Category: Uncategorized

i’m not *too* geekafied, but as i wander the streets of the blogosphere, i noticed a few things and thought i should contribute some knowledge (which has been passed down to me by many older, wiser, bloggers) and some things i’ve just learned on my own.

1. SUBSCRIBING TO BLOGS – i realize this is blogging 101, but you’d be surprised how many people are unfamiliar with RSS readers and email subscriptions.

do you bookmark all your favorite blogs or manually type them in when you visit them? save yourself a ton of time by subscribing.

you can do this easily by subscribing by email (click here to do that with my blog) and have my updates come straight to your inbox.

or, use an RSS reader like google reader or bloglines. all of your favorite blogs should have a subscribe button (mine is up top under my header that says “feed”) and by clicking on this on each of those blogs, you are pretty much consolidating all the blogs you read into one webpage! it is automatically updated whenever someone posts something.

i use google reader…here’s a screenshot. see how all the blogs i read are in that window? i can just scroll through them all to read them, and click on them if i want to leave a comment.

use a reader to subscribe to my blog by clicking here!

2. POST TITLES – see how in the URL bar it has my domain, then is followed by the date, and then the title of this post? this helps people find your blog through SEO (or search engine optimization). sometimes blogs use a numbering system instead…search engines don’t like that.

use thoughtful titles and you’ll have more people discover what you’re blogging about.

3. IMAGE TITLES – you know how when you upload pics from your camera, they are named DSC_009 or something? if you change that and use the same hyphenation technique as in #2, this will also help search engines (and especially image searches) find your blog. i’d like to bring some more exposure to compassion international, so for the sponsorship posts, i title my photos “compassion-international-uganda-childname.jpg”

name-your-pics-like-this.jpg and more people will find relevant content on your blog!

there are a million other little things that help make your blog easy to find and easy to read…but these are three important ones!

any tips you’d like to share?

i just had my mind blown.

here i was, on my own darn blog, and i see my own darn compassion international widget.

(it’s over there on the left. see it? yup.)

ok, so on it, i see this beautiful girl and i had to click. so i did.

and i am reading about rosemary. she is seven years old.

her household duties?

Carrying water, gardening and caring for children.

i look up again. seven? yes. she’s seven.

ok, so this is not uncommon. many children care for their siblings in africa. even younger ones.

and then, what do i read?

There are 9 children in the family.

NINE CHILDREN?! OH MY GOODNESS.

this girl helps care for her eight brothers & sisters!

and i keep reading…and learn this:

Half of the adults are unemployed but some work as subsistence farmers and earn the equivalent of $6 per month.

her family maybe makes six bucks a month. i spent that much on gas driving today!

=========

now, imagine with me a moment…(insert floaty, dreamy music here)…

someone sponsors rosemary. $32/month. that is six times what her parents make! her entire humongous family begins to see the benefits of having rosemary registered with compassion international.

but…not only that…

rosemary’s family hears about jesus! (this is a cool story about how a family came to know christ through a sponsored child).

ahhh-mazing?

indeed.

plus, can you imagine the incredible stories you are going to hear from a little girl with eight siblings? that is going to be some fun letter-exchanging going on right there.

ROSEMARY HAS BEEN SPONSORED! THANK YOU!!!sponsor rosemary now! note: please do not click the ?select this child? button unless you are sure you would like to sponsor her, as doing so will make her page unavailable for an hour or so.

i am not a very trusting person. some of it’s baggage from the past and things over which i had no control. some of it’s because there have been times in my life when i have not been trustworthy. i love observing people. you can learn a lot that way. if someone speaks badly of another person when they’re not around, i usually think that they’ll probably speak badly of me when i’m not around.

a few years ago, i was very hurt by someone who i trusted, a lot. recently, i’ve written about how it still impacts me today. because of this person’s actions, i find myself guarding my innermost dreams and hopes…fearful they’ll be trampled on by another person. and honestly, my heart just can’t take it anymore.

i wrote about that situation in my book, and wrote about how forgiveness is a decision i needed to make…but trust was something that needed to be earned.

and friends? i had to go back after sending my manuscript to my editor and change that.

because i am beginning to believe that trust is not something that needs to be earned.

please hear me…this does not mean that we are allowed to make stupid decisions and be gullible. but when i carefully read and studied on 1 corinthians 13:7, it basically says “love believes all things.”

in the greek translation, this reference of love is agape love. the kind of love we are filled with when we become believers. the self-sacrificing kind.

agape love believes all things.

so, what does “believes all things” mean?

believes (greek: pisteuei) literally means this: to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in.

and all things (greek: panta) literally means this: each, every, any, all, the whole, everyone, all things, everything.

i had to look even farther for the context here, as at a simple glance it seems that without question, we should believe everything. which doesn’t make sense given all of the wisdom the bible says we’re to pursue.

one commentary i read summed it up beautifully….

LOVE puts the most favourable construction on everything, and is ever ready to believe whatever may tend to the advantage of any one character. And when it can no longer believe well, it hopes whatever may excuse or extenuate the fault which cannot be denied. Where it cannot even excuse, it hopes God will at length give repentance unto life.

do i give people the benefit of the doubt? and when i can’t…do i truly hope the best for them, through christ? or do i dwell on the assumed, or even obvious shortcomings or someone…holding my own agenda close so that i, in my own power, can protect it?

just some thoughts for the weekend…

once upon a time, on april 4, i drove from birmingham to atlanta. when it came time to turn in for the night, i took residence on ragamuffin soul’s and whittaker woman’s couch.

i went into a back room to make a call, turned on the light, and saw this.

ummm….?

 

 

i have a post over at deadly viper today…

just so ya know.

it starts,

I put God to the test.

A lot.

And it?s weird how often he comes through?

read more…

so here i am all wrapped up in my sob story of the day. american loses yet another reservation for my connecting flight but the lady in dallas rocked and i am cruising first class (’twas the only open seat)

…lalala….

and here i am getting you to share your horror stories…

and i am catching up on twitter and realize some of my friends’ friend died tonight. she is like my age or somewhere around it. and she had a blood clot in her brain. and she died.

and suddenly i realize how stupid everything else is except Life and Love and life and love.

i’m sorry, yall.

while looking up some stats for craig, i stumbled across this:

DAAANG.

and that is only from 01 january 08, 12:00 AM to 02 april 08, 10:57 am. only three full months! at the end of the year, we would have waited almost 31 billion hours for websites to download!

the internet is great. but snap, we may be a little too obsessed.

what do you think?

there is a severe weather seminar in our apartment complex’s clubhouse tonight. i am so there. and i am so excited. i’ve had this marked on my calendar for a month.

i love tornadoes. i’ve experienced 28 or so of them up close and personal (and blogged some of them here)

what makes you a nerd?

as craig said on swerve today, the staff at lifechurch.tv is resting, fasting and praying this good friday. i am really looking forward to having a day of focus like this.

it has been a while since i asked how i can pray for you guys, so please, allow me
to do so today. how can i pray for you this easter weekend?