ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF, SO THAT...

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."  2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Happy Monday and as my husband says to his students "It's the best day because you have the whole week in front of you" Thanks for checking in with Deliberate women!

As my first official posting as a DW girl, I thought I would take this time to briefly introduce myself and share a little bit of my heart and why I am so excited to be a part of Deliberate Women.

My name is Mia Koehne and I am the newest blogging member of this group. I have been blogging for a while, but only recently have I become a Deliberate Blogger. As you get to know me and check in with my writing, I think what you may find is that my blog is actually kind of like my diary...random at times, raw, misspelled, passionate, opinionated, un-opinionated, joyful, happy, depressing, frustrating and hopefully encouraging.

My blogger account (aka, my diary), back in the day, was originally set to private and no one could see it until one day I thought I would dare to share it. I quickly realized that as I opened my heart through my blog, others who were struggling with the same things were encouraged and others that had been through the struggles I was going through were able to encourage me. We connected though the joys, the ups, the downs and basically the "Life" moments that we were all going though.

I love recording life, looking back on where I have been, the daily struggles I have gone through and most importantly seeing God in and through it all. I love the Lord Jesus, and remembering how He is constant in the joy and pain keeps my eyes fixed on Him and prepared for the journey ahead. Blogging, writing it all down, helps me to remember.

In addition to being a diary writer, I love to sing. I love to create music. I love to sing music that others have created. I just love music!

I love using hash-tags to make points or to be sarcastic #HashTagsAllowMeToSayWhatIamReallyThinking.

I love coffee, dark and robust (not Starbucks...sorry people), black with 1 teaspoon of sugar!

I enjoy chilling at home, I love the quiet, I love chaos. I love my kids, one of my dogs, but not the other one. I look at Facebook more than necessary. I love food, but hate to cook it. I like Netflix, I love my Bible and highlighters.

I am an introvert (oddly enough) and I get panic attacks when I'm in public, but I am never nervous before I perform (even when there were 30,000 teenagers in the Alamodome watching me speak).

As I write all this I think I may be a conundrum. I have even been know to enjoy giving myself new titles like conundrum. But the most joyous blessing, struggle and God victory in my life is my husband.

I have been a wife to Bob for over 20 years now (by the grace of God) and a stay at home Mom to three (pretty much adult) kids, Chris, Aaron & Miriam. And by stay at home, I simply mean that is where my heart is. Music and ministry take me all over...around the state and across the county. I love the years that God had me planted in the home while my babies were young and I cherish these years presently that He is sending me out to do music & ministry on the road.

One of the things that really struck me when I was first connected with DW was the message of taking off our masks, being real, being transparent and doing life together..... even the messy stuff. This is the cry of my heart, my writing, my speaking and my music. It just seemed like a perfect fit! As someone who spent a long time trying to keep up appearances and having walked through many trials to land at a place where I could finally and honestly say "I'm done wearing a mask, what you see is what you get", I can testify that I love the heart of this ministry.

I am so happy to connect, grow, learn, encourage and be encouraged by every single one of you! I'm glad to be a part of a community of women (you) that are ready (or will be soon) to dig in, tear off the masks, get real with each other and get real with the Lord. As we live in His forgiveness, grace and mercy, we together can encourage each other to live a life worthy of the calling. Women that are ready to be Deliberate!

Today, I just want you to know my name, in the months and Lord willing years to come, I want you to know my heart.....imperfect and flawed, but redeemed by the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

The reason I write, the reason I speak, the reason I sing is this: My desire is to live a SO THAT life. Knowing that God has brought me through many storms so that I could comfort others in theirs with the same comfort I received So that others can do the same in return. May we be that, may we be Deliberate Women together So That Others will be comforted in this thing called Life.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

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