I am a writer.

I love words and I love arranging them on paper and on a computer screen.

I delight in making sentences dance and paragraphs sing and stories whisper.

I have a lot of things to say and sometimes they don’t always come out right.

Yet I must keep on writing no matter what.

“Writer” is a title that comes to a person because of an impulse deep within them that says they must write or else nothing in life makes sense.

Yet it has taken me a long time to accept that fact. For too long I let fear keep my words to myself. I was afraid of what other people would think when they read my words – when they saw my vulnerabilities spilled out on the page. I was scared of rejection, because when one rejects someone’s writing, they are rejecting part of their soul bravely spelled out on paper.

Why was this my fear, though? How often had I gotten rejected or laughed at or scorned because of my writing? Never. It was only the critics living inside my brain doing the laughing and rejecting – imaginary scenarios of what I thought other people were thinking when they read my writing but never said to me.

But what I did hear more often was people encouraging me because of my writing. They told me they needed to hear it. They thanked me for it – and I realized that having something to say was important. Not because I was important, but because God created us with voices to connect our stories together. And when we’re brave and tell our stories out loud, we make others brave around us.

So if I’m a writer and someday want to get books published, should I stick to my usual, infrequent blogging schedule of maybe twice a month when the inspiration hits? Probably not the best decision. I’ve come to realize that I need to start challenging myself and I need to make my blog posts more significant and regular. I need to be focused and more committed to my writing. I need to learn the skills to make it better so that one day I can take it to the next level – becoming a published author.

My challenge to myself then? Dare I even say it? To blog for 365 days straight.

I’m afraid of that type of commitment because I know my life. I know the long days and tired nights. I know the stress and the busy and the “I just can’t right now.” But I also know that anything worth doing in life is worth sacrificing for and worth committing to, no matter what. And that is what my writing is to me – it’s worth it.

I already know in advance there will be some days I won’t be able to make a post – and I’m going to give myself grace for those days. But those will be the minority – the exception, NOT the expectation. The expectation will be discipline – making myself sit down in front of my computer and just writing. For 15 minutes, maybe 20 or 30, but writing consistently until it becomes a daily habit.

And on those 365 days I hope to discover my voice even more as a writer. I hope to define it even more, define what I’m passionate about writing about, and define my future goals as a writer. I want to be able to share pieces of my story – past and present – and what God is teaching me through my story to inspire, encourage, and challenge those around me.

To those of you who read my blog: thank you. Thank you to those who read every post and those who read every so often. Thank you for taking the time to value my words, however insignificant they may be. If you only read my blog because I post links on Facebook, just know that I won’t be posting everyday links to my blog posts (don’t want to bore the Facebook crowd!). I will still post links every now and then if I feel like it’s a more significant topic, but if you want to get updates on my blog posts, you can always use the subscribe button to the right of your screen.

So here we go! Ready to dive into crazy and unpredictable and maybe a little harder than I’m anticipating … but knowing that my writing is a journey that God wants me to become more faithful on. And I’m ready to say yes to the 365 days (and beyond) ahead of me. I hope you will join in!