A New Kind of Blog

First off, Hi, I'm Jodi Davis and deep down, I'm a people pleaser, but I have strong opinions. Sometimes I have a hard time keeping my opinions to myself. I wait and wait and wait until I just cannot hold it anymore, blow up and then I have a pity party in the fact that I made someone else unhappy and not like me.

This is a dangerous combo!

I have really been struggling with this blog and with myself. I am not happy with either. I go other people blogs and have two things happen: 1) Why aren't this many people interested in what I have to say? and 2)Why don't I have my life this together?

I don't want to be like that anymore.

So after a lot of praying and thinking, I have decided. This is going to be a different kind of blog and I'm going to be a different kind of person...

My blog is going to be passionate and my life is going to be passionate.

See, for a long time, I have kept my interests and my real opinions to myself. My opinions and my interests aren't always what I'd like to think of as normal (Truly, what is normal?). They aren't exactly what I've grown up knowing, not what my parents liked or thought. I am finding that a lot of the opinions I thought I had were based on things I heard and thought were right growing up. A lot of my opinions and interests are what I thought the Church and Church people thought and liked.

See, it took a long time to make my faith my own. To choose to love the Lord and trust in Him for myself. I just always acted like the Christian I thought everyone else was. I never made my own commitments.

It is high time I allow myself to feel, love, and believe as I, Jodi, feel that I should. Not others.

For a long time now, I would become very interested in something, but when I'd look around at other's in my life and hear their opinions of it, I would drop it like a hot potato. To others it seemed like I was very flakey, but to me, it felt like an internal struggle. One, that cost me a lot of great opportunities.

I am not making those mistakes a second time. I am going to embrace the thoughts and interests that God has given me and run with them. I am going to tell people about them and I am going to be proud that I have them. No more hiding for me anymore...

My life and this blog are now going be REAL.

I spend a lot of time appearing like I have it together.

The posts and real-life facade I put on make it appear like I am everyday Bible reading, Jesus talking, Christ-follower. That is not the case at all. I have so much room to grow and I need to find the time to grow.

I spend a lot of time making it appear like I have the perfect marriage. I do not. That is far from the truth. Now don't get my wrong I have a wonderful marriage, but I do not put enough love, patience, and joy into it. First and foremost I do not put God into it.

My home is a wreck. I find that I do not ask friends to come over and cancel important things that happen in my home due to my not being happy with it's appearance. I find myself endlessly searching for blog photos that do not show the piles of laundry.

My kids are kids. Sometimes, because it can be humorous, I put posts up that show some of the crazy things they do. BUT if I'm honest, I would say that I portray a mother that tries to have it all together. Once again, not always the case.

I spend a lot of time trying to find the balance of being honest on this blog (Will my in-laws stumble across this blog and see that I am not the perfect housewife?) and in my life. I need to accept that I have interests that a lot of people might now have, but that's okay. Just like it's okay, if they don't have the same interests and opinions that I have. BUT, I should not be afraid to have them.

Therefore, I am proclaiming that this is a new blog. A blog where I am going to be and like me. I am going to talk to you about the things that ARE important to me and I'm going to be proud that I have my own feelings. Please understand that this is a blog of no judgement. I am always open to a good debate AS LONG as it is done in love and civilized. I will have to say that I might have to think of things and get back to you, but don't think for one second that I am ignoring you and do not care about your opinions. I am learning that God gave us all our own and it's GREAT!

So PLEASE take this journey WITH me. Look deep down inside yourself and see what you like or if you're just liking things because you think it's what other expect. Together we will find the women that God made us to be.

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Romans 12:1-2