Insert Title Here

You know what I love about writing? It lends itself to learning.

This year, I adopted the word Identify as my One Little Word of the year, and it’s been a word that has induced a great deal of soul searching. Sometimes that can prove to be haphazard since I started out the year ready to give birth and then followed that up with being post-partum…no extra hormones are involved in either of those states of living or anything. 🙂

All of that aside, when I’ve identified my goals and dreams for writing, I’ve addressed the strengths and weaknesses of this blog. This is something every blogger does incessantly at times, I believe. Here’s one thing that I’ve been struggling with for a while and am finally trying to resolve: the title.

I stink at titles. With nearly every paper I wrote as a student, I saved coming up with the title for last. I hoped that by writing I’d be inspired with the perfect words to capture the essence of my body of work. I almost always turned those papers in pretty pleased with the content of the paper, but hoping that the teacher or professor would kindly gloss over the title and not judge the entire thing by the title.

When I felt God prompting me to start this blog, the title Exceptionally Average would not leave my head. My hope was to draw in women who felt inferior or “stuck” by being either an exception to the rule or painfully average. If we’re all honest with ourselves, everyone has been there. Or is there.The purpose behind this was to encourage them to own their current places in life so they could joyfully live out the ministry God has for them right now.

I’ve come to realize something, however. The title doesn’t have the draw I hoped it would. In my head, it made sense because I had worked out all of the sub-points and reasons neatly in there. The rest of the world isn’t in my head, though, and I’m afraid that the title isn’t conveying the ultimate intent I desire. So I’m mulling over some ideas for a new title that better captures the message for which God has given me a passion.

Do any of you master title makers have ideas? I’d love to hear them as I weed through the convoluted jumble of words in this head of mine. My friend Ashley helped me narrow down things a bit. (By the way, if you haven’t ever checked out her blog, you’re missing out! Go read it.)

After our conversation and the conversations God and I have had since then, for right now, I’m claiming the words Embracing Confidence. My prayer for each one of you reading this is that you will look at the place where God has you right now and own it with confidence.

If you have a relationship with Him, own that you are His child and that He has a purpose for you to fulfill right now.

If you are working at a job that is exhausting and thankless, fulfill your duties with confidence that He is using you to shine in a dark place.

If your job is to care for your small children, clean up that spilled milk with confidence that God has placed in you what you need to raise up the next generation to point all glory to Him.

If you are sick or unable to interact with others much for whatever reason, own that you can boldly approach the throne of grace on behalf of countless people in need of your prayers.

If you feel like you’re nothing but an average person who can’t accomplish great things, set some goals, step out of your comfort zone, and begin accomplishing what you never thought possible. God will give you the necessary confidence if you seek to fulfill His plans for your life. I’m living proof.

So there you have it, some of the thoughts going through my head in this baby-induced sabbatical from writing. I’ve truly enjoyed and needed it, and I plan to continue to enjoy it as long as necessary. The only thing is, I’m really missing some of my dear blogging friends. So hi there friends! I hope you’re doing well.

If you’re new to this site, thanks so much for stopping by! I would love to have you as a part of this humble little community of women who want to find the exceptional power of God in our otherwise average lives. If you would like to receive updates when I add new posts, you can like my Facebook page, subscribe to my RSS feed, or receive new posts by email. You can also find all of these options easily by going to my home page and clicking on the appropriate icon located in the right side bar.