As an educator, I'm home for the summer. I have no family or major responsibilities, a minuscule social life, and I don't need a lot of self care or personal maintenance. I take the way the Lord has structured my life to mean I should spend the extra time I have on Him, as Paul indicated singles should do. (1 Corinthians 7:17, 34). And as I want to.
Lately I've been feeling like I could do more. To be sure, I attend church regularly and my weekly Bible Study Group, and any the fellowship meetings the elders set up. Online, I write a daily blog and a weekly blog, and I maintain two Facebook pages as well as do other social media activity. But could I do more? I feel I need to.
When I ran my newspaper I was committed to presenting different kinds of writing. I felt the paper should be browsable. It ran the gamut of different styles of language, and the articles ran the gamut in length. Some were short, some long, some were photos with a long caption, and I was really fond of bullet points and other graphics. I want to do the same things with the various social media opportunities out there. This generation has the most widespread availability of communication methods ever. I've got a Pinterest page, Instagram, Flickr, and Unsplash which are photo-driven with various opportunities for text. I've got a Twitter stream, two Facebook pages and two blogs (four, really, The Quiet Life (personal) and The End Time (theological) are spread on two platforms, Blogger and Wordpress.) Blogs and Facebook offer more opportunity for print and of course some photos.
The influx of free photo editing software allows for more graphical displays of theological concepts, such as making scripture photos and the like. So the modes of communication are wide and varied and I like to use them all to reach different audiences with the message of Jesus and the Good News.
I could not settle on exactly what I wanted to do though, this something more. I used to send out a hefty weekly newsletter by email to a few hundred people, some years back. Should I revive that? It didn't feel right. Then I got connected with a woman on Facebook. She is the mom of a neighbor who lives at some distance. The daughter said I'd like her mom and her mom would like me. She put us together on FB and she is right. Her mom is a wise and graceful lady. The lady puts out a column of grace-filled nuggets of wisdom, spiritually based but refreshing in their sweetness. I found them encouraging and enlivening to my soul. I think people are thirsting for something good and light and sweet in these days of heavy sin and falsity and blasphemy. The columns are also short. I have a problem with writing short. It's hard and I need practice at that. They are also life-applicable and I need to develop that as well. I decided that the column was the answer.
I asked her permission to copy her style of column. Our audiences do not overlap as she lives at some distance. We do not share Facebook friends, either (except her daughter). She was gracious and said yes, there was always room to share the Good News. How kind of her! So a new column is born. It will be called Prata's Place, Graceful Garlands. The name is from Proverbs 4:8-9, the 'she' here is wisdom,
Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;
she will honor you if you embrace her.
She will place on your head a graceful garland;
she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.
They are written as a photo, or a graphic, so I can share them on Instagram, Pinterest, and other places. The text is meant to bring Jesus to mind in a sweet way. The column might be your cup of tea or not, but I intend to add it to my cadre of items I write that's focused on Jesus, His good and quiet life (1 Thessalonians 4:11) and His soon return.
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My Social Media
Photos:
Instagram- eprata7777
Flickr - esiena
Unsplash-elizabethprata
Pinterest- elizabethprata
Writing:
I write two blogs. The End Time has new content daily and The Quiet Life has new content weekly.
The End Time (Blogger)
The End Time (Wordpress)
The Quiet Life (Blogger)
The Quiet Life (Wordpress)
The blogs at Wordpress and Blogger are the same. I mirrored them in case Wordpress or Blogger decided to pull my blog, I'd have a backup. Also, some people like WP better or Blogger better for their mobiles so I decided just to create a mirror of each.
Personal:
Facebook- this is a personal page. It's open to the public though. I post the typical things- about my cute cats, what I had for dinner, and how long my latest nap was. Cliche!
Facebook The End Time- this page is theological in nature. I post my own thoughts, links to good and solid sites, quotes, devotionals and the like.
Amazon author page. This page links to my eBooks
