My Drop of Honey

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I am new to the blogosphere, both as a writer and as a reader. For the last several years I had heard about blogs, and had known of their benefits, but until recently I had not been in the habit of reading blogs. I had been encouraged by small business consultants to start a blog of my own--they said it would be good for business. Well, I wasn't about to start writing something strictly as a sales technique--that's just not how I'm wired, but I WAS intrigued with the blog as a vehicle for communication.

Once I finally zeroed in on what my message was, and what I really wanted to write about, I jumped in wholeheartedly to begin writing Up the Sunbeam. Writing my own blog led me to reading other blogs, and as you probably know from the ones you follow, one blog leads to an exponentially increasing number of other blogs. They're like potato chips--you can't eat just one!

I have been so blessed by so many of the blogs I've chased from one link to another. However, at times I have also been intimidated. Some of what I read was just SO GOOD! And there was SO MUCH that was SO GOOD! How could my little posts on my fledgling blogspot compete or hold up against such a flood of wonderful writing and wise words and great photography.

Old insecurities that probably hearken back to middle-school-mean-girls reared their ugly heads (what IS it about middle school girls, anyway?). For a split second--well, maybe a few not so split seconds--I thought maybe it wasn't worth it. After all, I don't have the college degree I should have gotten. Nor do I have an impressive career as an author or head of a powerful women's ministry. "I don't have," "I haven't done," " I'm not enough" . . . you get the idea . . .
And then I read about the honey bee.

Did you know that a female honey bee goes through a whole series of jobs before she gets to go out and become a honey-maker? She is in turn a housekeeper, nursemaid, construction worker, grocer, undertaker, guard, and finally, after 21 days she becomes a forager commissioned with the task of collecting pollen and nectar. An average worker bee (once she goes out to gather nectar) flies the equivalent of 160 miles, collecting nectar from 36,000 flowers to produce only 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey--in her whole life! All that work, literally working herself to death, to produce only a drop of honey! It takes an average of 556 bees, flying the equivalent of 3 times around the globe, visiting 2,000,000 flowers to make just one pound of golden sticky sweetness!!

Okay, so what does that have to do with my insecurities about my blog and its place in the blogosphere? And what does any of that have to do with you? It tells me that my credentials matter less than my experience, and titles and pieces of paper are less important than my diligence to do the variety of tasks God has given me to do. It tells me that my words, my pictures and all God gives me to do, and be, and create, all go together to form my drop of honey. My drop of honey matters, even if it is only a drop. YOUR drop of honey matters!! The drops of honey produced by each of our lives combine to be of great blessing to the world.

"Pleasant words are a honeycomb,

sweet to the soul and healing to the bones."
Proverbs 16:24 NIV

I pray that my drop of honey sweetens your life today. I pray that it brings nourishment to your soul. I pray that it makes you smack your lips and lick your fingers with the luscious taste of God's goodness. I pray for you, that you would not withhold your drop of honey from the world, and that nothing would intimidate you from collecting nectar from every flower God grows.

Information about bees gathered and extrapolated from Amazing Honey Bee Facts and Backyard Beekeepers. Thanks to my sweetest of sweet neighbors, Jennifer, (whose bee is undoubtedly in this picture gathering nectar from my lavender), for lending me her bee for my photoshoot and for her wonderful gifts of honey--she keeps my pantry stocked!

This post inspired me to create a new Thank You card -- I share it here in case you want to use it to express your appreciation to someone who has sweetened your day.

Sweetened Thank You by FridayDreaming