Would you call yourself a journaler? For many, many years, I wanted to be one. In fact, the two most critical components for journaling, something to write with and something to write on, are among my most favorite things to buy and savor. I confess that until I took a trip to the Dominican Republic in 2020, there was never a journal in my possession that contained more than a few pages of thoughts. Something happened on that trip that made me recognize the value of writing down what’s on my mind and in my heart… in one place… with consistency.

There is a connection between dreaming, hoping, praying over and writing down what the Holy Spirit is stirring in us. I have found that if I stay long enough in my quiet time to surpass my side of the conversation and wait… He will have something to impress upon me. What better position to be in when you hear something from the Lord than sitting with pen to paper… to write it down?!! Jeremiah 30:2 (ESV), ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you.’ The New Living Translation says it this way: “Write down for the record everything I have said to you, Jeremiah.” For. The. Record.

It’s no secret that we have short memories and God wants us to remember what He has shared with us. Writing down what we hear in our quiet time is a good way to help us remember what God said… and what He did! If you don’t currently write down what you’re talking with God about and what you hear from Him, whether it’s from His Word or during your prayer time, I invite you to begin and follow through for the next ninety days. Make it a consistent habit and see what God will show you through it. More than likely, it will be a discipline that will soon become a joy.

About the time that I became a mom these cute little stuffed animals, called Beanie Babies, became a hit! They were soft and floppy… and each one had a heart-shaped red tag attached that shared its name and birth date. Once the company that made them began retiring some of them, the demand for Beanie Babies went crazy! I collected quite a few and knew them all by name.

Eventually, the craze began to wane and so did my space for so many adorable little bean bags. One day I decided that it was time to let them go and so I did. I kept a few favorites, but honestly I’m not even sure where they are now!

Not long ago I read an article that revealed the current value of some of those Beanie Babies. I recognized quite a few on that list that had once been in my possession. What I had paid a handful of dollars for in the mid 1990’s were now selling for thousands of dollars! On the other hand, a Longaberger Basket that I paid a couple hundred bucks for about the same time period, I saw recently going for about twenty-five dollars. Beanie Babies and baskets. Who knew?!

We have a collection of people in our lives. How often do we consider and appreciate their value? Invaluable. Priceless. And so often taken for granted. Perhaps you are feeling overlooked or devalued. Longing to be seen and loved. Genesis 1:20 (NLT) God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us.” From the beginning, of all that God created, we were the only creation that God chose to make in His image. And when we were lost, God made a way to redeem us and we find it in John 3:16 (NLT). “For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” He never lost sight of our value! He sees us and loves us, created and redeemed us. We are so much more than a collectible to God. We were made in HIS image and we are His beloved!

When my husband, Ken, and I moved into our first home, we had already been married for almost two and a half years, but, until then, had been living on a bus as part of a traveling ministry with other young adults. Making a house our home brought me so much joy! We had an extra bedroom, our “spare” room, and we kept it ready for family and friends who came to visit on occasion.

Once we had kids, that spare room became a nursery. In fact, our children brought so much life into our home that they filled up every part of our home with joy and laughter… and life! And while I wished that we had an extra bedroom when we had guests come to visit, we always found a place for everyone to sleep.

Recently, our youngest made her way into the world and now Ken and I have added another description to ourselves: empty nesters. We have a spare room again. It is filled with my grandmother’s bedroom furniture all ready for my granddaughter when she, or other family and friends, come to visit. But, it’s empty.

The first few months, as I walked by that bedroom every day, I focused on the emptiness. A little sadness that a segment of our lives as we knew it for more than thirty years has come to an end. But recently as I walked past, my heart gave way to a flood of memories of story times, laughter, tears and bedtime prayers. I realized that even though the world calls it ’empty’, our home and our hearts, are full to the brim with so many beautiful blessings God chose to bestow on us. And we are grateful.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NLT) helps to put this into perspective. “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” Our season of parenting hasn’t ended. It’s just different. And as long as we get to walk each season out with God, we know He has a plan and we choose to put our trust in Him. The really wonderful thing is: you can too!

Community looks different everywhere… and also the same. It might be your neighbors in your own neighborhood or the community of believers you worship with together. It could also be a group of people you’ve connected with over common interests.

