What did I learn from the BAKE Awards experience? Was there anything to learn?
Hi, friends! Do you remember when I asked you to cast your vote so that this blog could win a BAKE award? This week, as I thought back to the whole BAKE awards experience, I reflected on the lessons that came out of it.
First, however, we need to look at the genesis of this blog. I had always wanted to start a blog, but I had no idea what to write about. Last year, just after I had purchased a domain for the site, I went through a harrowing three months, during which God directed me to what he wanted me to write about. After writing for around six months, my cousin who runs a food blog (kaaris-kitchen.com) told me to ask people to nominate my blog for a BAKE award! Well, I followed her advice, and got a nomination! Soon after, the voting period began, and when the awards came along, The Relationship Mirror came second! This was quite an achievement for a blog barely a year old!
Anyway – back to the lessons I learnt from the whole experience.
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God’s gift always matches the task
During the three months in which I was struggling, I asked God why everything had to take so long and be so painful. His answer was, “I have a job for you to do.” At the time I did not understand what that was, but as I built my website, I realized that The Relationship Mirror was going to be God’s way of reaching people through my writing.
Now – I was far from an accomplished writer. In fact, my mentor had loads of criticism (constructive, of course) for my written work – to the point that I believed there was no way anyone would read my blog posts. Nevertheless, I wrote anyway! With time, more people were reading the articles and giving me positive feedback.
Where did the writing skill come from? Simple – from the one who gave me the job – God!
Romans 12:6a states, “In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well.” (NLT)
What, then, was the first lesson from the BAKE Awards experience? God gave me the gift of writing so that I would do the job he had for me well, to the glory of his name.
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God gives strength to complete HIS tasks
Before the nomination and voting process came along, publishing weekly posts was a breeze. Suddenly, however, I had to get more people to visit my blog and vote! I was sharing posts all over social media every other day, such that when it came the day for publishing my weekly post, I was exhausted! Sometimes I even considered recycling a couple of old posts!
Then I remembered – God gave me a job to do, and I had to do it well – but I was too tired! Once again I asked the Lord, the giver of the task, to send me a dose of strength, which he faithfully did.
1 Chronicles 16:11 “Search for the Lord and for his strength; continually seek him.”
After I saw the verse above, I realized how easy it is to get all worked up doing what appears to be God’s work, getting totally drained in the process! Yes, it was exciting to get a nomination and be invited to attend the awards ceremony, but I must admit – I forgot to focus on God and his intention for the blog because I was so focused on the getting votes! Once I focused my energies on writing content to inspire, encourage and draw people to God, however, my strength made a miraculous comeback! I felt renewed, inspired and driven to write what God wanted me to – content that touches lives. My other lesson from the BAKE Awards experience, therefore, was that if I stick to the task that God has for me, he will always provide the strength to complete it!
Friends, thanks to you, the BAKE Awards experience was an awesome one. It was both humbling and exciting to be sitting in the same room as some of the best bloggers in Kenya! I just want to say thank you to everyone who voted and asked their friends and family to vote for letting me have that experience, and for the lessons that came with it!
May God help me to stick to the task that The Relationship Mirror was created for! Amen!
Colossians 3:23 “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.” (NLT)
Hi, everyone! As always, I would love to hear from you. Let me know what stood out for you in this article, and what comments you may have. If you loved the article, please like it, share it with your friends and subscribe! See you next week! Alison