I was thinking the other day of my blogging tree. I've stated before that Tim Reed and Brian Coates [no hyperlink available] were the early blog pioneers that led me to this discipline [and this was before the days of MySpace and their terrible blogging app which means everybody became a blogger by birth]. Since then I know of quite a few people who decided, "if Steve can do this, anyone can," and started their own blog. And there are probably branches that stem from this blog that I don't even know about. And the interwebs is a much better place, I'm sure of it. For those of you who still contemplate whether or not you should try blogging [or try blogging for a second time] let me give you my favorite reason for doing this: the ability to archive your life.
I can barely remember what I ate last night, let alone what I was thinking at major points of my life. I started this blog in the fall of 2004. That was before we went to Israel, before we had ever really thought of Echo, before Kaelyn. Because of this blog I can go back and see what got me here. I can quickly reference my highs and lows, see things I wish I hadn't written, and remember mole hills I crafted into mountains. Whenever I think I'm going through a rough period I can look back and see something even worse that God brought me through.
I've never thought of it this way, but blogging is a blessing that I'm grateful for. That's not to say that I haven't littered cyberspace with my share of meaningless YouTube links, but I've also documented some important things in my life. And I'm better off as a result.