From Eric Carpenter at A Pilgrim’s Progress.  Wise words for those of us in the blogosphere who are Christians, especially of the Reformed bent.  I’ll look to heed his words, what about you?

I just ran the A Pilgrim’s Progress numbers for the past couple of months. In November and December, I have posted 85 times. Some of the posts have been extensive essays, while others have been little more than links to other blogs, webpages, etc.

Of the 85 posts, 56 of them lean toward the positive. In other words, they have a positive feel to them. The other 29 posts leaned toward the negative. This does not mean that I was being mean or nasty; it just means that the tone of those 29 posts was negative.

 

Those numbers are not quite where I think they need to be. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I want this blog to lean more heavily to the positive. There are plenty of other non-Christian writers out there with a lot of negative things to write about. If anyone has anything positive and substantial to say, it should be Christian bloggers.

This is not “pie-in-the-sky” naiveté. There are certainly some issues that need to be addressed that will necessarily (if we look at the issue or situation from a biblical perspective) have a negative tone. Whenever we deal with sin, for example, this happens.

 

My goal from this point forward is to have at least a 2-to-1 ratio of positive to negative blog posts. Since the beginning of November I’ve been just under this goal. I’m going to strive to move up a few percentage points.

 

Christian blogs should be edifying to Christian readers. They should be challenging to non-Christian readers. They should speak the truth in love to all. I believe this is done most effectively by presenting a largely positive blogging atmosphere.

 

My goal from here forward is more positive-bent blogging. 

Today there are countless websites and within this sea of information, many people tend to navigate these waters by following a select few.  Instead of fishing for our favorite websites every time we log onto the Internet, wouldn’t it be nice to automatically receive updates from your favorite sites?  This is where RSS comes into play.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syn-di-cation.”  Personally, I’m what you would consider, “technically declined.” So if this definition doesn’t help you any, don’t worry, it doesn’t do anything for me either.  This is why I liked the definition for RSS found on Back in Skinny Jeans, “Ready for Some Stories.”

What I found – and what I am growing to love and appreciate – is that an RSS subscription to websites and blogs – such as Pre-em-i-nence (shameless plug) – provides the subscriber with automatic updates.  Instead of having to remember website and blog addresses, bookmarking them, or manually typing in their address, you can subscribe to them via their RSS feed and receive updates.  This way you save time sailing the expanse of the ocean in search of your favorite websites and blogs.

I know this is great and all, but how do you actually use RSS?  Read the rest of this entry »