What's this for anyway?

Well, many of you know that I am not a great "blogger". And right now you are thinking I have a tendency to state the obvious, as just illustrated in the first sentence of this post. That's ok, I'm good with that!
I have done some heavy thinking (at least it's heavy thinking for me) about this phenomenon called a "blog". My first thought was to find a definition for what a "blog" really is. After typing "definition of blog" in my Google window this was the first entry on the page:

"Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site."

I haven't been in a college English class in a long time, therefore I have no idea how, or even if I'm supposed to reference the source of this definition. If you know, please feel free to let me in on proper referencing rules. Ok, so now that we officially know the definition of a blog, I am going to quit putting these things " " around the word blog. I do remember from class that these " " are called quotation marks! Thank you very much.
My next thought comes from the very title of this blog you are reading right now. What's this for anyway? Referring to of course a blog. I have in the last few months been reading a lot of different peoples blogs in hopes to answer that very question. I quickly learned that different people have different reasons for having a blog. I'm not saying that there is any right or wrong reasons (well, there may be some wrong reasons, but that's probably a totally different post) for having a blog.
Here are some things I have seen blogs used for. Bands that use a blog for keeping fans in the know about upcoming shows, individuals that use blogs for letting the general public know what's going on in their life, pastors who share what's going on in the life of the church and it's ministries, student ministries that post devotionals for it's students, plus tons of other things I can't think of right at this moment (sorry).
The things listed above made me really think about what MY blog is for. In some cases I believe we can learn what to do by looking at what NOT to do. So I will start with what I will NOT use my blog for:

• Bashing or criticizing others
• A place to meet women (I'm happily married, sorry ladies)
• A platform to make fun of, or belittle someone who doesn't agree with me about something
• An arena to defend how I lead the ministry God has blessed me with
• Self-promotion (Thank goodness, because I only average about 5 visits a day!!)
  

With that being said, here is what I WILL use my blog for:

• Encouragement
• Laughter
• Information

I hope to use this site as a place to encourage those who may need encouragement, a place where I can laugh at myself (just take a look at the post about QVC or "In my defense") and you can laugh AT me, not just WITH me, and finally a place where I may actually share some information ranging from what God is doing in my life, to a great restaurant I ate at on a Friday night.

Thanks for being part of the 5 that spend a few seconds reading this Weblog!!

Keepin' it real,

Bryan