A Blog Year in Review

This month marks the one year anniversary of my blog so I went back and read my entries from March 2006: the inaugural issue, the questions that launched the journey, the topics that began a digital conversation – even if just within myself and then recorded for others to read.

These are my reflections...

The social networks Facebook and MySpace (March 16 ’06 entry) continue to trouble and fascinate me. Although I have figured out a way to view my child’s pages, it continues to bother me that there is not an automatic parental monitoring feature. Teens can write or post anything, and it is up to them to police it.

My Bible reading (March 20 ’06) is not as systematic as it was a year ago when every hour of my day had to be scheduled to meet the dueling demands of motherhood, marriage, and full-time graduate thesis work. What I have tried to pursue instead is practicing the presence of God throughout my day-breathing Him in and out, as it were-instead of compartmentalizing my devotional time into a fixed time frame.

While I have often enjoyed a sustained sense of spiritual intimacy with God, my intercession for others became sporadic and I fell behind in my reading schedule. This is indeed part of my journey as I desire to live spiritually with and without routined spiritual disciplines to measure or gauge the quality of my spiritual devotion.

What I am contemplating now is a revised reading schedule to maintain consistency within a fluctuating schedule. And an intercession agenda, internally motivated and structured, that will assist my mind to execute what my heart desires: passionate prayer for the people I love.

There are missionaries that I do not want to forget to pray for. There are friends that I want to routinely bring supplication for. And I want to remember to pray diligently on the good days, instead of just fervently on the challenging days.

God has often prompted me to pray for loved ones and specific situations (often in the middle of the night), but I feel He is leading me to be more available to His prompting by planning quiet times to hear His voice.

Scheduling silence will not be easy.