I used to love to create scrapbooks for my family. I still enjoy it – just not as often as in past years. A friend invited me to two different scrapbook weekends over this past year and I was able to start and complete a scrapbook for my granddaughter, Macey. These weekends reminded me of what drew me to scrapbooking in the first place. It wasn’t just the act of preserving memories for the people I care about. It was the connection to people with stories to tell needing someone to listen and share empathy in return.

Is there a hobby or activity that has brought you together with others who enjoy like experiences? The truth is we were never meant to live life alone. You and I were created for community. Each of us with a unique perspective, sharing our stories and encouraging one another to keep moving forward toward loving God and loving each other better.

Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” We truly were created for community!

Have you ever heard someone say, “God is in the details”? Don’t you sometimes wish that He would share more of them with you? Often I am grateful that He doesn’t because I look back at some things and realize what a blessing that I didn’t know all that would come about during an experience!

Recently, while reading the story of God’s conversation with Noah about the impending flood I noticed something. In Genesis 6:18-21 (NLT), God said to Noah, “But I will confirm my covenant with you. So enter the boat—you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring a pair of every kind of animal—a male and a female—into the boat with you to keep them alive during the flood. Pairs of every kind of bird, and every kind of animal, and every kind of small animal that scurries along the ground, will come to you to be kept alive. And be sure to take on board enough food for your family and for all the animals.”

Noah had one job to do. Keep them alive! God told Noah who to bring and what to pack along with his very important assignment: keep them alive! I read, and reread, this story and while God gave Noah some very specific details there is ONE detail He didn’t divulge. How long! In the next chapter, God told Noah He would cause it to rain for 40 days and nights…but that’s not how long they were sealed up inside that giant boat. Genesis 7:24 (NLT) tells us, “And the floodwaters covered the earth for 150 days.” Not just 40 days… Noah had to keep them all alive for 5 months! See what I mean about not knowing some details being a blessing?! How did Noah know how much food to carry on board for his family and the animals without knowing everything about the mission? He didn’t. Twice in those two chapters, the Scripture tells us that Noah did exactly everything that God told him to do. Beyond that, Noah put his trust in God.

Trust is actually the key ingredient in the mission. Noah did all that God instructed him to do and then he trusted God in the rest. And God was and is still that faithful today! The lesson in this story is simple, but seldom is it easy. We must be obedient to what God is telling us to do. Do it, and then, trust Him for the rest. God honors obedience every single time because He is faithful.

I have had days that I call ‘every minute has a name’ days. Meaning that my day is so full of things I must accomplish and the intricacies of each being accomplished at specific times is weighing heavy in my mind… and on my checklist. Have you ever found yourself in that kind of day? Hopefully those days are not the normal occurence. The stress and pressure of days like that can be overwhelming!

When I am talking to God about my day and it’s a day like that, I find myself asking Him to ‘help me get this done so that I can do that‘. The problem for me isn’t that I have all these things to do. The problem is that as I’m ‘reviewing’ my plans with God I assume that each must done the way that I think they should be done. You see it’s not our job to figure out ‘the how’ of God’s plan for our lives. When we are really listening for ‘what’ God tells us to do our trust in God is activated when we let go of trying to figure out how God is going to do it. My job is to know and understand my purpose… why God created me?! Your job is to know and understand why He created you! Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) tells us. “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” God created you and I to do the good things He planned for us a long, long time ago. Do the good things.

Advice that really helped me in this delicate balance between what to do and … how to do it…is this: Hold tight to the purpose and loosely to the plan. As we commit this day to the Lord and all that He has planned for you and me to accomplish in this day we can let go of how to ‘get it all done’ if we trust that God can and will lead us in the ‘doing’. At the end of the day it is not so much about whether or not we got it all done, rather, did we do what God purposed for us in this day?! To God be all the glory!

Have you ever had a dream that felt so real that when you woke from it, you wondered if it was more than a dream? Recently, I awoke from a dream so real, so emotionally charged, that I honestly asked God if it was a vision. It definitely felt like a revelational kind of dream to me; and so, I gave my heart and mind some time and space to percolate on it. Was God using it to reveal something to me? What could I, and… what should I, learn from this dream?

