The Liebster Award is an award given within the blogging community, for upcoming blogs with potential with under 200 followers. It is given by bloggers and received by bloggers. In order to accept the award, the nominees must fill out requirements, such as posting the Liebster Award picture on their page, answering selected questions, and nominating other blogs. I have done this below. Thank you for your support, and thank you to Renae McGill at The Air Force Sweetheart for nominating my blog!

What made you want to start blogging?

I’ve always liked writing. I journal, write poetry, and started into some fiction writing. But I usually keep the finished products to myself. As I’m finishing up a one-year intensive M.A., I’ve been writing for leisure less frequently this past year, but the itch to write has been there. So, I created a blog for free on WordPress where I would feel held accountable to write consistently, and be able to reach people on a public platform.

I didn’t start with creating Joyful For Jesus. At first I created a blog without any niche, just to see where my fingers would take me. It turned out that my posts ended up talking about my faith and Jesus, and so that’s when I decided to start up my own blog with a Christian focus.

Who is your favourite Youtuber to watch?

Because both Youtube and my tastes are so fluid, I can’t really pick an all-time favourite. All I can say as my ‘favourites’ are what I watch right now. I watch Buzzfeed videos (they’re addicting) and spoken word poems on Button Poetry and other poetry channels. I tend to watch Youtubers who don’t swear, such as Thomas Sanders, and I also enjoy watching fellow Christian Youtubers such as BlimeyCow and Jon Jorgenson.

Do you have a schedule for blogging? Do you have certain days you post on your blog?

Currently I post on Fridays. I don’t write blog posts every day – at least not while finishing my M.A. I find that I’m often writing posts Thursday/Friday to post on the Friday. I find that, like most things in life, I’m most productive when the deadline approaches. But if I have an idea for a future blog post, I usually jot down the idea and a few rough notes as a draft to come back to later.

Do you have any pets?

I absolutely love and adore cats. I’d probably have two or three if I could. But unfortunately, I have allergies. I have lots of plushie cats to make up for it.

If you had ONE extra ticket to your favourite band/musician concert, who would you take with you?

I’d probably take my mom. I’m realizing as I get older that she and I have similar tastes, which is cool.

When times get tough, how do you deal with your stress?

I internally scream inside, as I think we all do, but then I pray. I usually distract my brain for a bit, but it honestly depends on the stressor. Sometimes I end up distracting myself by planning things for the immediate future not related to said stressor. Sometimes I just write and read. Sometimes I’ll watch videos/movies. But, sometimes I’ll just plan out what I need to do and how I need to address the stress in bite-sized portions, and then do it. That’s the most effective strategy. Reading the Bible helps me too.

Advice for new bloggers?

I’m also a new blogger! So from a newbie to another – don’t give up. It’s easy to feel discouraged if you’re not getting any readers. Believe me, I know. But keep posting consistently. Also, don’t write posts just because you think it’ll get attention. Of course, you’re blogging, you want people to click on your posts – but don’t just make it about being clicked on. Write what you want to say, and let the topics come from inside you.

Because remember, it was your blog before people read it, and it’ll be your blog when they’ve stopped reading.

For the Liebster Award, I’d like to nominate the following 5 blogs:

• The Hopeful Life
• Lettered Hope
• Stuff of Heaven
• Joy A. Williams
• Justs Writes Here

For those who I’ve nominated, please check out the rules to accept the award, below:

Please answer the following 7 questions:

• What is your favourite Bible verse/passage?
• What do you do when you can’t think of a blog topic?
• What’s your motivation to keep blogging/Why do you blog?
• Where do you see yourself in 1, 5, 10 years?
• What’s one quirk about you that most people don’t know?
• What are your other hobbies?
• What’s your advice for new bloggers?

Thank you so much for reading and helping me get here! I’m looking forward to reading your responses. Have a great week!