A More Beautiful Life Collective

Last June, I wrote a few posts telling a little about my story. In this post, I am going to share a little bit of behind-the-scenes on the blog from the past year and share a few goals concerning my vision for moving forward. I also leave you with a couple of thoughts about moving forward toward your own goals, hopes, and dreams. Hopefully, this post helps give you a roadmap for creating your dreams as you see the twists and turns I’ve taken as I’ve worked to create mine.

Writing is mostly revising and editing. Your goals are mostly revising and editing too. 

I’ve been writing on the blog consistently for a little over 7 months! It’s crazy how fast time goes. Throughout these months, a lot of life and writing has happened. Every blogger, author, and thinker gets an itch to step back and explain themselves, to set a vision of where they have been and where they want to go. Really, I think we all should endeavor to tell our story to ourselves again and again. It’s a clarifying exercise that helps you to know your direction and to recognize how you’ve grown. Stepping by and assessing your progress will help you in creating your dreams.

In the midst of homeschooling preschool, two rambunctious toddlers, outside time, and all that comes along with homemaking, I’ve been stealing hours away to come to my computer and work. Sometimes, it is to write and edit. Sometimes, it’s to record and edit. Sometimes, it’s to design… and edit. (Lots of editing is happening as you can see!) 

Here are some ways that I’ve revised and edited some of my vision for the blog: 

• Posting 1 time a week, then growing 2-3 times a week 
• Adding a Podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and then Expanding that Podcast to YouTube and other providers
• Growing social media, specifically, Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram, then taking a break from social media, especially Facebook and Instagram, and then going back to social media with a renewed focus on boundaries and vision
• Starting a weekly newsletter, shifting to newsletter by posts, and shifting back to a weekly newsletter, this time with a freebie every week 
• Starting with a subscriber library and then shifting to an e-commerce store
• Shifting and clarifying my vision for the types of posts I want to write and the focus of the blog. 

As you can see, there’s been a lot of twists, turns, and pivots as I’ve worked to create my dreams. The same thing will happen when you work on creating your dreams.

Creating Your Dreams Takes a Refined Vision

What started as a desire to produce something of value and make use of my skills has become something more… at least to me. Through the process of writing and recording, I have continued to hone my values and research the truth. When you write, you begin to uncover parts of your beliefs that are shaky, and by writing, you draw a line in the sand. You cannot be wishy-washy when you strive for clarity through the black-and-white words on the page. 

Every post has gotten me thinking more clearly about what I believe. When I first started writing, I didn’t know what direction I would take. At first, it was a collection of old writings that I had accumulated. I enjoyed writing devotions and lessons for Bible Study, and I had amassed quite a few of them over the years. All of those writings amounted to a small library of resources. 

If you had told me a few years ago that I would be working on a blog, with a podcast and other resources in the works, I would have laughed. I would have thought that was cool, but it just didn’t seem like it was in the cards for me. Much of our past experiences are actually preparations for our future calling. You don’t recognize until you look back at how God was preparing you for creating your dreams.

In July, I recorded my first podcast episode. I didn’t know how I wanted it to look, but I made a commitment to post once a week every Wednesday. That commitment was the thing that has made this site grow into something more. It’s so easy when you start something – whether that’s a bible study or ministry – to go into it with gusto, but let it fall by the wayside when the going gets tough. 

By making a commitment, I have grown to be more consistent in all areas of my life. Not just the blog. 

Slowly, along the way, I’ve grown from posting once a week to 2 or 3 times, which is the amount that I think I’ll stay at. The podcast has added video, and I am starting to add a mini-series on YouTube to focus on the practical side of things while the podcast primarily focuses on the theory. 

As you move forward with your goals, you will be able to also work on creating your dreams. You will refine your vision by determining what you actually want to accomplish.

Creating Your Dreams Takes a Clarified Focus

My vision for the blog has been clarified. When you first start blogging, everyone says, “Find your niche! Find your niche!” Which is sound advice in terms of SEO and Google. The more generic your posts, the less likely people are to find you. But, when you first start writing about any big topic, you feel like you need to be generic. It’s difficult to just jump right into the depth of topics if you haven’t already laid the groundwork in your own brain for what you think about the topic. This is why you must clarify your focus to be able to truly work on creating your dreams.

The problem with this is that when you first start to write, you don’t know what you want to write about. You just feel an itching to write. Several of the bloggers and podcasters that I’ve listened to say that they learned their niche over time. Many started blogs that failed, and then, they started a new one with a clearer niche that did well. You do so much clarifying. You whittle down your big dreams into actionable goals that lead to success. 

