A Growing and Evolving Blog

I'm hoping that those who read my blog are not going to think it too strange if I keep coming back to the subject of what it is like to blog. Hopefully, you will all just conclude "Oh, that's just Lista. That's what she does."

I keep coming back to the question of what the purpose is for my blog because it appears to keep changing. If my only goal was for the sake of friendship, I could accomplish this by commenting on other people's blogs and would not need to have a blog of my own.

At first, I thought that this was going to be a Political blog with the goal of expressing my opinion and getting my voice heard, yet the Lord seems to keep moving me in the direction of the Spiritual.

One observation that I've made, though, is that a lot of you guys are more likely to comment on the Political, than on the Spiritual. I'm not sure why that is, yet it has brought me back to the original question again "What is the purpose of this blog." I've already decided that my purpose is not necessarily just to get lots of hits. I talked about this on an earlier post, Why do we Blog?

The question now is "What about comments?" Is my goal to get lots of comments? It seems that that would be a good goal, yet to be honest with you, I was actually enjoying the break from endless political debate. When ever I publish a Political Post, I have to be prepared for and in the mood for the debate that I know is going to take place, for after all, when I Post something Political, I seem to be drawn to that which is highly controversial. That's just my way.

What it actually comes down to is that I need to balance my goals against my fatigue and move along at a reasonable pace that accomplishes at least a little something, while at the same time not draining me of too much of my energy.

So what does a slow down in the comments mean anyway? Does that mean that you guys aren't reading it, or are you reading it and just not commenting because you don't know what to say? I don't have a hit counter, so I have no clue what is actually happening in relation to the number of hits on my blog.

Ok, so what about the Spiritual? In relation to this, I seem to keep coming back to something that I wrote in one of my posts that seems worth repeating again and again, so here it is again...

"The main difference between Democrats, Liberal Republicans and true Conservatives is what we believe to be the source of our strength. Democrats seem to believe that it is the government itself and want lots of it. Liberal Republicans seem to think that the source of our strength is the military. This idea is also incorrect. The real truth is that if we lose the conservative values that our country once treasured in her youth, no government program, nor even a very strong military, will be able to save us. This is why I fear greatly for our country.

"It's just like Ronald Reagan said, 'If we ever forget we are a nation under God, we will become a nation gone under'. May God help and have mercy on this country."

The above two paragraphs came from my post entitled "Quotes from Mitt Romney and Ronald Reagan". This post also includes part of the speech that Mitt Romney gave when he dropped out of the presidential race.

When I begin to realize the reality that our influence over the political climate in this country is sort of limited and as I remember what I said in this earlier post as I have repeated for you above; as I think on these things, I began to think that maybe the Spiritual is where it's really at and not just the Political, so my goal now is to get my voice heard in both the Political and the Spiritual realm.

Aside from making friends and also getting my voice heard, is there still more?

This is the point at which I begin to realize that the experience of blogging produces personal benefits as well. As I post, comment and also respond to other people's posts and comments on my own blog and others, I find myself changing and growing to an extent that can actually result is some growing pains. As I grow and my perspective on things changes, my blog slows down, yet maybe this is a very important part of the process. I blog for the sake of my own learning and growth.

Once again, it seems that if we post too frequently and quickly, we may miss out on some of the thought processes that contribute to our own growth and make us stronger, wiser and better people, with a greater understanding and appreciation of people and of our would. Shouldn't we all take the time to stop and smell the roses, as well as evaluate and think about all that we write and read. More is not necessarily better. When life moves along too quickly, it just becomes a lot of empty clutter, lacking depth and meaning.

If one of the goals of my blog is for the sake of my own personal learning and growth, perhaps it wouldn't be so wrong for me to occasionally just post my thoughts about any issue at all that I am currently working on in my mind and heart and if my goal is nothing more than personal learning and growth, than I guess it doesn't matter so much how many comments or hits I get.

There are people who have told me that sometimes I think too much, yet I guess I'd rather be that way, than to be one that doesn't think at all.

I guess what is comes down to is that this blog appears to have more than one purpose and perhaps will eventually be just as diverse as the heart of it's author.





P.S. - If you are interested in one aspect of my blog more than another, I'd encourage you to go to the link on the right, under the heading "Favorite Ramblings" and click on the link "All of my Posts Organized by Category".