I have some bloggy business that is way overdue to be taken care of.

Thanks so much to Janel at Dandelion Dayz for nominating me for the following award:

The rules for receiving this award are:

1) Put the logo on your blog

2) Add a link to the person who awarded you.

3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4) Add links to those blogs on yours.

5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs. (I sent them an email.)

So, to pass on the great feeling I had when I found out Janel had nominated me, here are my chosen 7:

Amy at Just Keep Praying: One of my dearest friends, she has a passion for prayer and uses her blog to encourage people in their prayer walk.

Tammy at Not Mine But God’s Story: Tammy is chronicling a story on her blog that takes lots of courage to share. She is such an inspiration to me.

Pat at Are Pantylines a Sign of Godliness?? Should Christian Women Wear Thongs? Check it out for yourself. Pat is writing a book, and she could use your input. I think her deadline is August 15th, so go visit her now and help her out. We met in person finally while at She Speaks, and I so enjoyed talking to her.

Amy Beth at Ministry So Fabulous! She has such a heart, and is funny, too!

Alene at Ordinary is Amazing. Meeting women like Alene, who has become a dear blogging buddy, is the biggest reason I am so glad I began blogging myself.

Amy at Ponderings From the Pathway. She is a sweet friend who is funny and such an inspiration.

Lisa B at Simply His. Lisa is so real on her blog and expresses so well what others of us are feeling.

Thank you again, Janel!

Blessings,

So, as you can see, I have a new look…well, assuming you have visited my blog before, that is. Thank you very much to Jo-Lynne from DCR Design. She did a fabulous job, and I am so excited! She was very patient with me. I mean VERY. PATIENT.

Please allow me to explain. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, then you know that I attended She Speaks last month. I read Jo-Lynne’s personal blog, Musings of a Housewife, and was aware that she had a design business before attending She Speaks. I had the pleasure of meeting her while at the conference.

While there, I attended a blogging session and a session on marketing oneself for bookings (speaking, etc.). In both sessions, the importance of “branding” oneself was a message that came through loud and clear. The bloggers discussed “finding your voice” for your own blog and making yourself memorable, i.e., blogging with the same name, domain name, title of blog, email address, etc., all should match, if possible. This was reiterated in the marketing session but taken a step further in that your blog and/or website, business cards, cover for a demo CD, etc., should all look the same.

I knew when I returned that I had some work to do. I felt that God was telling me to begin immediately so the first thing I did was contact Jo-Lynne about having her do a blog redesign for me. I needed to transform it from a personal blog to a professional blogger/website.

I truly thought that I was going to keep the title the same, use the same verse, and continue on the path I thought God had already set me on. I. Was. Wrong.

Jo-Lynne asked me if I had any ideas on an image for my header. Well, of course, I knew I wanted it to be girly, fun, fashionable…you get the idea. I mean, after all, I thought I was moving forward in the image business. I pored over thousands of images, literally. I couldn’t find one thing that was right. I saw several that might work, but nothing that was screaming that it was “the one.”

I became quite frustrated. Jo-Lynne was of course trying to help. She offered suggestions, but I knew we hadn’t found the right one.

I apologized to her and told her I was very sorry but that I thought I had gotten ahead of myself. I thought when I contacted her that I knew exactly what I was going to do, but that I then knew nothing. I knew I needed to pray about it. Really pray. Again, Jo-Lynne was so patient.

A conversation with God:

Me: Umm, God what exactly is going on here?

Silence.

Me: Why can’t I find the right image?

Again, silence.

Me: Lord, this is your ministry. I want it to be whatever you want it to be. It’s your title, your scripture verse, your header. Please tell me what you want me to do. I don’t want this to be about me, and I know if it is, it is doomed to fail. What do YOU want?

God: My child, do you remember Hebrews 12:1, the scripture verse I gave you for your five-minute talk at She Speaks?

Me: Well, of course I remember it, Lord. What an awesome thing you did there!

God: I didn’t give you the verse and the talk just for She Speaks. THAT is your ministry.

Me: Say What?!? Lord, what do you mean?

God: My child, your whole life has been about running your race and trying to figure out who you are in Me. I’m trying to show you the race I have for you to run. Other’s are struggling with this same issue. I want to use you to help them. It’s all about the race, for all of you.

I admit, I was skeptical. I believe that I am getting better at “hearing” God’s voice and discerning what He is telling me to do, but I really had my doubts about this.

Was this right? Should I move forward with this for the blog? I mean, I was creating a new “brand.” This was supposed to basically be the launch of my ministry, the way that people would know and remember me. What if I had made a mistake? Oh Lord, help me!

I began to search for illustrations about running. My doubts and fears were not assuaged when I searched through thousands more images, and I still couldn’t find the right one.

A side note here. When I am in “the zone” like this, I usually have something specific in mind. I may not be able to articulate clearly what that “something” is, but I will know it the instant that I see it. And in this case, I wasn’t finding it.

At first, I was only looking through illustrations because that was what I wanted. I didn’t want a photo. As I sat there looking through images, I heard God telling me to “persevere” (more on that in another post), that “it” was there. After I had been through all the illustrations related to running and women and found absolutely nothing, I decided to try photos…

And. that. was. when. I. found. “it”. A photo of a pair of Converse “Chuck Taylor” sneakers sitting on a Bible. Are you kidding me?

Me: God, you said it was here!

God: Yes, My child, I did.

Me: God..umm, I don’t want to complain, but it’s not an illustration. I really wanted an illustration, and besides, the color is wrong. The sneakers are pink. I really wanted red.

I want, I want, I want. But God let me have this and brought to my mind a friend from my old church with whom I haven’t spoken in a while. She is a graphic artist. I sent her a link to the photo and asked her if she could convert it to an illustration and change the color of the sneakers to red. And doncha’ know? Of course she could! And so, she did. We were back in business!

I didn’t want to jump the gun again, so I made sure to continue asking God about the title, tagline, etc. And what you see here is what He gave me.

Okay, this post is already quite long, although I know it has been a while. Still, I’m going to end here, and I will be back tomorrow to share more.

Blessings,