Followers

I continue to watch the analytics of this blog with part fascination, part curiousness about who and why people are following my site.  In the last 30 days I've had people come to this blog from the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, India, Malaysia and couple of other far flung places and I've had people start following me that I don't know.  Some of the people stopping by have bad intentions wanting to get visitors to their sites that want money from you and I try to delete those as fast as I can.  When I started this blog, it was for me and I guess I never expected anyone else to read it.  Then a few people found out and Rick and Kyle even responded.  Now I've had 951 unique visitors in the past 30 days.  It adds a bit of fear to what I do because most of what I right is about me, emotions I'm not sure I want to share with people I don't know.  On the other hand, I wonder if it is an opportunity to reach out to people and let them know they are not alone in their struggles, in their failings, in their fears and in their victories.  I need to decide where I want to go with this I suppose.

That said, yesterday was a struggle for me but today I feel lifted up.  I feel like today is a better day because I have asked a few very, very close friends to pray for me and for some emotions I am battling.  I believe I am feeling better today because their prayers are at work on my behalf.  My point is this, if you don't have some close friends you can share everything with, you are in a tough situation.  To go a step further, I am convinced men need men in their lives they can tell their sins to, tell their temptations to, tell their darkest fears to who will love them unconditionally.  The tragedy is most men are afraid of that level of intimacy but I am here to tell you that once you make that step, your life will make a turn for the better.  Granted, it has to be someone you can trust and someone who isn't going to gossip about what they've heard but once you find that person or group of people, more peace will enter your life than you think possible.  I assume women need that same type of connection and I think it might be easier for them but I don't know. Being a man, it's just easier for me to speak about men.  :)

I know this.  I have walked through some dark, dark days and I can't imagine how I would have come through it without some very good friends who let me cry, let me talk and cry some more, who listened without judgment or unsolicited opinion, who asked questions that made me search my heart and who have prayed prayer after prayer for me and my relationship with God and people.  I love them dearly and I thank God for bringing them into my life.

Grace and peace to you.