Dog Blog and God Blogs
As you might of noticed, both of you that read this site regularly, that I've made some changes. I finally got the background image working properly, so the site now has the textured background that it was supposed to have all along. I didn't like the yellow background that it had before (and in my HTML editor, Microsoft FrontPage 2003, it always had the textured background). By playing around with the custom themes in FP2003, I finally got the textured background to work correctly. I also changed the text and background colors somewhat. I think the site looks significantly better than it did. I hope you do, too.
Lucy, I'm Home!
I've noticed that bloggers that write about their pets always get lots of comments and readers coming to their sites. Rachel Lucas, for example, writes about her dogs quite a bit, and she has tons of readers. She hasn't been blogging much lately, and she still has way more readers than I'll ever have. So, I'm going to shamelessly use my dog to promote my site.
This is Lucy, or Lucille, as we sometimes call her. She's a Golden Retriever, which all intelligent people agree are the very best dogs of all. We adopted her when she was five months old. Her home life with her original owner when she was a small pup wasn't that great - she was neglected and may have been abused somewhat. Our previous wonderful dog, Sophie, had died not too long before Lucy was available to be adopted, and we were ready to get another dog. Lucy was living with another family that had taken her in, but they already had two dogs and two small children, so they didn't feel like they could keep her, even though they loved her a lot. So, even though I was reluctant at first, we decided to adopt her. It was one of the best decisions we could have made. She's the most loving, sweetest dog you can imagine, and we spoil her like mad. She's lived with us for four years now, and I can't imagine a better dog than her.
I don't think it's a coincidence that "God" and "dog" are such similar words. People sometimes wonder if dogs will be in heaven. I always think that it wouldn't be heaven without them. I'll get castigated thoroughly for saying so, but I'm not at all certain about cats in heaven. (Kidding! Just kidding! Sort of.) Dogs express unconditional love in a way that, seriously, helps me to understand what it really means to love in that way. It warms my heart that every time I come home from work, Lucy is there and is so happy to see me. If only people were more like dogs. So many of the world's ills would disappear if we could love each other like a dog loves it's owner - and even more so, like God loves each and every one of us.
The Blogdom of God
The Blogdom of God alliance is up and running, and I've included a list of all of the members in the left-hand column of the Pete's Journal page. Thanks to Adrian Warnock for including me in the alliance and to N.Z. Bear for hosting the alliance and including it in the TTLB Ecosystem.
I exchanged email with Joe Carter and commented in the comments section of this post on his Evangelical Outpost blog on the idea of starting some sort of association of evangelical bloggers. Here was my comment:
Adrian Warnock immediately jumped on this and got it all set up, which is way cool. My traffic and link numbers have definitely increased, which is nice. I've gone from being a "Slimy Mollusc" to a "Flappy Bird" in the TTLB Ecosystem in pretty short order. I generally like birds more than mollusks, so that's a good thing.
Some Christian bloggers, e.g. Irene at ireneQ, have expressed concern that this is self-promotion, developing yet another Christian clique, or an attempt to "help God" in some way. I understand those concerns. I am also concerned about those things, and about the alliance becoming a target for those hostile to Christianity. In no way should the alliance detract from the Gospel or from one's personal growth as a Christian. However, I think, right now, that the benefits outweigh the possible costs, in that it brings more visibility to the fact that there are many Christian bloggers, and that the alliance can be a way for us to reach the world with the Good News. It is also a way for Christian bloggers to form a community where ideas can be shared and we can encourage one another. That's important to me. As we place ourselves and our ideas out into a lost world, where we can be ridiculed and hated for believing in Christ as a personal Savior, encouragement from fellow believers is extremely important, especially those believers that have similar experiences with blogging.
So, I am pleased and grateful that Dr. Warnock set this up and is hosting the alliance, and I am cautiously optimistic that the alliance can be another positive group of witnesses for Christ in the world. If you're a Christian blogger, check out Dr. Warnock's site for info on joining the alliance.
I agree with all of those that see blogging as an opportunity to bring Biblical thinking to the blogosphere. Although my blog topics are all over the map (like so many others have said), I think the world benefits from hearing how Christians think on any topic.
Although I have a Master's degree, I don't think academic qualifications are all that important. Christian bloggers have the unmatched advantage of the Holy Spirit's guidance. That's way better than any amount of education.
I tend to link to other sites pretty liberally, so I'll link as many of you as I can, as soon as I can. I appreciate links to my site as well, even though I don't get that many readers.
A question: is anyone interested in starting up some sort of association for evangelical Christian bloggers, ala The Axis of Naughty or the other loose associations (Rocky Top Brigade, etc.)?