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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/AliseWright.jpg\" "\\"AliseWright\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nAlise is married to an amazing man and is mom to four incredible kids. She enjoys writing, playing keyboards in her cover band, eating soup, and Oxford commas. She is the editor of “Not Alone: Stories of Living with Depression” and is currently editing “Not Afraid: Stories of Finding Significance”, both with Civitas Press. She blogs regularly at\u00a0alise-write.com<\/a>, and you can connect with her on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n More Influential than Klout Blogging is kind of a funny thing.<\/p>\n Absolutely anyone can go set up a blog and start writing right now. Heck, someone probably read that last sentence and thought, \u201cYou know, that\u2019s true,\u201d stopped reading, and started a blog. I\u2019m glad my writing could inspire you.<\/p>\n And there it is. As soon as we have anyone reading our words, we have this power. It won\u2019t happen every time, but when we write, we become influential. Not like the way Klout tells us that we\u2019re influential, but in a more real way. We can shift perspectives. We can persuade decisions. We can impact conversations.<\/p>\n Often, however, we forget that our readers and commenters have the ability to influence us as well.<\/p>\n I post regularly about relationships that are dangerous and those kinds of posts tend to elicit strong reactions.<\/p>\n Because for the most part, we tend to read people who think like us, I often get positive comments. People will say that they have felt the same way, but didn\u2019t know how to say it. They will share that they appreciate a different perspective being presented. Sometimes folks will tell me that I\u2019m a true Christian for speaking out in favor of bridge building.<\/p>\n In these instances, it\u2019s easy to allow people to influence my view of my faith.<\/p>\n Often, however, in these same posts, I get reactions that are not so supportive. People will suggest that my perspective is damaging. They will call me deceived. I\u2019ve had people tell me that my views about things like cross-gender friendship, or LGBT affirmation, or atheist dialog without the goal of conversion indicate that I\u2019m not a Christian at all.<\/p>\n In these instances, it\u2019s easy to allow people to influence my view of my faith.<\/p>\n This is not how faith works. Our community can help shape our faith and can encourage us in the day to day application of that in our lives, but people on the outside don\u2019t get to tell us if we\u2019re real Christians or not.<\/p>\n One way to sort that question out is to look at what the Bible has to say.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>-by Alise Wright\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n