Tomorrow, December 28th, 2022, is Run the Race's six month anniversary, and I could not be more grateful.

I vividly remember little me laying on my bunk bed, dreaming about all the words I wanted to share on my blog. I had a passion to write, a passion to encourage, and I was desperate to get it out. It's like I had so many words stored up inside of me that they were just waiting to be released, waiting to pour out and maybe make a difference, hopefully glorify God.

In sixth grade, I started to create a devotional for my friends. I made a Google Slides presentation, and I often added slides with my own mini piece of encouragement or challenge to them. I prayed over them and with them, and tried to create valuable content to uplift my friends and even draw the not-yet Christians to know Jesus. I probably wrote in that devotional for a year and a half, at least. And sometime during that time as well, I started an email devotional on top of the very official Google Slides devo I was already running. I don't know how long it lasted, but I just remember the craving I had to write, to pour out my thoughts and what God had been teaching me. I don't know if it had any real impact, or if my writing was actually any good, but it was something God was stirring inside of me.

And now, five years after creating that Google Slides devotional, here I am, writing for my very own blog. The blog I've been praying over and dreaming up for so long. The past six months of writing for Run the Race have flown by, and I am so beyond grateful for what God has been doing in my life since starting the blog.

For once, I'm at a lack of words to fully describe how much of a blessing this blog is, and how much it's changed my life (and y'all, it's not very often I'm lacking words).

This blog has pulled me closer to the Lord in more ways than I could have ever imagined. When I first published the blog, I could not have imagined that my life would be the one most changed. But throughout the past six months of writing, blogging, praying over my readers and the content I'm producing, God has been pushing me deeper into His love, His presence, and His word. He's challenging me to really process, really learn and heal and reflect on so many hard things I had shoved down for so long. This blog has been my outlet, my online reflection of what God's been teaching me and working in me. This blog is my passion, my dream that became reality.

Over the next six months, and for as long as I continue to write for Run the Race, it is my prayer that the Lord would be glorified first and foremost. It is my prayer that it would be His words that are published, not mine. It is my prayer that the words I write would encourage and challenge others in their faith, that they would know God more and more by reading this blog. It is my prayer that it would all be His will be done, not mine.

For all you reading this, thank you for your support. From the bottom of my heart, I appreciate all the prayers and love that I've received over the past six months, and I am so so so grateful for everyone who has read my words. You are a blessing to me!

I am so thankful for this blog and for the work God is doing in my life through writing. And I'm so thankful for all of you who read and support me and the blog!

What has been your favorite post so far? How has God been working in your life through the past six months? I'd love to hear in the comments down below!