At first, my goal was to teach others how to ‘find a rhythm of peace in the pace of beauty and order.’ And, I still believe that. But, it has been refined. I realized that I am really looking to help others “create a life they love and cultivate their hearts for God.” 

Slowly, I’ve come to see that most of my blog posts can be categorized under the following: 

• Practical Theology
• Spiritual Disciplines
• Technology
• Productive Habits
• Family Discipleship
• Homemaking Skills

The key in all of these areas is that I want to make theology applicable to our everyday lives. I’m not necessarily talking about systematic theology through my posts or doing biblical exegesis. There are plenty of resources that do that much better than I could that you should follow. These are tangential topics to the core topics of Knowing God through the Bible. But, it doesn’t make them less important. 

I always felt that we compartmentalize religion too much in modern-day America. We talk about God on Sunday and live the rest of our week like we didn’t hear anything. One of the driving questions of my life has been how what we believe permeates into every area of our lives. Sometimes, people act as if it’s too much to even suggest that it does. 

Here are some of my driving life questions: 

• What does it mean to truly live for God? 
• What about Christian culture is really just American culture? 
• What about Christian culture is actually rooted in the Bible? 
• Does the way that we act line up with what the Bible says? 
• How should I be changed as a result? 

These questions truly take a lifetime to answer, and I haven’t even really begun to scratch the surface of how to answer them deeply and faithfully. 

You can tell how I have continued to clarify my focus. Each step of the way, I’m asking what direction am I headed. Do I want to do this? Do I think this is helpful? Creating your dreams requires you to be honest with yourself.

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Creating Your Dreams Means Heeding Your Calling to Work for God

Spending 5 years in the classroom, I recognize the importance and the need to be present in your community. To be a light that points to God. There are so many people that need to hear the message. That need to wake up. I know that there are good teachers out there sharing their testimony every day, but I never really was able to. I always felt that teaching was a distraction from my calling, not my actual calling. I wanted to be used to speaking boldly about God in a powerful way, but I was too concerned about teaching “bell-to-bell” to feel like I could do anything of that source in a classroom. I was ‘too nice’ according to my students, and maybe that was a testimony in itself. But, I didn’t feel like I could really get at these questions. 

Work and calling is something that we will focus more on the blog in future posts, but suffice it to say, I think that what we work at with our hands should line up with the ideals that we have. If there is a disconnect between our ideals and our work, we need to change. If our work is hampering us from living up to our ideals, we need to change. It means that it is working against you in creating your dreams.

I prayed and prayed and prayed last year about what I should do. For years, I had prayed, “Lord, should I stay home or should I work?” For years, he said, “Not yet.” But, last year, he said, “Yes.” We often don’t know the next step, but we just step forward in faith. Over time, our vision clarifies, and over time, we begin to see how acting in faith allows us to live out our ideals – live out our faith – in what we do. 

Sometimes, I even feel this burning, this itching to write. I sympathize with Jeremiah who said “Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His name.” But His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not hold back” (Jer. 20:9). I believe that this pressure – feeling a deep desire or need to serve – is one way God directs us in our calling. It’s a way he helps you in creating your dreams.

How to: Creating your dreams 

Do you sometimes feel like you have a ministry idea and you are afraid of risk, failure, or uncertainty? Sometimes, we just give up. But, sometimes, we just can’t stop thinking about it. We keep coming back to that idea over and over. It becomes a ‘fire in our bones and we can’t contain it.’ 

And so, I’m not sure what the future holds. But, I do know that right now the ‘next right thing’ is just to write. I have goals and dreams for what I hope that future looks like, but often, what we desire so quickly transforms in the face of what God is able to bring about. 

My prayer is that we all do our next right thing – whether that’s teaching, or blogging, or homemaking, or volunteering – that whatever we are called to do through our skills, gifting, and passions, we work at it with all our might. If we all did this, imagine what we could accomplish for the kingdom of God. We must wake up and work heartily for the Lord. We must wake up and work towards creating our dreams.

We talked about the importance of establishing dreams and goals and moving forward with them in our podcast on making dreams and goals. I wholeheartedly believe that we need to be intentional about our habits and spiritual disciplines. We must first establish our goals in order to be consistent and purposeful about them. Before you ever begin doing any of the following, you need to set a vision for what you want to achieve. 

Here are my three pieces of advice if you are looking to begin working on a project, start a ministry, or move forward on one of your dreams: 

1. Start with one actionable habit that you can do daily. 

It could be getting out a notebook. It could be opening up your computer. It could be turning on a podcast. But, set aside time every day to work on your project. The best way to ensure that you actually get something done is to pick a time in the day first that will be dedicated to working on your project. Then, decide what you will work on every day because it may be something different as you move forward on your project. The habit you need to create is simply devoting time to your project. For me, I set aside nap time to work. Every day, I’m doing something a little different. But, as long as I’m devoting this time, things are moving forward. Devoting time to this project is your way of prioritizing it. With each day’s work, you are a step closer to creating your dreams.

