Gadding About?
There has been a bit of a kerfluffle lately about blogging. There is probably a kerfluffle in the blog world daily, if not minutely (can I use that word that way?), but this one has been visiting my neighborhood. I thought about sitting on the sidelines and playing the part of the nice older lady who hands out milk and cookies to the local urchins and smiles sweetly through it all, but I will briefly set down my bifocals, add a couple of semi-cantakerous thoughts, then defer to a friend’s wisdom while I go back to my cookie baking.
It was with reluctance that I added a blogroll to my sidebar. At the time, I remember mentioning my concern about contributing to the delinquency of my readers as they became sidetracked home executives, clicking on the next alluring link. I’ve had emails from people wondering how I do it all, including keeping up with all the links in my sidebar. Gulp! I suppose that those links do give the impression that I am a blog-hopper, but I quickly disabused the inquiring minds of that notion and admitted that I only visit two or three of those links on a regular basis. As more and more readers visit and leave their links, I’m contemplating how to handle the blogroll issue. I am happy to give others an opportunity to have their websites get new visitors—it’s the Emma Woodhouse in me—but I don’t want to be impeding prairie muffins from making their duly appointed rounds when I’ve made it somewhat of my mission to encourage them to stay faithful to their duties.
We all have the same number of hours in a day and we need to make wise choices about how to use them. I know what it’s like to have small children who need lots of my time and attention, and even with home-grown household help, I still have a limited amount of time I can spend online. When I wrote about my role model, Anne Bradstreet, I noted:
Not seeking glory for herself, Anne made sure that meeting her responsibilities to her family was paramount. She willingly sacrificed her time and strength for them. In Beyond Stateliest Marble, Doug Wilson says:
John Woodbridge [her publisher] noted that Anne’s poetry was written in hours snatched away from sleep. We may assume that her other literary pursuits, her studies which gave her grist for the mill, were conducted the same way. In other words, Ann was not reading and studying instead of caring for her family. She did not have her nose in a book when children needed to be fed and cared for.
Now this was a sacrifice she sought out and pursued. No one required this of her, and she had more than enough to do in her ordinary responsibilities. But apparently, the creative impulses in her were very strong and demanded an outlet. But there was no way to create this outlet without tremendous late-night sacrifices. The fruit of those sacrifices are still with us today.
There are many reasons a woman might maintain a weblog. Some have those “creative impulses” which need an outlet. Others feel isolated and want to find encouragement and kindred spirits with whom they can commiserate. There are some who are compelled to give an opinion on every subject under the sun and others who specialize in one subject as they freely opine. Of course, there is always the temptation to seek attention and to stir up hornets’ nests in order to be in the center of all the excitement when the angry buzzing begins.
I don’t claim always to have perfectly pure motives, but I already gave my “justification” for my blogging on New Year’s Day: Whyblog? There’s no need to cover the same ground, but I’d like to add a couple of cautionary notes. A friend recently mentioned that as she read around the blogosphere, she was seeing the same names commenting over and over in so many places, and she started to think about women “gadding about from house to house” (I Timothy 5:13) That’s a sobering thought, and one we all need to consider.
Every moment we spend on our computers is time we aren’t doing something else. I know that we need encouragement and friendship in this time when even our churches and relatives are often denigrating our service to our families, but we must be judicious in our online time and not get sucked into the vortex. There are children to read to, neighbors to visit, husbands to love and households which don’t run by themselves. I’m afraid it’s possible to have your fanny firmly planted in a seat in the middle of your house, but nobody’s home.
As to what subjects women ought to broach in their online conversations, I think that anything we talk about face to face is fair game. We have sons and daughters to teach how to think biblically about all sorts of issues, and we must understand and have opinions about many things if we are going to teach them well, just as Lois and Eunice taught Timothy. But we need to exercise caution when we presume to teach others on our websites. I think younger women can have many fresh and valuable insights to give, but it was only after I had experienced some “extreme living” and had some experience under my apron that I ventured, with fear and trembling, to begin proffering my opinions. Though I appreciate having my iron sharpened here, I seldom comment on other sites, and I rarely give advice elsewhere, unless asked.
