Someone once told me I should start my own blog. So I did. Except I didn’t know what to blog about. I forged ahead and launched without a vision or plan, and called it “Confessions of a Basic White Girl.” I figured the name was generic enough to cover a broad range of topics like how to buy the best makeup for your skin tone or how to make the best banana bread (like, ever—which is still a worthy lesson if you ask me). I found myself envious of the women who had their own beauty blog, their own fashion blog, food blog, their own “anything” blog.
From Instagram to Pinterest, I felt like I was drowning myself in expectations of the type of woman I should try to be. In my eyes, these women were two things: everything I wasn’t and everything that I wanted to be. So when I began navigating the blogging world on my own, I tried to follow in their footsteps and failed miserably. One day I wrote about my favorite pasta dishes and the next day I was writing about my go-to mascara. The truth is, I never knew what to write about because I didn’t really have a grasp on what I was good at, what I cared about, or mostly, who I even was. In all honesty, I was trying to fit in with the women who looked like they had it together because I certainly did not.
That was almost two years ago. And you know what they say—a lot can happen in a year or two. Somewhere in the course of a couple of messy years, I sorted out a lot. Much of what I sorted out was who I am and more importantly, who I’m not. And to that, I credit a lot of one-on-one time with God. Once I started to emerge from an incredibly difficult time in my life, it weighed heavy on my heart to discover not only who I wanted to be but who I could be. As I ventured into this painful journey of self discovery (sometimes you don’t always like everything you discover about yourself), I felt God asking me why on earth I would ever identify myself as “basic.” What are you supposed to say to the God who created you that you considered yourself “basic” because you liked lattes and Netflix? That was a conversation I didn’t know how to have. Then I was led to a verse that revealed to me that I was anything but basic. In fact, it said that I was fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). That meant that I was created with precision and with purpose. Those words inspired me to pursue a more meaningful venture that reflected the fearfully and wonderfully made person that I was made to be. When I began to explore the idea of starting another blog, I stumbled on a quote by Ann Voskamp that said “The world has enough women who know how to do their hair. The world needs more women who know how to do hard things.” And it hit me. I didn’t know how to do a lot of the things that other women were doing and blogging about, but I did know how to do hard things.
Which leads me to Grace Under Fire, a small corner of the Internet that I hope inspires you to realize that you, too, can do hard things. The phrase “grace under fire” was coined by author Ernest Hemingway who said that courage is grace under fire. Grace under fire means holding your peace and finding fortitude in the midst of the fieriest of circumstances. It’s standing your ground in the middle of your own personal war zone—when the days are long, the bills keep coming, the circumstances are insurmountable, the pain is immovable and the way forward is unclear.
I haven’t always lived my life that way. In fact, much of my life, I’ve lived life quite the opposite. But I hope to become a woman who is symbolic of grace under fire; a woman who can walk in love no matter what’s coming against her. I hope to not only survive life’s difficulties, but to persevere within its depths. And so the intent of all things that I write about from now on is to offer advice and encouragement to you and other women that may stumble upon this blog—because life is awfully hard and can get unexpectedly lonely along the way. And I want you to know that you have someone, whether you know me or not, that is willing to walk it out with you by giving you words of hope and faith. Whatever you’re facing in your life at this very moment, I want you to tell yourself, and to tell yourself continuously, “beautiful girl, you can do hard things.” Because you can. And you will. There is no loss so great, no disappointment too large, no setback so discouraging that can stop God’s plan for your life. Whatever you’re going through, there is still a beautiful life for you to live. And it’s one that you can walk through with a little grace on your side. So beautiful girl, what do you say?