. At the time she thought I was the most beautiful baby that ever was born – of course – just like moms are supposed to think.
But when I was twelve she said to me, “I didn’t think so at the time, but now when I look back at pictures I think to myself, ‘She really was an ugly baby!’”
It truly didn’t offend me. I don’t know why because if she told me I was an ugly teenager I would have lost my mind. I guess I felt like I had no control over being a pretty baby. But a teenager? Much time, effort, and fretting was spent being pretty then.
But when did I really become pretty?
Was it the day I was born?
Did I become pretty after trying hard to look that way?
Was it when my mom told me I was pretty or when she truly thought of me as pretty?
Or maybe it’s that year I lost a little bit of weight and boys started talking to me?
Was that when I became pretty?
For years pretty did not look back at me when I glanced in the mirror. Frizzy hair. Flabby arms. Oil slick skin. Wide calves. Last year’s clothes. Or the never changing barely 60 inches. It was always something.
Then there was that one day that I caught my reflection as I walked by the mirror. I did a double-take, glancing again.
Pretty was staring back at me.
Did my mom change her mind and realize that I truly was a pretty baby? Had I tried harder that morning and succeeded at being pretty that day? Or somewhere out there were there boys that were daydreaming about my beauty?
The day I became pretty was the day I saw myself that way.
Nothing had changed on the outside. It was my mind that chose to see differently. I began to see the creation that was woven so intricately together, thread after thread. And I began to honor the Creator.
You see, a creation is-what-it-is. We cannot not add value to it or take it away. It’s only how the person chooses to see it that makes it something different.
You are a valuable creation whose worth has been set.
Today choose to see yourself as pretty.
How do those words leave you feeling?
Triple Braided is a ministry for single women to bring peace and wisdom
while preparing for marriage and living a life surrendered to God.
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It started on Pinterest. I’m semi-addicted. Can you relate? Each night now my wind down time is going through new pins of the people I follow to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
That’s when I saw this pin:
Really? I am a INFJ (Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging) or I have introverted intuition with extroverted feeling.
But am I really artistic and creative? Is my world full of hidden meanings and possibilities?
I have taken countless personality tests and temperament quizzes and spiritual gifts analyses. I am quite in tuned with my inner self and the places I shine along with the places I hide. So I thought . . .
I clicked over to the website just to see what else it had to say about this INFJ . . . and my mind came together to a single point. Finally I made sense. Everything written described me, even the innermost parts that I can’t verbalize.
But it’s what I read next that helped me to understand a struggle I have lived with for a long time – only 1-3% of people are INFJs.
You see, rarely do I feel understood. Even as a little girl I felt like I lived in a different world with different thoughts and a different view than the people who lived around me.
I always felt different. Probably not in an overtly weird way, even though I’m sure some people think I’m weird. I am able to mold myself pretty easily into what’s expected of me. But in a something-just-isn’t-the-same-about-me way.
This affects my decisions. I’m always second-guessing myself. It affects my convictions. I care too much about what other people think of me. It affects my relationships. It is hard for me to accept that you really “get it”.
I am exhausted living this way.
My scavenger hunt on Pinterest led me to further “evidence” that I’m just as I should be – who God created me to be. I’m a real personality – INFJ – and I’m unique – I’m one of 1-3%. I have permission to continue being misunderstood or different or weird. Through it God wants to use me.
Of course every year I hear the hymn “O, Holy Night” over and over again on the radio and in church just like everyone else. It has become so familiar that it’s just like any other song or rhyme I learned as a child and can recite at any moment’s notice.
However this year, for possibly the first time, which is sad to say, I heard the words for their meaning and not just as rote memory. Ever since there has been one line that I cannot get out of my head. I replay this one line over and over, and during the past month it has become one with such sweet, precious, profound meaning for me.
‘Til He appear’d and the soul felt its worth.
When Jesus appeared the soul felt its worth! Wow! I’ve thought about the people who lived during the time right before and at Jesus’s birth, and how they “pined”for him as the hymn says. There is no describing how they must have felt as they waited and prayed for the promise that God had given them that their Savior would come. I am sure that many times they questioned whether he really would come and even questioned whether they were worthy of a Savior coming.
And then He came. And their souls felt their worth. They knew they were worthy.
Today, just like then, the only thing that every soul wants is to feel worth. In my desperate efforts to gain worth from all that’s around me, this simple line of this old Christmas hymn has reminded me of the only place I will find authentic worth, a worth that does not waver based on my actions, emotions, moods, or thoughts or based on anybody else, but a worth that is solid, never changing, and unconditional.
That is with Jesus. Jesus has come. He has come to earth. He has come to be live in me. And now I can feel my worth. This hymn has been a blessed reminder of God’s proof to me of how much He loved me and every soul He created.
“O Holy Night”
O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining, ‘Til He appear’d and the soul felt its worth.
This post is from the archives originally published on 12/24/09.