Shortly after I got married, I had begun to pray over a family situation that concerned me deeply. It was something I could tell had impacted my husband and his family for several generations. I began to pray fervently for God to reveal and heal. I asked Him to demolish that which the enemy had meant to do harm and replace the curse with a generational blessing that would honor God and bring Him glory. I prayed that prayer for many years.

Sometime along the way, as we’ve gotten older and situations changed, the direction of that prayer shifted. In fact, I hadn’t thought about it in quite a while, until I woke up from that dream! In the days that followed, I began to see how much God had done in answering that prayer. I see the beautiful relationships that we have with our adult children today and I was struck by this revelation: Today, I am standing in the shade of answered prayers that I had prayed many years ago. I believe God used that dream to remind me of where I was and what He has done to bring about such a change in us and through us… generational blessings. Praise God for His faithfulness and kindness to us. My heart is full and I am so grateful for His shade!

Deuteronomy 7:9 (ESV) reminds us, “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.” Yes, Lord, YES!

According to YouVersion – The Bible App, in the year 2025, the most engaged-with Scripture online, globally, was found in Isaiah 41:11. “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

That statement tells us a couple of things. One, that we deal with a lot of things that make us fearful; and two, it’s not just us dealing with fear. The entire world is afraid! In fact, throughout time, humanity has wrestled with fear. Just do a search for how many times God’s Word said, ‘don’t be afraid’. Over and over, the Lord (and His angels) have spoken those words to calm our hearts.

It is a choice we must make. Every day. We must choose to have faith in God – or live in fear. Good news for us is found in 2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV). “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” More good news… in just these two scriptures we learn that God is WITH us and He has given us all that we need to overcome fear. Fear doesn’t come from God. It’s a tool the enemy uses to hurt us and keep us from our purpose.

So today, even this very moment, let’s choose to receive God’s gifts of His power, love and clear-thinking. With God’s help, we can choose faith over fear every day.

God has a plan for your life and mine. That alone should jumpstart us every morning to get up and get going. Yet we drag our feet some days. Wondering how things will turn out. Worrying over unanswered questions. Allowing anxiety to nearly paralyze us.

Isaiah 14:24 (NLT) tells us, “The LORD of Heaven’s Armies has sworn this oath: “It will all happen as I have planned. It will be as I have decided.” Our God knows the end from the beginning. He is able to be here with us and also in our future. That’s why He is not surprised when things happen that catch us off guard. Romans 8:28 (NLT) is a powerful reminder. “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them”.

While listening to The Bible Recap, Tara Leigh Cobble said something that impacted me so much. She said, “We aren’t living in a question. We aren’t living in uncertainty. We’re living in His plan. We’re in it right now. Your life isn’t a decision you have to make. Your life is a secret you get to hear. And it’s spoken from the heart of a Sovereign Living God.”

Wow! How beautiful that is! My life (and your life) is a secret we get to hear… spoken from the heart of our Sovereign God who is alive and at work in our lives every minute of every day! Regardless of whether you are just getting started today or if you’re wrapping up your day, God is right there with you, in the middle of it all, whispering the secret of your life to you, from His heart to yours.

I was listening to someone quote the well-known Bible verse from Micah 6:8 recently. From the New Living Translation, it is, “No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what He requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” There are times when we wonder what God wants us to do. This verse makes it very clear. Do the right thing. Love mercy. Stay humble as we walk with God. And in that moment, I wondered, what exactly does it mean to ‘love mercy’?

We know that showing mercy to someone is having compassion on them and forgiving them if they’ve wronged you or someone that you love. Sometimes that is really hard to do. We find a way to do it because we know that God tells us that we must. But what does it mean to not just show mercy? Micah 6:8 says, “to LOVE mercy”. So what does that look like?

When someone else gets the role you wanted or the job you interviewed for or the promotion you felt like you deserved, and you actively show kindness and genuinely wish them the best,… that is loving mercy. When someone hurts your feelings and you’d rather ignore them, but you show up anyway and have a decent conversation,… that is loving mercy.

I believe that loving mercy is also recognizing that we fall short every day and God’s Word tells us that His mercies toward us are new and fresh every morning. So we humbly and gratefully receive God’s fresh mercy in our lives every single day. Because we can fill up on it every single day, we have mercy to give to others. Because God loves a cheerful giver, I pray that God will help us to love giving mercy even more.