Blogging beginner | Anna Mann

New thing number 632 – starting a BLOG!

In a year when everything is new, it seems to be the best time to add in one more thing....writing a blog!!
I have never written a blog before or really written anything since finishing university an
unspecified number of years ago! But the idea keeps coming up and has now been suggested by a wide variety of different people in different places so why not give it a go I feel?

So how do you start a BLOG? Well, you start with the why according to Simon Sinek!
(If you have about 10 minutes click the link and watch his TED talk on this topic, he says it way better than I ever can.)

The why gives us the reason, the heart, the passion behind the action.

So why write a BLOG?

One of the things I’ve been thinking about recently is the importance of sharing the stories. I’ve been reading Deuteronomy which has some amazing parts as well as some other parts that I tend to skip over when my brain is not in full working order! It talks throughout about the importance of remembering what God has done, of passing the stories on to the next generation, of building
memorials to remind them of how mighty and amazing their God is and how he has rescued and saved them.

“Deuteronomy 6v7 says ‘talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the
street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night.’”

We are advised to talk about the things of God in our everyday living, our conversations should be full of God, who he is, who we are created to be and how we are living out this God life. I love this, long for it more and yet so often fail.
I so often find myself living reactively to what goes on around me and some of that is just the way it is when life is full and you have three children, a needy husband and are helping set up a new
church. But my hearts desire when I make time to stop and think about it is to live intentionally, to
have these important discussions, to dig deeper and not just live and talk at the superficial level.

As Bobbie Houston said at Colour conference this year:

“We need to get better at telling the stories of what is God is doing. ”

And why is this so important? Because as it says in Psalm 78 ‘tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord....so they can set their hope anew on God, remembering and obeying.’ Telling the stories builds faith, builds hope and builds relationships.
So next time you see me feel free to ask me what has God done this week, what is God saying to me at the moment, what am I praying for....though be prepared that I may well ask you the same!!