I want you to Love, Learn and Laugh



So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.  1 Corinthians 10:31 NIV

 

As a way to improve my blog I joined a fantastic forum for Christian bloggers that has really helped me in many ways. They have given tips on writing posts, how to make your blog look better, creativity, reaching a wider audience with your message, really, anything that you can think of when it comes to blogging. They have made me think about my blog and why I write it. One of the topics recently discussed was "When a newcomer visits my blog. . ." and we were to finish the sentence.

I came upon the topic a little late and others had already posted their response. As I was reading them with interest I became very intrigued by the question and began thinking about what my response would be. What do I want my readers. . . new readers or old readers . . . to come away with in my blog? How do I want them to feel? What would I want them to do after reading one of my posts?

When I first started blogging many, many, years ago, we were going through a very rough time as a family. A friend of mine had started a blog and I really enjoyed reading it. As I thought about her blog I realized that blogging might be therapeutic for me. I began to think about what I would want a blog to say and what it's purpose would be. Did I want it to only be for me, or did I want it to reach others? If I wanted it to reach others, what would I write about? I decided that I did, indeed, want others to read it and that I wanted it to be about families, not just my family, but about their families as well. Together I wanted us to discover how to strengthen our families, how to have fun with our families and to really be Families Again. Hence the name "Families Again".

However, although they could share many of the same thoughts and ideas, the purpose of my blog is different than what I want people to come away with after reading one of my posts or how I want them to feel after spending time on my blog. After a lot of thought and writing down ideas, I decided that I want my readers to do and feel three things. I want them to Love, Learn and Laugh.



The above verse perfectly describes how I want to live my life and that includes writing my blog, so first and foremost I want my readers to click away from my blog with a deeper Love for God. It doesn't matter if they are a Christian or not. If they are a believer, then I want them to grow deeper in their belief and Love God more. If they are not a believer then I want them to leave my blog thinking about God's Love for them.

I want my readers to leave my blog with a Love of Families. I want them to Love my family. I want them to get to know us and Love us so much that, when they leave, they are drawn to pray for my kids and for me and Sarah. I especially want something that I have said lead them to have a deeper Love for their family.

I want them to Love my blog and want to come back to it again and again.

 



I want my readers to Learn about God. I want my posts to reflect my belief and make them think about God and salvation and Learn something about their faith.

I want my readers to Learn more about their family through learning about my family. I want them to Learn a new way to spend time with their family. Maybe Learn a new project, craft, recipe or way to handle their family situations.

If a family homeschools I want them to Learn more about homeschooling and homeschool products. My desire is that my blog can help them in some way to Learn a new way to do things or to think about the way that they do things in their homeschool.

I want my readers to Learn about ministry and missions. I want them to Learn what my family does in ministry so that they can pray for us. I want them to Learn different ways to minister in their church, but especially in their lives. I want them to Learn about missions, both home missions and missions abroad so that they can be the missionaries that God wants them to be now and in the future.

 



I want my readers to Laugh when they come to my blog. I want them to Laugh with us at our mistakes; Laugh at our family; Laugh at the things that we do and the things that happen to us.

I want them to Laugh so much with us that they realize that their are other families in this world that are like their family. After realizing that they are not alone in this world, I want them to be able to Laugh at their predicaments and peculiarities. I want them to feel good about themselves and about others when they leave.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, I want them to inspire me to Love,  Learn, and Laugh. I want them to leave comments that make me Love more, Learn more and Laugh more. I want us to work together to make our families better. I want us, together, to Love, Learn and Laugh.

That, dear readers, is what I want you, whether you are a new friend or an old friend, to do.