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Since January I’ve been talking a lot about “projects” that I’m working on. I have a lot of irons in the fire and a lot of things I want to accomplish this year. But, one of the big things is rebranding. Since last May (May 2019) I’ve been discussing, planning, praying, researching, and experimenting with ways to make my site better. How to update, simplify and make it more me.
I had a good plan in place and was steadily making progress. Then in mid-February my site started glitching. I wasn’t able to add any new posts and at one point I couldn’t even log in to the backend of the site. I began working with Technical Support trying to figure out what the issue was and making very little headway.
As one week turned into two, and then three I began to have doubts.
When I first started this blog in 2016 I did ‘most everything wrong. I was rebellious and thought that I could succeed doing things my way and I was unwise with my time and resources. I began to wonder if these tech issues were somehow my fault.
Was this happening because I insisted on doing things my way for so long? Is it because I’ve misused my time and resources and I am now paying the consequences? Is this God telling me that I need to be doing something else and this is the only way He can get my attention?
Once we finally started getting to the bottom of the original issue, another problem was discovered. My site wasn’t saving like it should. That meant that if the entire site crashed some of my content would be gone forever!
I was then encouraged to step back entirely from the site. Throughout the entire process I had a peace. Usually when issues of this sort arise I pray about it and then do everything I possibly can to fix it on my own. This time I literally couldn’t even touch the site…it was hard but somehow I knew that it would all work out. I was still praying about it and trying to trust God and leave it in His hands.
What I didn’t know is just how much He was doing that I couldn’t see…
Throughout the process of trying to fix the original issue my theme accidently changed and another was installed automatically. I worked for a little while to try to get the old theme back. But then realized that it would be a LOT more work than just changing the colors of the new theme to the colors that I wanted to use when I rebranded later this year. I did a little checking to make sure that this theme had a couple of the other important things that I needed (it did) and then changed the colors!
Changing the theme was something that I was really concerned about. How did I make sure that my site backed up correctly so that I wouldn’t loose anything? Of the millions of themes available, which one do I choose?
Ya’ll I can’t emphasize this enough: GOD DID THIS.
His hands are ALL over this. The theme that is currently running was one that I was familiar with. In fact, if you happened to get on and see the green and purple color scheme: I did that experimenting. I was just too unsure and scared to actually change it.
Another thing that’s important when changing a website is to make sure all the content is backed up. That way if something goes wrong you can hit a button and everything goes back to the way it was. Unbeknownst to me, that feature hadn’t been working FOR WEEKS. Yet somehow when the site changed ALL MY CONENT was saved!
What I truly thought was a road block. Something that held me back and prevented me from reaching my goals was actually a STEPPING STONE.
Throughout this trial God has been working. Working to answer prayers and bring things about that would have taken me months had I done things my way and when I was ready. Yes, this was a challenge, but it was THROUGH the challenge that God brought about SO much more than just allowing me to add new posts… He created solutions to problems I didn’t even know that I had and He’s literally just given me a way to expediate the process of rebranding all while making things a little easier behind the scenes. On a Sunny Monday no less! (:
I can’t really explain how thankful I am for what He’s done for my site in the last three weeks. I know I’ve said time and again that His plan for our lives is far better than our own. What I’ve seen over the past three weeks proves just that! He really DOES “do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20)!
I’ve got SO many more things planned for this year so don’t be surprised if little things start changing on the site. This isn’t how I planned on rebranding or announcing all my plans for 2020, but God does indeed know best and I’m just here along for the ride pointing the way back to Him–the Source of every good thing (James 1:17).
Until next time,
Bailey Sue
P.S. These are a couple of songs that have really been helping me through the last few days…
