This is my official hello blog post; my name is Brian Ives, husband to a great wife, father of two great kids, a Youth Pastor and someone who loves to think.  I thought I would take a post and explain why it is that I write.

I would have to go back many years to find a time when I did not have a thought running through my head. Sometimes they have been hard for me to get them on to paper. To get them to a place where they can be hashed out, defined in a clearer manner, and could be stored, but for years the thoughts have been there.

I think it makes a big difference in people’s life when they write or use some form of communication to record their thoughts.  I believe that everyone has beneficial information to share. One man suggested that every person has at least one book in them; their autobiography. But I do think it makes a difference in why we write.

For me, I write for several different reasons, here are the 5 I value as of now:

1. It helps me to think through and remember the lesson(s) that I am currently learning.
2. It helps me to understand how I feel about those lessons and be able to look back on them for years to come.
3. It helps me to clear up my thinking and sharpen what I have to say.

Michael Hyatt says: “Thoughts disentangle themselves over the lips and through fingertips.”

One of the best things I have started lately is Twitter https://twitter.com/BrianKIves

Where else do you get a strict diet of 140 characters to say what you got to say? It has been a challenge for me, but one that I am enjoying.

4. It helps me to be a better communicator and a better preacher.

Most of the time when I preach it is hard to “hear” myself getting off of my topic.  But when I write I can clearly see when I start getting off subject.

I will never forget the day I learned this lesson.  I was proofing a devotion I was writing; I realized that I had gotten off subject for about 5 or 6 lines. I had to erase a few lines and start back up the paper. My thoughts had the chance to become like an arrow shot at a defined target.

5. I hope people read my content, my stories and the lessons that I learned and be able to learn from them also.

So there are the reasons that I write, I understand that most of the reasons that I write sound like they are just for me, but I do hope that it impacts the people that hear me speak and the people that read what I write.

So do you write, and if you do you find that it helps to see clearer the thoughts that you have in your head?