2. Pray frequently about what you are doing. 

You are not doing this just for yourself. You are working to achieve your dreams in order to bring glory to God. It’s not to make your name known; it is for his name’s sake. So, when you are working on your project, you don’t need to feel the pressure ‘to get it all done’ or ‘pull it off.’ God is sovereign overall – including your dreams. As you work on your dream, you can easily become so invested you can’t dream of relinquishing control. You have to change your posture. Instead of holding your dream in a death grip, you must open those closed hands and give it to God. The daily process of giving it to God is done through prayer. Prayer reminds us that we are not in control. God is. 

3. Share about what you are doing with others – even if it’s scary. 

Your dreams are like your baby. You want to keep the safe. They represent your deepest desires – and your greatest fears. When you put your dreams out into the world, you risk people saying that what you are working on isn’t worth it, that you are no good at it, or that you are just silly. If you keep your dreams under wraps, then you won’t risk someone else mocking that dream. But, you also won’t ever work towards creating your dreams. At some point, you will have to let somebody know. You will have to risk the rejection that may come from others.

When I first started the blog, I did not tell anyone about it except my husband for a year. During that time, I posted about 6-7 posts. Since I shared my blog, I have written over 50 posts. Getting your dream out there helps you (1) have accountability and (2) get rid of perfectionism. Both of those reasons are enough to hit the share button. 

4. Journal about your dreams, goals, and progress.

I obviously love to write. I like to write posts, studies, and essays, but there’s nothing quite like journaling. So much of what we do now is all done for other people. We feel like we are in the panopticon, constantly being assessed – judged – from afar. We don’t have much opportunity to just be how we are, “warts and all.” Maybe that’s where the phrase ‘you do you’ came from. We are a culture that longs to be seen as individuals without feeling the pressure to perform for likes. I don’t think culture will ever get back to a more quiet, less public way of living. But, I do think that we can endeavor to create a more quiet, less public way of living in our homes.

Journaling is just one way that you can do something for yourself. You can clarify and understand your thoughts. You’ll determine your own life questions that you must uncover. You will develop a deeper understanding when you do this out of the limelight in the pages of your journal. An added bonus is that you will be able to look back over time and see your growth. 

5. Don’t be afraid to pivot when you need to. 

Most success stories don’t happen overnight. Instead, it is a long winding path to creating your dreams. Many times, the people who were working on things that would ultimately become huge and have a great impact didn’t realize what they were doing. They believed that they could amount to something and they may have known that they were working on their dreams. But, they often never had a true vision of their end goal. As you are faithful to continue to do the next right thing – praying often and believing in God’s goodness – your path shifts and changes.

At times, you’ll need to pivot. Your end goal might change based on God’s leading and your current circumstances. As opportunities arise, don’t be so wedded to your preconceived notions that you let them go by. The book of Acts describes this ‘acting in faith’ mindset. The apostles set their minds to use every opportunity to glorify God. They pivoted often, and their end goals looked much different than what they probably thought their life outcomes would be as they followed Jesus and learned from them. But, think about how much more they were able to accomplish than even they could imagine in their wildest dreams as they sat bringing in fish on a boat. 

I would love to support you in creating your dreams! What are some things that you would like to accomplish for God? 

Follow along on this journey of living out our faith every day 

You can email me or comment below to let me know! 

Also let me know: What are some areas of practical theology that you would like to learn more about? What are areas of your Christian walk that you don’t understand or find hard to live out fully? 

This is an overview of the upcoming blog and podcast series for 2024: 

• How to deal with winter seasons 
• What is practical theology? 
• Creating a legacy of faith 
• Stewardship and sustainability 
• Family Discipleship 
• Rhythms of Work and Rest

I’ll be doing a few miniseries on YouTube based on our decluttering series and wilderness wanderings series on the blog. I also am planning on updating the previous devotionals that used to be listed on the subscriber library and posting them to our store. 

I appreciate all of you who follow along and support my writing and other endeavors through your reviews, downloads, and subscriptions. I had taken a break from social media for about two months, but have recently started posting regularly again. If you would like to support me, the best way is to rate and review the podcast and follow along on the blog and social media. You can also download any of our resources from the shop. 

Lots of great things are happening in the future! Be sure to follow along by subscribing your email to the blog to get our newsletter with the latest updates and a Freebie from our store every time. 

Until then, keep creating a life you love and cultivating your heart for God.