I pray that this gentle admonition will not confuse anybody, but that it will help to keep priorities straight. For a complementary and unconfusing perspective on the same topic, please read Soft Tongue Soft Pen, written by my friend Toni, a lady whose blog I make time to visit. She has given me permission to add her essay to my articles page.
Stay tuned tomorrow for a cookie exchange!
Note: If anyone has questions or comments about what I have written, feel free to post them, but I request that you do not use the comment box to give me any pats on the back, as that is not the purpose of what I’ve written tonight. “Speak kindly” still applies, however 
.
May 8th, 2005 at 8:21 am
If I comment, what does that say about me? hmmmmm…..
May 8th, 2005 at 8:49 am
I know that my LEAST favorite thing about blogging is that there are so many good good good good blogs to read. That’s probably been the hardest part for me, to STOP visiting them all and to just pick a couple favorites, reading the others during that once-a-week lull in time when there happens to be a spare hour or two to fritter away (at least, a spare hour that I can justify! HA!).
I am actually planning on taking a break from blogging…if this baby ever is birthed, that is, and then probably switch to a once-a-week type of blog entry. In fact, I am going to team up with a few other women who’d like to do the same thing, mostly for the exact same reasons (we love blogging, but have a hard time justifying how much it takes us away from our bigger priorities right now). Team blogging? Is that a word??? *grin*
Anyways, all that to say that I enjoyed your thoughts and have been having them myself, especially over this last month.
Alright, now off to go into labor… (*sigh–yeah, right*)…
May 8th, 2005 at 10:33 am
Thank you, Carmon. I’m sorry, but I must pat you on the back for saying what you did. I decided fairly recently to eliminate the Internet from my day from Monday through Friday for this and other reasons. I felt like I was beginning to let the blogosphere consume my thoughts to the point that none were my own. There was no room! I mean, in the past we were NEVER exposed to so many opinions in a day’s time. Yet today we can be filled to the top each day with a miriad of opinions and teachings just by wandering the blogosphere. It’s not normal! And it’s only getting worse. I say worse because there are some like me who have a very hard time knowing when to back away from the box. And yet, each day I find more reasons not to. I’m very unsure at this point if I need to keep adding my 2 cents to the growing cacophony of women bloggers. I’m just weary of it all. When I came back on this weekend, I was met at my Bloglines account with 148 entries to read if I chose. I just can’t keep up with all the blogs I try to read even though they’re all worthy to be read. I must simplify in this area, I think. At least that or just dump the whole mess and be obscure again (well, except with my stamping website).
And that gadding about Scripture was the VERY SAME one that crossed my mind when thinking of myself and wandering around in the blogosphere. I was so glad you mentioned that. I think R.C. Sproul, Jr. is right. We women need to be cautious as bloggers. We should not be treading into the men’s realm, spiritually. I am content to be what God has made me to be, boring as it is to some. Again, thank you!
May 8th, 2005 at 1:19 pm
Thank you Carmon for this post. I have been thinking lately if I should restrict my online time and this post has encouraged me to be wiser in how I spend my time. It’s so easy for me to turn on the thing and check blogs when I have a quick second during the day. Lately I have felt like it makes it harder for me to live a simple and deliberate life. The points Ken Myers makes in All God’s Children… are so relevant to this issue.
Thanks.
May 8th, 2005 at 1:39 pm
You know, I don’t really think it’s a man-woman thing, though, Mrs. Coffee and a Muffin girl.
The blogosphere is no more a man’s realm than it is a woman’s–the exchange of ideas is not gender-specific, nor is the concept of fellowship and community.
The problem is something that BOTH genders must deal with, and that is, “how much of this time occupied in cyberspace is a holy calling (or godly pastime) and how much of it is interfering with (or taking away from) things that God wants me involved with. Each of us will have different answers to the question, but the important thing is that we at least ask ourselves the question.
