Why is Annette blogging???

Okay, does the world need another blog...more to the point, do the women at the Pitman Church of Christ need to read one more blog??? Well, the answer to both of those questions is, "NO." But, if you know me, you know that "NO" doesn't always stop me!

Two and a half years ago, I led a Wednesday night time of devotion for our women that I called "Choose Joy!" Ilearned few things in the process of leading that class- First, leading a class for adults is REALLY hard work: no crafts, no puppet shows! You've got to fill the time with substance. Second- If you lead a class on "Joy" be prepared for an attack from the evil one. During those three months I ended up in a deep depression. I'm not saying that to discourage anyone from teaching or pursuing joy. I'm cautioning you to be prepared for the attack...because I wasn't.

The third thing I learned- and this is the point of the story- I found out I was more comfortable expressing myself in writing. My devos looked great to me on paper, but when I got up in front of the class my mouth literally went dry every week. So the best part of the class for me were the e-mails I sent out to the group that I called "Joy Boosters." They were just little snippets of my daily quest for joy, or maybe a joke, or some photos I took of something beautiful in God's creation. It was kind of blog via e-mail. After the quarter was over, several women asked me to continue, and I did for a while, but I was concerned that I was just filling up in boxes with stuff that not everyone really wanted. So I decided to start a blog that women could choose to read. So have you seen my blog before today??? No you haven't because I never got past the first post.

Flash forward to now- blogging is definitely the "in" thing to do among the women in my church family. And I guess you could say I'm jumping on the bandwagon...but I've been 2 years in the leap! I don't find myself looking for those daily "joy boosters" that God sends me as much as I used to. So if nobody reads this blog, that's okay, because if it gets me back in the habit of choosing God's gift of joy then it will have served it's purpose.