Natalie K. is a big fat rotten failure; Kendull comments

[Witsec1]

So, Natalie K. at Visionary Womanhood meant to send out an email alert to her followers about her interview with Kevin Swanson (dominionist radio dude), but instead sent out an unpublished, unedited draft of a post by her youngest guest blogger, Bria Crawford. One of her subscribers sent an "ungracious" email objecting to a misspelling and to the "tone" of the post. Well, mistakes happen. Most people, I find, tend to be pretty forgiving... except when they feel personally attacked. And given Bria Crawford's role model, I suspect the objectionable "tone" was one of self-righteous condemnation that the "ungracious" commenter perceived as a personal attack. The commenter also probably had no way of knowing that the post in her email box was the unedited scribbling of a deliberately undereducated 16 year old - I assume it looked like all the other "official" emails from VW.

But anyway, if you deal with the public, sometimes people get mad at you. Sometimes it's because you did something wrong, sometimes it's because they're ungracious bitches. And you know what? It's OK to feel hurt, angry, frustrated when someone attacks you like that. Those are just feelings. You acknowledge them, but you also remember that displaying those feelings right then will serve no constructive purpose. You put on your rational adult undergarments and respond in a courteous, constructive way to resolve the issue. Usually, you'll find the feelings become manageable once you've done that. You really don't need to beat yourself up for having a natural, human response to a perceived attack. If you still need to blow off steam, call up your bff or log on to a snark board and vent a little.

But if you're a visionary woman, that's just not enough drama, apparently. You will need to beat yourself and abase yourself, the better to display what a good, humble, Christian woman you are.

I’m certain the woman who made the comment unsubscribed to Visionary Womanhood in disgust. Which is probably for the best, because we’ve all got problems over here. I’m dead serious. I know you can look at their lovely mugshots and read the sweet bios and think they’ve got it all together, but I’m telling you…every single contributor on this blog has issues. I don’t even know the HALF of the nastiness represented by the hearts writing on the VW blog.

I just know myself. And I’m a big, fat, rotten failure of a human being. No matter how hard I try to be a great MOM and a great WIFE and a great HOME MAKER and a great DAUGHTER of God, I fail a thousand times a day. And my guess, after experiencing 45 years on this earth so far and meeting lots of folks, is that every single woman writing on this blog has the same ugly heart I have.

So what does that mean for Visionary Womanhood? It means you will sometimes catch glimpses of the imperfections represented here. We want to be transparent…yet encouraging. Sometimes you will read posts where we openly share some of the garbage in our lives. It’s usually more acceptable then…because we “told you on purposeâ€.

But the embarrassing times come when you see the trash we’ve tried to tuck away quick. Woops. That’s when the real grace comes out. See how that works?

Out slips the sin. Out pours the grace.

Isn’t that incredible?

Boy, do I need to work on that in my own life. I tend to be very snarky in my own mind. Worse than that woman who commented. You wouldn’t believe the self-control I have to exert to keep myself from letting all the sarcasm dripping from my brain come seeping out of my mouth…and onto this blog. It would take your breath away. I do a lot of editing before I post something I write. Only God knows the sickness I hide.

Oh to be full of grace at all times! To be oozing kindness and thoughtfulness even as I “correct†someone in love. To have the love of Christ, like a tsunami, crashing into the sin around me…covering it with its purifying power.

But rather than sitting around sighing about how rotten I am and how hopeless it all is…I absolutely MUST make the choice to focus on the One who never fails. Because HE is the One that this blog is supposed to revolve around. The contributors here are just Wemmicks. Expect imperfection here, and lots of it.

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From the comments:

Kendal says:

November 14, 2011 at 10:03 am

This is pretty ironic. My last post was on this same topic!

Thank you for sharing!

Reply

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Wemmick Girl Saved by Grace says:

November 14, 2011 at 10:13 am

Just read it! That is too funny! Well…join the crew of imperfect bloggers. Jeepers, if we all waited until we were perfect…none of us could every open our mouths to say a peep, right? I don’t think that’s what God intended. Keep bloggin’…and we can laugh at each other’s bloopers. : )

Uh-oh, if Natalie wasn't aware of FJ before, she is now. Maybe she'll find the post where I snarked on Bria for ripping off another artist's work, without credit or acknowledgment of any kind, to illustrate a post on how secular entertainment is robbing kids today of their creativity. And, yeah, I judged Natalie for allowing Bria to steal someone else's work.

I'm sure the defense mechanism Natalie and Kendal (see only "l" - Hi Kendal!) are using here has some name in the psychological literature. Uriah Heep Syndrome? By grovelling and abasing themselves, they achieve one-upmanship, and conveniently avoid any real self-evaluation.

[Effie]

One of her subscribers sent an "ungracious" email objecting to a misspelling and to the "tone" of the post.

Perhaps it was just constructive criticism - something I think Bria would need to hear, considering she lacks critical thinking skills. Bria is one-sided, and won't accept dissenting opinions on her blog.

Of course objecting to a misspelling is maybe not that constructive, but if the misspelling was happening repeatedly throughout the post then I can understand why the commenter reacted on it.