#TreasuryofSmallBlogs, August 2014

I've discovered a new passion in life: reading and showcasing other writers. Especially in the era of blogging, there are so many new voices out there--easily accessible by the click of a mouse. Last month I hosted my first ever Treasury of Small Blogs and was overwhelmed by the number of submissions. Yesterday, I called for submissions again and got almost twice the number of entries! I spent several hours reading blogs yesterday. I was SO INSPIRED by all of you. It was so hard to pick the Top Ten. (Don't worry, if I didn't pick your post, you can always submit again next month!) Keep writing. At the end of September, I will host another Treasury of Small Blogs. For now, please enjoy these Top Ten posts. Leave an encouraging comment (writers LOVE that!). Follow each other on Twitter. And THANK YOU for participating. xo. EE.

1.

"It has been my experience that the people who harbor the most prejudiced and biased views toward another group of people have never spent much time around those people or engaged the story of that group. They exist to them only in the abstract. When we allow ourselves to turn entire people groups into abstract beings it becomes much easier to absorb the negative stereotypes and caricatures that are given to us.” —Ryan Herring @ The Ghetto Monk Twitter: @infiniteideal

 2.

"When you bury your son, you bury everything. Your ministry, your job, your marriage, your hope, your dreams, your calling, your religion, your faith, and even your god. Everything you thought was real gets buried in a little blue wooden box.” —Juan Lopez @ That Whoever Believes Twitter: @jclopez35 

 3.

"It’s an agonizing tension—the need for safety and the call to this wild beauty where everything is possible. All the savagery but also all the expansion of my tiny body. My soul screams to experience life to its fullest almost as if it knows this is it’s one chance at adventure. But my body fights because it knows it is so fragile and mortal—torn apart easily by vicious teeth.” —Sarah Drinka @ SarahDrinka.com Twitter: @sdrinka 

 4.

"As horrific as the news out of Iraq is to our eyes and ears, not one bit of it surprises or shocks our God. It saddens and stirs that great Divine Heart, but in no way does it signal the end of the story. Redemption is still at work." --Diana Trautwein @ Just Wondering Twitter: @drgtrautwein 

 5.

"Dear Ferguson, I have been hovering over your hurt these past weeks and I only want to tell you a few important things… I can’t physically get to you, but everytime I love my own afflicted neighbors, I am doing it in your honor and to me these small acts of impassioned love are prayers that will somehow and someway reach through space and distance to be a balm for your painful places.” —Erika Morrison @ The-LifeArtist Twitter: @erikalifeartist

 6.

"If I’m nice to people, then they will be nice to me. If I pray and go to church regularly, then God will be happy with me. If I work hard, then I will be rewarded. If I’m healthy and hardly drink and take care of myself, then there’s no reason on earthy why I shouldn’t have a perfectly healthy and happy baby from the first moment I ask for one. It’s just not true.” —Carly Hutton @ Growing Butterfly Twitter: @carlymbutton 

 7.

"Sociologists tell us that conspiracy theories and apocalyptic thinking are deeply intertwined, and that wherever you find one, you’re likely to find the other. It’s a pathology in the American psyche, a sickness, this fascination with the end times. There’s something deeply un-Christian about it. It’s as though Jesus and the Bible have become nothing more than cultural totems with the power to drive us mad.” --Boze Herrington @ Sketches by Boze Twitter: @SketchesbyBoze 

 8.

"Once upon a time, there was A Really Nice Guy. And all he wanted to do was help people.This Really Nice Guy spent a lot of his time talking about the evils of discriminatory societal infrastructures (that usually didn’t directly affect him). But after all, he wanted to help people, and he saw that these systemic inequalities hurt people, so he had to speak up. And speak up he did.” —Dani Kelley @ Dani-Kelley.com Twitter: @danileekelley

 9.

"The dawn of the new year, the first day of Naked, I dressed in front of my bathroom mirror. I looked up, still leaning over my sink with water droplets running down my face and neck and observed my unclothed body, tracing my reflection to my eyes. They filled with tears, realization dawning that I did not examine myself with the typical repulsion. Rather, I sought out positive features and persuaded myself that I can be beautiful, just as I am."  --Rebekah Hope @ RebekahHopes Twitter: @BekahHopes

 10.

"In college, whenever I was walking across campus, knowing I’d be late to class, I’d run through my head plausible excuses: I had a bad fall on my way over. I got a really hard phone call just before class. My last professor dismissed us late. When the truth was, I just didn’t keep track of time. But that wasn’t endearing enough, worthy enough, good enough. So I’d lie." --Andrea Enright @Honesty With Andrea E. Twitter: @andreacenright