Blogger Award | Dipping Into the Heart

I have been so blessed to have been nominated for four different blogger awards recently. I have been remiss in publicly thanking those who have nominated me and completing the rules of the awards. It’s been crazy in my personal life and it has kept me from being able to give the awards my full attention. I will rectify the issue with this post and the next. However, because I am working with all four awards, I will nominate 15 bloggers in total between all the awards. I know some of the bloggers I am nominating are “Award Free” blogs, but I want to acknowledge them anyway.

So, buckle up, here I go with the first two awards.

I first want to thank Shattered In Him for her nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award. JD is an amazing woman who writes about her past, present and future with hope and thanksgiving. She’s had a lot happen in her life, but her focus is always on the blessings she has, the love of her family and, most importantly, God. Stop by and get to meet this wonderful lady.

According to the website, when nominating someone for this award, you should consider the quality of the writing, the uniqueness of the subjects covered, the level of love displayed in the words on the virtual page or the quality of the photographs and the level of love displayed in the taking of them. Honor those bloggers who bring something special to your life whether every day or only now and then.

My nominees for the Versatile Blogger Award are:

Gbolabo Adetunji, aYoKa – His poetry is deep but understandable. There is beauty in what he writes, even on rough subjects.

Joys of Joel – Joel’s poetry crosses many different subjects. Some of them are deep and some make me laugh while others make me think.

Emissary – She writes devotionals and posts beautiful pictures with Scripture. Her devotionals make me feel like I’m sitting and talking to a friend.

Autism in Our Nest – Robyn has children on the autism spectrum and she writes about it with passion, strength and compassion. Since I have a child who has aspects of Asperger’s, I relate so much to her. However, it’s a great blog for anyone.

Creative Writing of a Baltimorean – Devereaux is a teen with Asperger’s. His writing is raw and real about his experiences and life. He writes with no censoring. It is eye-opening and helps to understand the struggles and beauty of Asperger’s.

Next, I want to thank Write A Line Blog by Obioma Ijeoma Ibe for the Blogger Recognition Award. Obioma’s writing is mostly in poetic form. They are simple to read and DEEP. There is so much purpose and hope to her beautiful writing. Thank you for the nomination. Stop by and get to know her more.

My nominees for the Blogger Recognition Award are:

Knitting With Heart – Jackie’s posts are fun. She doesn’t post often but they’re worth the fun read when she does. She also shows her knitting projects.

Wicked Aww Pics – This is a blog that just makes me smile. Having a rough day, pull up this site (or subscribe to it) and there is a picture of some of the cutest and funniest animals you’ve seen. Recently there was a picture of a collie on a skateboard on steps. You can pretty much write a story in your head about it.

Mutt’s Blog – This one is like the one above except, as you can tell, it features dog pictures and their owners. Definite lift for your day.

Mixed Cats – I would be remiss if I didn’t give equal kudos to the cat pictures. I love all the animals. These last three nominations are all blogs that can make a difference in your day with one click. No reading or time is necessary. Just click and smile.

The rules are:

Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
Write a post to show your award.
Give a brief story of how your blog started.
Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers.
Select 10-15 other bloggers for this award.
Comment on each blog to let them know you’ve nominated them and a link to the post you created.

Why did I start blogging? I honestly went into writing this blog kicking and screaming. I kept getting this leading to write my story and that was the last thing I wanted to do. I didn’t make my personal life and, especially my thoughts, public often. So, to think about being vulnerable to anyone who reads my blog was terrifying. However, I realized that the idea wasn’t going to stop coming to me, so I began writing VERY quietly without letting anyone know about it for some time. I wrote a post every once in awhile and it took days to actually get something to the point that I could hit the publish button. Over time, it has gotten MUCH easier even though revealing the details of my life and my thoughts about it is still not something that comes easily to me, but when I heard what I wrote helped others, I understood.

What two pieces of advice would I give to new bloggers?

Write from your heart and what you know. It’s important for others to be able to relate to you. This can only be done when you are being real. Also, when you share a part of yourself and what you know, you use what has happened to help others. It can redeem some of the rough feelings and experiences you have had by helping someone else get through similar experiences and feelings.
Don’t give in to comparing yourself to other bloggers or get into the habit of competing with them. The beauty of blogging is how amazing fellow bloggers are to each other. I have never met a group of people who have been so uplifting, encouraging and helpful than I have with my fellow bloggers. The amount of blogger awards there are is proof of this reality. These awards are nominations (which actually means giving someone the award) by bloggers to bloggers.

I will thank the bloggers and nominate the people for the other two awards in my next post. All of the blogs I have linked to and named are wonderfully written by amazing people. I strongly recommend taking some time to read their blogs.

~ Joanna Lynn

God loves women as much as men. We are all His children. “Jesus talked to the woman at the well; Jesus treated the woman caught in adultery with kindness and dignity. When Jesus was on the cross, He told John to take care of His mother. When He first appeared from the empty tomb, it was to women.” (from Jennifer Rothschild’s Bible study, Hosea.)