Hey everyone, I have some big news for 1 Timothy 4:12 Girl! I was nominated for a Blogger Recognition Award by afcrocks99! Big thanks to this girl and an apology for not posting sooner.

The rules of this challenge are 

• Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
• Write a post to show your award.
• Give a brief story of how your blog started.
• Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers.
• Select 15 other bloggers you want to give this award to.
• Comment on each blog and let them know you have nominated them & provide the link to the post you created.

How my blog started – Truth be told, a number of things motivated me to start a blog—and a series of events seemed to indicate that this was God’s will for my life right now. I’ve always loved reading and writing, even from childhood, and during my junior year of high school, I got really into reading blogs.

During this time, my faith was going through a lot of turmoil and I wasn’t attending a particularly healthy church. I had a couple of close Christian friends who helped me stay afloat as a Christian during this time, but I was struggling with my faith in a big way. Nonetheless, my faith was largely revived through reading a Christian blog that felt admirably real and authentic. The vision that this blogger presented for life was something that recharged my faith in God and humanity—it was about restoration, hope, and community in Jesus—a vision that I soon began to adopt in my own writing. It helped me own my faith in a way that I previously struggled to do and shaped my view of God and life.

Also during this time, after a few months of reading blogs—and soon thereafter, Christian magazines, I found out that a close friend of mine had a blog, after he told my mom and I about it. You can read it here if you want to check it out for yourself. That same afternoon, I launched my first post on 1 Timothy 4:12 Girl. It’s all been downhill from there.

Advice I’d give to a new blogger – If I had to give a new blogger two pieces of advice, I’d tell them to write from their heart and get plugged in with like minded bloggers. In blogging, staying true to yourself is vital—it’s the thing that makes your blog stand out from other blogs and draws others to your writing. I believe that everyone has their own voice and their own story that God has blessed each one of us with. Our stories are likely filled with both ups and downs, but it’s through those times that character is formed and we find out what we’re made of.

It’s also important to make connections in blogging. As unlikely as it may sound, I believe that friendship is nearly inevitable if you’re an active blogger and make a conscious effort to explore other blogs. For the Christian blogger, the WordPress blog-o-sphere is literally filled with fellow believers, and through forming connections, we can grow alongside fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Definitely be sure to take advantage of this opportunity.

The people that I would like to nominate are

Dainty M. 

Fearfully Wonderfully Me 

Saved By Grace 2009 

Sapphire Life Writer

Papberry 

Julian For Jesus 

Wally Fry 

Passion And Pixels 

Ready. Set. Write!