Category Archives: This blog’s mission

My Blog Facelift and a Little Mission Clarification

Yeah I changed my name again. I started blogging about 8 years ago actually. If you read through my blog (which I wouldn’t recommend… much better reading material out there) you’d find this blog has gone through several name changes and paint jobs. The content has had a similar theme along the way with varying emphasis which if I plotted on a graph would directly correlate to the current state of my marriage.

I am a mom and wife of 23 years to a man who does not share my love and worship of Jesus.  We met as teenagers, married while I was still a teenager and new believer, and have endured many hard times together and apart.  We’ve been separated twice and nearly signed divorce papers both times.  But, for God’s reasons (which are worth a lifetime of a difficult marriage) we didn’t and so the saga continues and I continue to blog as a public display of my affection for Christ in this hard life.

I believe the truly Christian life is not wasted.  It’s invested.  In eternity in the lives of those around us.  We die daily but not in vain.  We die daily to ourselves because we’ve seen a glimpse of the glory of God in the Jesus we’ve never seen with the eyes of our hearts and we’re hooked!  We want his glory… at all costs.  We want him to be high and lifted up in all things, especially our lives!  And we want our lives to reflect the true nature of the God we were made to image.

And so I change my blog wallpaper here periodically and the title changes too because I’m being changed all the time.  I’m being developed and matured and conformed to the image of Christ and I want to encourage someone else and comfort someone else and grieve with someone else and rejoice with someone else even through a blog.

My heart for my home to be my primary field of mission for living out my life as a Christian, desiring my husband and children to join me in that life, has been the driving force behind this blog and the changing of titles usually reflects that heart.  Being a homemaker is not just being a mom and wife who doesn’t work outside the home.  Being a homemaker is what all mom’s and wives are specially designed and equipped to do.  It’s a big topic on which I could blog a lot, and have.  But the term homemaker, especially in the Christian circle, has taken on a meaning that can cut a lot of women out of the picture.  I don’t want to just be a blessing to stay-at-home-moms (although I want to bless them too!).  I want to encourage women of all circumstances to find their identity in Christ and to walk with him through this life.  Hence my return to A Woman Found.  As far as Sojourning Sheila goes, yeah, that describes me.  But I don’t want this blog to just be about me.   Nothing wrong with that, I just feel like I might encourage another woman out there more if I don’t just use this blog to write about me and my daily life stuff- I’ll do that too, but I want to share the comforts I have been comforted in by Christ, and the sorrows I share with fellow suffers, and the joys only those who walk with Jesus know.  Only women, and men, found by Christ will really get what I talk about here.  Cause it just doesn’t make sense without being found by Him.  And I want those who may read this blog, who don’t worship Christ, to scratch their heads and hopefully pique their interest.  Maybe they would want to be found by Him too.

Ok.  That’s all.

Meditations and Confessions of a Homemaker’s Mission

Well first I went to look up the word mission. What does it really mean? I was thinking of it in terms of defining my purpose or goal in writing on this blog. But I was surprised and actually more clarified in my reasoning when I went and looked it up in good ole Webster’s.

Here’s what I found at Merrian-Webster Online:

It’s obsolete apparently, but the original meaning of the word is the definition I’m going with here…the act or an instance of sending.

So…Meditations and Confessions of a Homemaker is sent out:

  1. To be acceptable to God. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”(Psalm 19:14) That means what I write here I write by faith, for without faith it is impossible to please or be acceptable to God (Hebrews 11:6). So what I write here is substance and evidence of eternal unseen truths that I have sure confidence in- that’s faith (Hebrews 11:1).

  2. To be a source of oil for your lamp, that is, courage. I see the picture of oil in scripture as a dose of heavenly courage which when dripped on our minds and hearts causes us to face the giants and fears of this life courageously. That oil of course is the Holy Spirit Himself. When the Holy Spirit impresses heavenly truths upon my heart through the study of the Word He fills me with courage to face life in this fallen world with confidence and peace. Sharing that word, that oil, that confidence, with others is what the writings here are sent out to do. I think of Joshua and Caleb who chose to encourage the people of Israel who were afraid of the giants that faced them in the land of promise. The other men who were with Joshua and Caleb who also saw the challenges that lay ahead of them had too small a vision, they could only see the size of the giants in comparison to their size, but Joshua and Caleb saw the size of the giants in comparison to the size of their God and encouraged the people to move forward trusting in God’s power to save. That’s what I pray the posts here do: encourage others to press forward walking by faith, trusting in God’s power to save.

  3. To be an example– which holds me accountable- in walking by faith in Christ and in living out the gospel as a “younger woman.” (Titus 2:4-5) My example is in wrong and right choices. I think of how 1 Corinthians 10:6 says that the record of Old Testament accounts were written for us as examples. They aren’t all examples of what we should do, some are examples of what we should avoid doing…nevertheless they are there for us to learn from. What I write here is sent out as an example both in repentance and confession; in meditations and obedience. These posts are sent out as windows into what God is doing in one weak vessel’s life. I pray that as Timothy was charged by Paul to be an example to all believers,”…in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity…” what’s seen of my life here would be an example in those areas too. My speech, conduct, love, faith and purity will be marred by my wrong choices at times, and I pray I will be open and honest about it. I seek to be transparent in what I share here, not doctoring up what I write just to sound like a better example, but to be a genuine example by being honest.

So there you have it, this blog’s mission.

For more on why I blog in general go here. For some of my testimony go here and here.

This post is part of a blog mission tour at Becoming Me. You’ll find more blogs and their missions over at The Blog Mission Tour hosted by Becoming Me.