Just popping in to let you know I haven’t disappeared completely. Had a rough week but we’re hanging in there. I NEED to get our tax paperwork completed and sent to the accountant over the next couple of days and then I will resume blogging. Thanks for your patience! Your presence, and prayers, are such a blessing to me!

Beth

… and you will find it here!

For a variety of reasons … I’m not quite ready to roll yet. Sometime between now and October 1st (absolute latest) I will be posting at Masterpiece! Honest!

I have decided that my fresh start requires a new home. My new blog won’t go live until Labor Day, September 3, but I would greatly appreciate it if you would take a moment now to go subscribe. That way you miss anything when I get moving again! Thank you so much!

Masterpiece

Living for God’s Glory!

Beth

Just popping in to let you know that all is well. Just taking a little break. I will be back soon! Beth

I am moving all of the content from Beth: A Work in Progress to this blog to enable me to get ready for some big changes over there. I am changing the name, and the theme, there to STORIES. This blog will remain more of an online journal with a focus on thankfulness and faith-based depression recovery. Thanks for sticking with me as I go through these growing “pains.” Beth

I have been debating, thinking, and praying over exactly what I want to do with the theme of this blog. When I began blogging, 5 years ago, my blog was a private online life journal and Beth: A Work in Progress just seemed like a good title. It was from “Be patient with me, God isn’t finished with me yet.”  I just never changed it. Then when I went looking for a theme to cover more than one blog I chose “Becoming a Masterpiece” based on Ephesians 2:10 although it always bugged me a bit that the verse says we ARE (right now) His masterpiece not that we are becoming one. Those themes have been okay but never felt exactly right to me.

Last night I finished listening to Michael Hyatt’s Platform (audiobook), which I definitely need to listen to again, and then went to bed with so many thoughts and ideas whirling in my brain. I laid there thinking, “Okay Beth. What do you want to write?” Because I don’t want to recreate what someone else is already doing! I don’t want to bounce from one meme to the next anymore. I want a theme.

I’m not going to be a food blogger, a craft blogger, or a d.i.y. blogger. Health and fitness are part of my journey but it’s not what I want to blog. Looking for Tigger is already focused on faith and depression recovery, and will be a good fit for my journal, so I don’t need to duplicate that here. I’m not going to even TRY to recreate Ann Voskamp’s A Holy Experience. There are plenty of how-to-write and how-to-blog blogs out there. I was ruling things out left and right without coming up with anything that felt like a good fit for me. Which brought me back to the question, “What do I want to write? What, of all the writing I have done over the past few years, has felt best? Most natural?”

And then, somewhere after 2:00 A.M. a light bulb moment. Stories! I like writing stories! And so … Stories was born!

Over the next few weeks, along with the upcoming design change, I will be moving existing content from this blog over to Tigger in preparation for my new theme. And I am trying to “herd” my followers from the Becoming a Masterpiece Blogs FB page onto a new one for Stories that is located here. When my new design is ready to go live I will be changing the name of this blog to Stories and change the title of my feed to Stories by Beth. Or maybe I’ll just do it today! You do not need to resubscribe. The addresses will not change. Only the names will be different.

Now the challenge will be to come up with stories with which to fill this blog. I anticipate that most will be short but I may do a series from time to time. I’d also love it if you would care to share ideas and inspirations with me.

So … what do you think? Are you ready to relax by the virtual campfire with me and hear some stories?

Change is in the air … and out of my hands! I know. I know. Y’all like my current design. I do too except that it seems a bit more immature than I care for. My other current issue is that my blogs have a very slow page load speed! I have tried everything I know of to speed them up and Pingdom Tools still says that they load slower than 80% of the websites tested. That is just not cool! So I took a deep breath and turned the design over to a professional. Jacqui Layne, of Wacky Jacqui’s Designs, is creating a new look for my blogs, Facebook cover and Twitter background, and changing me over to the Genesis theme, all for a very reasonable price. I’m not entirely sure when the change will happen but I’m super excited! I’ve kind of developed an ETSY addiction recently and had a variety of clip art that I had been playing with so I just sent all of it to her and said “this is what I like, let me know if you need something different.” So I really have little to no idea of how it’s going to look. Scary place to be for a control freak!

I did some background clean-up today and permanently deleted Faith Walk and Journey since I wasn’t using them anyway. Thought, one more time, about trying to restore the content that I lost a year ago when my blogs were hacked, and decided, once and for all, to just let it go.

I bought Michael Hyatt‘s new book, Platform, and then decided I was feeling too lazy to read it so I also picked it up as an audiobook. I’ve been listening to it, and will have to do so again, and coming away with some inspirations and ideas. Hearing some of the same things from Jeff Goins, CopyBlogger, ProBlogger, TentBlogger, The Write Practice, etc. Thinking that if that many successful people are saying “do this” I probably ought to listen! So in days too come I will be working on building my subscriber base, developing an e-book that I can give away to subscribers (any ideas?), remember to use a call to action in my posts, and learning more about promoting my posts. Some times it bothers me a bit that, with the exception of Michael Hyatt, these guys are all way younger than me and I think maybe I missed the boat to success in the digital world by a few years! But Jon Acuff, whom I absolutely adore, had an answer to that concern yesterday here. I tweet and FB link to Jon all the time, because I love him, and strongly suggest that you subscribe to his blog(s).

Speaking of Facebook and Twitter, I have been trying to build up my social media presence but I am just not creative enough to come up with that much original thought a dozen times a day. So I have started sharing quotes that I find interesting, or inspirational, to fill in the blank spaces. I also tweet, and share on my Facebook page, links to blog posts that really spoke to me. If you’re not already following me on those spaces … you’re missing some good stuff! Come on over and follow me now, why don’t you!

