So I Was Nominated...

I'm honored to have received a nomination for the Liebster Award by Karen Brown over at Stooping for Manna. Karen is a dear person in my life, who God only placed into my life for a season, but our connection has long passed the time we had together in the same city and the same church. I am grateful for her encouragement and her amazing spirit and what it has brought to my life.

Here is her shout out: "Stephanie has a way of slowing down moments and inviting her readers into them- so that you must feel, think, and experience as a reader. She is an honest and brave writer, and beautiful friend." Um... yeah. Speechless.

Liebster is a German word that encompasses the following meanings: dearest, sweetest, kindest, lovely, and valued. That's a great word to name an award after.

Nominating someone for the Leibster is like giving credit to someone who has a blog that you would like to bring attention to. It's a way that we, small-fry bloggers, can cheer each other on.

The rules are that I must give five fun facts about myself, answer the five questions posed to me by Karen, then... I get to nominate five others.

So here goes...

Five Fun Facts About Stephanie:

1. I knew God called me to lifelong ministry while in a van riding through the mountains of Colorado, with a friend's feet in my lap, and Mere Christianity in my hand. 

2. I got lost on the Metro in Paris when I was 19. It would have been terrifying if I wasn't with three other girls who made me laugh during the whole experience.

3. One of the major events that changed my life involved a needing a locksmith, freezing cold weather and a neighbor who didn't own a phone book. But seriously, who needed one anyway, with Al Gore's internet invention?

4. Six months after I picked up the guitar, for my dad’s birthday present, I surprised him by playing a guitar solo for the first time during a communion service. I played his favorite song "Amazing Grace" and he cried. I won’t ever play that song for anyone else.

5. One of my favorite things is snow. I don’t enjoy driving in it, obviously. But I love how it takes a brown and dead and barren land and makes it shimmer and look beautiful again. I haven’t seen snow in two years. :(

Questions (nominees, answer these as well):

1. Why do you blog?

Because I don’t know what I think and feel until I write it.

2. What are your spiritual gifts?

In a generic spiritual gift test, teaching, wisdom and leadership are my top three. My motivational spiritual gift is mercy. (i.e., my motivation for all other gifts is based in compassion for others.)

3. What was your favorite class in college? 

Since seminary was more recent for me, I’m going to pick a class from that instead of college. And my favorite class was on the book of Joshua. Not because the book of Joshua is all that fascinating or that I loved the professor, but because it was there that I learned how to exegete a passage of scripture, which is an amazing skill to have been taught. It also opened up my eyes to both and beauty and the destruction of the Old Testament, God’s character, and human nature.

4. From where does your inspiration for your writing come?

My answer is identical to Karen’s: That's easy. It comes from life. From what I read, what I experience, who I meet, and what I'm feeling. Organizing life into words on a page truly helps me process and make sense of it all.

5. If you had a warning label to wear, what would yours say?

“Warning: emotional baggage attached. This one is intense and serious. But if you can get past it, she’s not so bad.” (I think.)

And now it's time for my own nominations. But first, here are the rules (if you can):

      · post the award on your blog

      · offer thanks and a link back to the blog/blogger who nominated you

      · share five random facts about yourself

      · nominate five other bloggers who you believe deserve the award and have less than 500 followers

      · answer the questions and ask five of your own

I went through the list of bloggers I read on a regular bases, but all have more than 500 followers. So, sadly, I cannot fulfill all of the rules… Sorry!