May 8th, 2005 at 2:43 pm
Molly, I didn’t mean that the blogosphere was a man’s realm. I meant teaching in our blogs beyond the boundaries Scripture sets for women was. R.C. seemed to be pointing at women who blog about things that were not “womanly” subjects according to Scripture (Auburn Avenue scandal, etc.). I think Toni had a wonderful response to his concerns.
May 8th, 2005 at 2:50 pm
My struggle as a modern Titus 2 woman (the older version) is that while I’m blogging about how to be a good wife and mother or reading about how others are doing it, my children are calling to me for attention and the chores are going undone. Sump’n’s wrong wit dat pik-chuh. That’s why I thought I needed to take big breaks on this thing, because I can’t very well teach or instruct in homemaking when I ain’t doin’ it m’seff. heh. Not when I’s gaddin’ about the blogosphere either, KWIM? Or am I speaking muddily again? I’m known to do that.
May 8th, 2005 at 4:45 pm
1. extreme in that usage has to be spelled “X-trEEM” doesn’t it? *ducks and holds up an 1828 websters for protection*
2. Happy mother’s day!
May 8th, 2005 at 6:28 pm
“kerfluffle”… sweetie, you have the gentlest way of putting things sometimes.
May 8th, 2005 at 8:02 pm
Meredith…aren’t “relevant” and “Ken Myers” oxymorons?
Molly, I think the team blogging sounds like a great idea! I am praying that your little munchkin makes an appearance soon.
Kendra…you are funny! I didn’t intend to create a Catch-22.
Kim, I have sometimes been guilty of the same thing: while the cat’s away (in cyberworld) the mice will play.
Thanks, srl, and I hope you made it a special day for your mom. Give her a hug for me!
Steven, you know me best, and you know I can be just the opposite, too. Your remark did make me consult the dictionary, however, where I found that I misspelled the word; it’s actually kerfuffle. Now I need to make one of those public apologies for which I am becoming famous. Thanks for noticing
.
May 8th, 2005 at 8:55 pm
I’m so paranoid….I think I need to take a week or two off of commenting
But first, I’ll join your cookie exchange.
May 8th, 2005 at 10:36 pm
Ah, Kim, thanks for clarifying. I see what you were trying to say now…
(takes me a while, my brain is currently located somewhere in this huge bulging belly of mine right now, me thinks)…
Love,
The Woman Who Hopes Labor Will Hit Tonight
(but who’s been hoping it’d hit for the last TWO STINKIN’ WEEKS, so isn’t exactly holding her breath or anything)…
May 9th, 2005 at 9:18 am
Couldn’t help myself. I do, truly, only have a couple of sites that I visit on a regular basis. We are on “break” right now so I have a little bit of relaxing time. When we get back from vacation I will have to get back to normal routine. That means dishes and school come before blog stuff.
I am thankful for some refreshing like-mindedness. Because I homeschool and have 5 under 8 I don’t get that much of a chance for outside socializing with godly women. I do read the Word and have great conversations with my husband. We have had a great chance to do a Bible Study series at church. That will come to an end this Wednesday. Just in time for us to travel and come back to our school routine. It is an encouragement. One that I don’t want to become addicted to. I need to also put forth the extra effort to form real friendships with those real people around me.
May 10th, 2005 at 8:19 am
I’m just commenting here to note my weblog is now at http://www.pastoralfarms.us (not “.com/weblog/” anylonger).
May 10th, 2005 at 8:26 pm
I know I’m a few days behind finding this post, but am so glad I did. Carmon, I was actually wondering what you might have to say on this topic. On one hand I am glad to know, on the other…I stand convicted. It’s not always comfy, but I do appreciate the iron sharpening. Just this am I went through my bookmarks and deleted a fair number of blogs.
Roberta
May 14th, 2005 at 4:42 pm
Oh, dear, and I didn’t mean to comment on this one, but I must just let you know that the inimitable Anne Ivy always spells it “kerfluffle” so that is the correct spelling.
June 20th, 2005 at 8:17 pm
A Good Reminder…
For my fellow bloggers, here's a good reminder:
http://buriedtreasurebooks.com/weblog/?p=1102
Blogging can be a wonderfu…