I'm on Twitter! And a note on Christian fiction.

I have joined the wonderful world of Twitter! 

How terribly exciting. Now while my blog is listed on my Twitter account I won't be using the account for blogging per se. Rather it's in an effort to assist the author in the family. However I will be using it to share (I believe the technical word is "retweet") blogging and self-publishing information. So if that's your thing please feel free to follow MB @Azkadelia_v2 :)

Oh and if you enjoy Christian fiction then watch this space . . . ;)

I'd love to follow you on Twitter too so please leave your deets (I'm so hip!) in the comment section below.

Writing the "perfect" post

I remember reading Rachel Madden's post on this topic and just getting it, you know? It made so much sense to a fellow (recovering) perfectionist. I want to have the perfect post, a beautifully crafted manuscript of exquisite aesthetic value (getting my money's worth out of that thesaurus ;) ).

I'm almost drooling thinking about it. Sigh...

Perfectionism is a pretty lie. It reminds me of a South American Dart Frog. Those vibrant colours are gorgeous but they are oh so deadly, much like the toxicity of perfectionism I discussed a few weeks ago. 

So, if I can't write the perfect post what can I do? 

There's the usual tips, like breaking up dense text with pictures. You can see in my earlier posts that I didn't always add images but now Creative Commons is one of my bestest friends :)

But really this post is about not worrying and giving up the desire to be perfect. Sorry.

Let peace, rather than worry, rule your heart.

Collaboratively I bet we could write pages and pages of the little tips and tricks we know about blogging and writing a killer post. But how often do we say "don't worry about it?" I don't mean in that namby pamby blasé way but a down to earth, God centred plea to just stop worrying. Seriously. Stop. 

My second semester started a few weeks ago so my blog has gone on the backburner for a while. This is generally considered to be a reasonable thing to do but it's still been a nagging worry.

Instead of getting on with my studies I'm wasting energy worrying. I'm constantly justifying my actions and reminding myself why blogging can wait another day, another week (or two.. *cough*). But it feels like I'm letting someone down. I don't think it's a specific person, more likely that nasty idol of perfectionism. 

Me, hiding from the nasty idol. 

"At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life." (Titus 3: 3-7)

Jesus came to set the captives free (Luke 4:18). Through Him we are freed from those passions and pleasures and by working out our salvation (Philippians 2: 12) we become more like Him: righteous, holy and sanctified. 

My prayer: Lord, let us no longer be deceived but earnestly seek your face, to walk the narrow path and be filled and renewed by your Holy Spirit. 

God bless and have a wonderful week (or two/three/until I have a breather from study)! Oh and, as a moment by moment lesson in letting go, I accidentally lost half this post . . . half of my beautiful, exquisite post *sob.*

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Photo credit:

1. Image by Sascha Gebhardt. Used under CC license. 

2. Image by New Life Church Collingwood. Used under CC license. 

3. Image by black panther. Public domain. 

Hey you, don't give up!

So it's that time of the week again where I share some thoughts and seek to love those around me.

<insert cheer here>

It's also that time of the week where I think I'd like to be a craft blogger and write about all the nifty little things I make, or a book review blog and share my reflections on whatever I'm currently reading.

So fabulous.

But that's not why I started this blog. 

I started this blog on a self-admitted whim but with a genuine heart desire to reach out to people and to demonstrate Christ's love. 

"By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13: 35)

In a short period of time I have been able to connect with people with that same desire. I have admired their way with words and been inspired by their commitment to Christ. There are so many wonderful bloggers and writers (I draw a distinction and place myself in the former category) out there, all with a voice and something to say.

As a small-time indie blogger, who only started a few months ago, it's tempting to feel insignificant and unimportant. But I don't. I refuse to give into that temptation and allow those lies to gain any ground.

We face those kind of temptations on a daily basis. It is with much fervor that I pray the Lord's Prayer, especially these lines: "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one." Oh Lord, deliver us!

There is so much evil in the world, so much injustice.

But before my mind gets into its depressing rut of "so let's all just pack it in and go home then" I want to say, with utmost certainty and conviction, that there is hope. 

Today at church we read Luke 18: 1-8 in which Jesus teaches us to pray for justice, like the widow pleading her case before the judge, and to persevere in this. Our judge is not the apathetic and godless man presented in the parable but a loving, merciful, perfect Father who cares for His children.

Similarly, in last week's sermon, we looked at God's love in Luke 11: 1-11. To understand the Lord's provision and love for His children we can observe the love earthly parents have for their children, and then times that by infinity!!

Explanation of this meme (because I know a lot of you probably won't get it [and that's ok!]).

The Lord hears our cries for deliverance, for justice and in His love and mercy. He will answer. 

How do you persevere in prayer? What helps you to keep going instead of giving up? 

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Photo credit: 

1. Image by Mike Licht. Used under CC license.
2. Image by Mike Licht. Used under CC license.
3. Image by Adam Dachis. Used under CC license.

IntenseDebate and the Mystery of the Disappearing Comments (UPDATED)

Comments missing or showing up as deleted on my blog? Here's why

Short version 
I made a mistake.

Long version 
I've been having some problems with the IntenseDebate commenting system. I was following this solution from iSophie. In an attempt to recover my precious missing comments she recommended deleting the Blogger form comments and the IntenseDebate comments should reappear...
Yeah, that didn't happen.

So, IntenseDebate comments from several posts are still missing and now all the Blogger comments have been deleted... by moi. And no, you cannot recover deleted comments unless you moderate your comments (I don't) and keep the notification emails.

I'm sure the tech heads will get a good laugh out of this rookie error ;)

From what I've read around the interwebs my changes to the mobile template should stop this problem from happening in the future. However if it continues to occur I will admit defeat and uninstall the IntenseDebate plugin.

So, if your comments are missing or that oh so lovely "this comment was deleted by the blog administrator" is showing up I'm sorry! I'm a blogging newbie and made a mistake.

To be honest I'm just really proud of myself for getting through this whole experience without crying or beating myself up for not being perfectly wonderful at something :)

Happy blogging!

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UPDATE

The IntenseDebate comments can now be viewed on previous posts, huzzah! However, I still cannot "un-delete" the Blogger comments I removed earlier. Who knew, deleting something actually, like, deletes it.

The only way I could get back my missing IntenseDebate comments was to tick the "Remove forever" box when deleting a comment. See below.

Removes comment but leaves some details (read more below)

Removes all traces of the comment.
Necessary to regain lost IntenseDebate comments.

Note: In the original post when I said I deleted my comments I did not select the "Remove forever" option. This removes all traces of the comment including the "this comment was removed by the administrator" notice, the commentator's name, etc.

So I'm sorry to all the readers who have had their comments removed. I truly appreciate them and very much enjoy interacting with you all. Please feel free to add your comment again (although of course I don't expect that!).

Ideally this will be the closing chapter to IntenseDebate and the Mystery of the Disappearing Comments.

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Photo credit:
1. Image by www.pexels.com. Public domain (CC0).
2. MB. Comment taken from Josh Duggar and Forgiveness.
3. MB. Comment taken from Josh Duggar and Forgiveness.