Welcome to my world...

Hi everyone and welcome to my little piece of the world!

It has been evident to me since I was in about seventh grade, that I love writing and it is a talent I have been blessed with . It wasn't until I reached the ripe old age of 28 though, that I realized God had a much bigger plan for the gift he had given me.

Through blogging on MySpace, I was able to reach not only those that I knew in my own life, but also complete strangers and was amazed at how just my "ramblings" had helped so many people to be inspired, encouraged, or just to think about things in a new way.

From there, it grew into an inspirational column in The Charlotte Observer, then a religious news column in The Statesville Record & Landmark, a speaking engagment for a women's church group and now, a gig as a religion news freelance writer for The Charlotte Observer.

The writing that is closest to my heart though is not the news reporting, but the words that come from my soul - the words that I know God puts there not only to help me to understand life better, but also those around me.

I hope you feel encouraged, enlightened and inspired but what you read here and of course, I look forward to hearing back from you too!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

It's a mad, mad world...

Well it's definitely been longer than I wanted it to be between blogs but is it just me or does time seem to be flying by like crazy lately? Between trying to find a new job (like two-thirds of the country), dealing with relationship and family issues, paying bills and managing money, taking care of the dogs, doing household work, and just plain eating and sleeping... it's like where does the time go??

Anyway, I am still going to make it a point to make the time to write because that isn't just about me. It's about the people that will end up reading my entries and it's about God - since it's all for him anyway.

I didn't get a chance to mention it in my last entry, but God did give me an unbelievable opportunity recently that both humbled me and scared the crap outta me. I received a call from a reader that had held on to one of my Statesville Record & Landmark articles because it inspired her - it was an article about believing you can change anything about yourself, if you depend on your faith. She asked me if I did speaking engagements and if I would be willing to speak to a women's group at her church. Now, inside I was screaming "noooooooooooo!" but I felt like there's no way I can say no to this woman because obviously God wants me to do this, so I went for it.

Needless to say, I was a complete basketcase the entire day leading up to the speech and I had a few panic attacks just thinking about it and could barely eat. But I did it and I lived (imagine that!) through it and now I really feel like I can do anything! Cuz never, ever would I think I could speak in front of a room full of people and here I spoke to 80 people! It was humbling to me that God chose me to speak to these women though and I felt privileged to have him there with me the whole time.

So in the madness of the everyday.... where I sometimes wonder where all the time goes and what I am doing from minute to minute... I am glad that God is still right there to keep me grounded. When I am focused on the wrong things, he brings me back on track. When I start to worry that I am losing my own motivation, he'll step in with a little Godwink through a message at church or something I read in a magazine or on the internet, and I feel his gentle "push" again.

Once you let God in, he's not going to leave you. He's going to stay right there by your side like the best friend you've ever had in your whole life. So even in the madness of this world, we all have to remember that he's always there and he's always leading you quietly to where you need to be.

Thank God for God! ;-)

Monday, May 18, 2009

Welcome!

After a long and eventful journey, I've decided to go ahead and give Jesus his own blog. ;-) Well in a way anyway.

I used to write on my MySpace page about whatever was on my mind that particular day... greed, love, envy, friendship... and along the way I happened to just inspire a few people. Not just my friends or even my MySpace "friends," but also total strangers that just happened upon my blog and found what I had to say interesting. I got so many positive responses that I realized God obviously wanted me to do something more with it, so I ended up writing for a few newspapers. I was lucky enough to inspire some more people before the fall of America's economy took away my writing outlet. :-(

Here is a link though to some of my articles that were published: http://www2.statesville.com/content/list/lifestyles/religion/columnists/baxter/.

So... now it's back to the barebones approach! Back to blogging and venting... and maybe touching someone's life out there in a positive way. I also just got accepted on as the Spirituality examiner for the Charlotte area, so check out my page at: http://www.examiner.com/x-10718-Charlotte-Christian-Spirituality-Examiner.

That's it for now! Hopefully the hectic day-to-day craziness of life won't keep me from writing too often and I look forward to hearing from you all (at least the nice ones of you anyway!) :-)