No, I’m not talking about a huge cricket score, much as I love my cricket. I’m celebrating the passing of yet another writing milestone—the posting of my own personal Blog Number 300. Woohoo!!
‘I don’t know how you can come up with a different blog each week,’ someone said to me recently. ‘I wouldn’t be able to think of anything to write about.’
Back when I began blogging in July 2009, I myself wondered if a weekly blog was too ambitious a goal. Yet I am so thankful that, time after time, God opened my eyes and ears and birthed an idea just at the right moment. Some blogs I wrote seemed to hit the mark better than others. But even in those weeks when fewer people read them, I would often receive some encouraging online comment. It was worth it, I decided, if God blessed one person through what I had written.
During these years, I have also written over sixty blogs for Australasian Christian Writers, Christian Writers Downunder and International Christian Fiction Writers. I have enjoyed producing these writing-related blogs as well and hope other authors have been encouraged in their own journeys as a result, just as their blogs have helped me in various ways.
In all this blog writing, however, I know I am the one who has benefited most by far. But for my blogs, I might well have not been so alert to the many diverse ways God has touched my life, whether it be through Scripture, through some experience or event, through a friend or family member, through the Spirit’s prompting within me, through a book or article or through the wonders in the world around me. As well, collecting my thoughts together and fine tuning them has enabled me to take what God is saying to heart so much more myself. Then, from a practical writing perspective, the mere discipline of writing five hundred or so words each week in a way that will connect with others has helped me put things more clearly and succinctly. And, beyond all that, my blogs have connected me with so many of you, my readers, who have taken the time to comment from wherever you are in the world, often sharing your own beautiful thoughts in the process.
In January 2012, I received the following message from a reader:
I was at an IT in-service day last year where one presenter talked about his Biblical perspective on the use of the internet and encouraged us to be cyber salt. I always think of this now when I read your posts. Thanks for all the encouragement you provide. I love reading your gems.
What a privilege to have provided some of that ‘cyber salt’ three hundred times now, even if only in small amounts! In God’s hands, it can make a big difference in another’s life. In Matthew 5:13, Jesus says:
‘You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?’
So, however God gifts and enables, let’s all continue to be salt in this world so that others may ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’ (Psalm 34:8). As for me—well, I’m aiming at the four hundred mark now!
Jo-Anne Berthelsen's Blog 
Congratulations Jo. That’s a fantastic milestone. I’m sorry I don’t always get to read your personal blog, but I’ve certainly been blessed many times by the blogs I have read and really appreciate that you share your wisdom on other sites too. I’ve just posted my 33rd writing tips blog, so the idea of reaching 300 seems like an Olympic marathon!
Good on you for being so faithful. It’s great when people comment, but there would be many other people who’ve been touched by your words and haven’t commented. And you’re so right about how writing blogs ends up blessing the writer too. Looking forward to the 400th post!
Thanks so much, Nola, for your encouraging comments. And, by the way, I reckon 33 blogs about writing would be a marathon for me! I often read those and think how wise and sensible they are, so keep going! I think I would have run out of things to say about writing long before you have.
Congratulations Jo! I may not comment often but I love reading your posts. I admire your discipline and I know you write every word in love.
Thanks.
Leanne
That’s a lovely, encouraging comment, Leanne–thanks so much for being such a faithful supporter of me and my writing! God bless.
Well done Jo- Anne, it’s good to give thanks for God’s equipping and leading in the work we do for Him as He empowers and motivates us.
I was thinking as I read your message, I wonder how many Bloggers I have visited since I started my Blog in September 2011, of course I can’t be sure because I have had Computer crashes and lost a lot of my work but just checking quickly now, there has been approx 1,360 but I have no idea how many comments I have made or their responses to me, unfortunately as I said I have lost quite a bit of my work over these years but like you I have been very blessed in Ministering to others and being Ministered to as many of them shared their focus of Love and Hope in The Lord. There was a Scripture that motivated me and still does which I have shared below.
Philippians 2:1-6 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of Love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfill ye my Joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same Love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Christian Love and Blessings in Christ Jesus – Anne.
Thanks for your encouragement, Anne, and for sharing your own blogging journey. I haven’t tallied up the whole number of visitors/readers either but it’s just encouraging to know God has used what we have written to touch someone at least. And, as I said, I have learnt so much and been blessed so much in the process, as I’m sure you have too. God bless!
You got me wondering Jo-Anne so I went and looked up my Stats, I don’t share them on my Blog like others do except for WordPress review each year, they do a great job but it’s mainly to thank those who visit us.
Since I started Blogging in September 2011, I have written 707 Posts – there has been 9,472 Comments, of course some are mine and Rons, my Blog has had 81,319 views but they don’t tell us how many comments we have made to encourage and uplift others on their Blogs and to me that is what Blogging is about too, sharing our heart focus and encouraging others as they share theirs and of course correcting error if needed or warning them of danger but that is not often.
Well I have to remember to give thanks next time I have Blog or Computer problems for the opportunity to share with others instead of stressing about the problems, they too will pass.
Many Blessings for Easter Jo- Anne.
Congratulations, Anne, on all those blog posts. The only reason I look at my stats on WordPress from time to time is to see what sort of blogs seem to work better than others I have written, so I can try to reach as many people as possible. But you know, God knows our heart with each blog we write and knows every word we write even before we do–and I think he enjoys it all! So let’s keep going!