If you have some ideas of what I could do for a giveaway e-book, please share them with me! Thanks!

See you tomorrow!

Josiah, who has rebuked me for some of my judgmental tendencies from time to time, noticed the other night that I DVR Sister Wives. His first response was pure incredulity and then he asked why I would watch such a sinful program. This from my child who objects to my belief that it is not appropriate for a Christian to work as a bartender. We all have our issues I suppose. I happen to enjoy the show and find it fascinating. I’m not embracing polygamy. But the fact is that aside from the fact that they practice plural marriage … there is far more that I have in common with the Browns than there are differences. Do I think polygamy is scriptural? No … I do not. But for that matter I don’t believe divorce and remarriage to be scriptural either and yet it has become a societal norm and even the church is rarely willing to stand against it. Okay … now that I’ve lost all my (36 – insert eye roll here) followers …

I was reading (listening) to 1 Kings last night about Solomon’s rule. It has always seemed to me a bit odd that the wisest man ever married 700+ women! Hello! And I didn’t recall that in the end … those women pulled him away from God. God had warned him specifically NOT to marry women who served other gods. “They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.” 1 Kings 11:2 And Solomon’s end was so sad … “As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites.  So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done. On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites.  He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.” 1 Kings 11: 4-8

Solomon, even though he was given great wisdom, was susceptible to being led astray by following the desires of his own heart! How much more, with lesser wisdom, do you and I need to check ourselves, our desires, our impulses, to be sure that our actions are pleasing to God and in accord with His will!

I have missed the last couple of weeks, linking up with Kerri, as we dive deep into the 23rd Psalm. I’m joining her again today, digging into Psalm 23:4a

Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil

Growing up, with a King James Bible, I memorized this verse as “though the valley of the shadow of death.” It’s not a valley where we would choose to go. Not a place of sunshine and birdsong. This is a dark valley. A place of dark shadows, scary noises, shivers crawling up the back. Have you been there? Maybe you’re there now?

Over the past several years my husband has had a number of health crises. (In the same time frame I had a car wreck that permanently changed my world … and my health, I began to really struggle with depression, and our son came home from China with an eye infection that could have caused blindness.) Bert’s valley began with cataracts in both eyes. 2 surgeries. Then he was diagnosed with Psioratic Arthritis. (Degenerative Rheumatoid) Medication helps but it is very expensive. Then his heart rate kept dropping way too low and he would pass out. Pacemaker. One month later he had surgery to clear blockage in his carotid artery. Scar tissue grew in the artery after the surgery and he had a small stroke. Had to have another surgery. Right after that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. We felt like we were living in the valley! With evil birds diving down attacking us (doctors, tests, diagnoses, expenses) as we tried to walk through this dark place! It was beyond scary and I would not volunteer to do it again BUT …

God was with us in that valley! Every new blow took us back to our knees and every time He was already there! And gradually, through time and experience, we grew … closer to Him, more trusting that whatever happened He would carry us, support us, provide for us, heal us if that was His will, and eventually take us Home. The valley became less dark and scary because He is our light and we were keeping our eyes on Him!

This weekend Bert was with family in Texas and he called me to let me know that he had experienced another episode where he had suddenly passed out while walking out of a restaurant. He was feeling very weak and fatigued. He got home yesterday afternoon and around 7:30 last night he came into the living room, where Josiah and I were watching TV, appearing to be having a mini-stroke. It passed quickly so we didn’t go to the hospital. But I confess that I feel like we are entering that valley again.

Several years ago this valley scared me. Badly! All I could see were the bad things that could happen. Today, at the entrance of the valley, I see His hand … and I know that He will be with us! Whatever comes!

I may be back in the valley … but I will fear no evil because He IS with me!

I recently won a UPrinting Giveaway. 250 Die Cut Business Cards. I was excited because it gave me an opportunity to order new cards to match my “new” blog design. Unfortunately … as soon as I ordered them … I started having second thoughts about my design. I love this casual “country” look but there is part of me that thinks it’s time for a more “professional” look. Something that would work better as my author’s website if and when I ever actually finish and publish a book. I don’t know. What do you guys think? … Besides thinking I’m crazy!

I transferred all of “Allie’s Story,” so far, to MS Word so that I can work on the story more off-blog this month for JuNoWriMo. 8039 words. I had kind of thought there would be more than that. Now I just need to practice the daily discipline of sitting down and working on it. Every day. No excuses! And because I’m a little but crazy … I also signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo in August. (Links to both are in my sidebar if you’re interested in participating.)

Jeff Goins recently released a new e-book, You Are a Writer, and is doing a 3 week writing Challenge based on the book. My blog posts here will probably be related to that Challenge for the next 3 weeks. Interested in joining the 400+ bloggers participating in this Challenge? Here you go:

I think Body Restoration starts this week on Brave Girls Club. I REALLY want to do it because I honestly believe that I need to find a way to make peace, maybe even friends, with my body before I can make any lasting change! Just not sure I have either the time or the money right now. Guess I better hurry up and decide. I kind of dropped the ball on Soul Restoration 2 but I can take the class again, next time it’s offered, for $25, so I will pick it back up later!

Josiah got home from Haiti yesterday. He was totally exhausted so I didn’t balk when his backpack landed on my dining room table and stayed there. Late last night I was walking through the dining room in the dark and noticed a coiled object under the table. My first thought was that he had accidentally brought a snake home from Haiti and it was now in my house! I tentatively turned the light on, expecting the snake to strike at any moment, and discovered that it was actually his belt! Whew!

Talk to y’all later!

Beth