From the time this community was just a seed that we were cradling and wondering where to plant, there were some special women who we offering their own watering cans and sunshine to help us. One of those women is Sarah, from Sarah on Purpose. She is our current ambassador for A Little Light and we want you to get the chance to know her, and her work, better.
Here is our interview with Sarah about how she is being online and offline with more intention and purpose.
You have a homeschooling site, and your own site around purposeful living. Did you feel ‘called’ to start these sites? I wouldn’t say I felt ‘called’ to start either of these sites. As time has gone on I have felt lead to move my sites in one direction or another. For instance, I stopped posting on my homeschooling site in order to allow room for Sarah on Purpose to grow.
You openly share your faith in your writing, which is something that can be hard for bloggers. What supports do you think help you do this? A big part of why I write is to process my thoughts and the information I pick up. I have a practice of writing in a journal for 10 minutes in the morning. If what I have to say looks interesting, or I am able to pick out a line or two that I think I can expand on, then I take that and run with it. I hope to always be guided by loving my neighbours and showing my love for God through that.
What is a lesson you have learned the hard way with regards to social media? With strategic social media I have learned to ignore the stats and just keep trying. Not every post will bring in the numbers you dream about but every once in a while you will hit pay dirt with something. Until then, looking at the people reached can drive a person crazy.
You have a monthly newsletter for your email subscribers. What is your favourite thing about having an email newsletter? My favourite thing about having a monthly newsletter is getting a little more personal with my readers and being able to create a closer community. I also just love sharing with my readers ways that they can love the world in ordinary ways that help produce extraordinary changes.
Do you ever feel God nudging you in a different direction with how you use your online space? I try to have my site reflect the things that God is teaching me in my offline life. So I guess in a way each post is a little nudge in a new direction for my online space.
You recently launched your first eCourse called the Intentional Living Project (congrats!). For those who don’t know, what does intentional living mean? Intentional living has to do with how you spend your time and who you choose to spend your time with. Time will be spent whether we are directing it or not. My hope for this course is that we will take a good look at the ways our days are passing by and make a solid attempt at using our minutes and hours as resources to create our best lives instead of wasting them on meaningless endeavours that we will look back on with regret, or not remember at all because they were so insignificant.
At what point did you decide you needed to live more intentionally? While I can’t pinpoint the exact event that spurred on my enthusiasm for living more intentionally, looking back one of the biggest pushes for making my life count for something was my sister dying very young (age 20). She was a remarkable person who used her time to visit other hospital patients, deepen relationships and indulge in new experiences. After she was gone I heard over and over again that Julie had lived life to the fullest. I don’t want to get to my last days and look back and think, “Well, I watched some good soap operas and I have a kickass gnome collection”. I want to have evidence that I loved well and I passed on a legacy of kindness to the next generation.
What is your goal for those who do the Intentional Living Project? My goal for the Intentional Living Project Community is to have each person make 1 or 2 changes in their lives and purge their stresses and feelings that they’re not enough and bring in peace and self-care so that they can spill that over onto the people they love.
A struggle for many in social media is the balance of home life, social life, personal time and online work. How does intentional living help guide the time and space you give to your online work? Well I do have a mom cave/office in the works and when it is completed I plan to have my laptop live up there and out of sight. Right now I try to get up early in the morning and write, schedule social media and do some centering prayer/ meditation (something I am still learning about). Sometimes this is successful and sometimes there is a little early riser who wants to snuggle and eat breakfast. I’m also in a bit of a season right now where I am balancing caring for my grandma while she is having medical issues and my regular life. I can see quite clearly that during this time social media may need to take more of a back seat in order for me to be able to be intentional about pouring into my husband, children and others close to me.
What tips would you give to a blogger looking bring some ‘intentional living’ to the content they develop? Creating a mission statement and then weighing your content ideas against that mission statement is a good idea. My mission statement is: I’m on a mission to create a virtual village full of deep conversations, strong community, and an opportunity to share stories. I’m not always extremely successful at this, but it’s what I strive for. Also don’t be afraid of failure. You never know who your post is going to help. If it touches just one person it has fulfilled its purpose.
Check out Sarah’s eCourse, The Intentional Living Project, here.