Jerralea's Journey: How It All Began

Jerralea's Journey began in cyberspace in May of 2008. Of course, the Journey began at my birth, and picked up in earnest when I gave my life to Christ at age 14. I say that because I draw upon my life experiences for a major portion of my blog posts. I always said that all this stuff had to happen to me for a reason. Little did I know it was for blog fodder!

Back in 2008, I had discovered some awesome bloggers - Boomama, Big Mama, Rocks in My Dryer, We are THAT Family - to name a few of the ones that made an impact on me - and I decided one day to give it a try. I had noticed that Boomama had as her tagline on her blog header "Read by Tens of People Everyday." Now, I know that was a tongue-in-cheek kind of saying, but I remember thinking, "Wow, if only I could get 10 people to read my stuff everyday, I'd be happy."

It's good to remember that thought when I get discouraged over the slow growth of the Journey.  My stats show that, yes, at least 10 people come to my page every day.  I've got to be truthful, I love it a lot more when there's 200 who come. But I digress.

My goal for the blog was to record a lot of family stories and history for my then non-existent grandchildren and other family members and friends to read.  I didn't want any of that stuff to be forgotten.

Can I tell you something?  Family and friends are usually not my readers. (I think out of everyone I know, I might have 4 who actually read every one my posts.) I've heard other bloggers say their family and friends in real life were not their readers, either.  In fact, some bloggers don't even tell their loved ones they write!

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think I'd want to read a blogger who was connected to me in real life - just to see if they were writing stuff about me.

One of the main struggles for me in being a blogger is to find that elusive "voice" you keep hearing about. Since my children are grown, I'm not really a mommy-blogger and certainly not a home-school blogger. I love DIY, decor, fashion,organizing and cooking blogs, and I have done a few posts on those subjects. In fact, two of my posts that have received the most page views in the history of the blog have been a recipe for pressure cooker green beans and one about setting up a tickler file.

Mostly, I write about God and scripture. I can't help it. I can see a devotional in anything. I'm not an authority, I don't have a degree in theology. But I am a student of the Word.

I've always focused on only writing encouraging positive posts. I remember writing a post, Our Peace is in Him, at Jennifer Dukes Lee's TellHisStory community that I'm glad God didn't call me to write about the controversial stuff. I've kind of regretted saying that, especially in recent days. Because I think all believers, at some point, will have to make a stand. I just hope that when I do have to write controversially, I will be able to do it in such a way that encourages.

I'm coming up on my 1500th post in a few days. My vision for the Journey has pretty much evolved to what I'm thinking of putting as my tagline in the blog header: Jerralea's Journey: Finding Him each step of the way Home.

Because He is there if you just look.

I'm linking this post up at the Loft. This Week’s Topic: Blogging and You ~ (when did you begin blogging? why did you begin blogging? what have you learned through blogging? how has blogging been a blessing to you?)

If you would like to participate, visit Leah Adams' Point to Jesus website.