Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 14
November 30, 2024
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins For Your Weekend [11.30.2024]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
So we are diving back in with Multivitamins for our Weekend! So many of you have asked for the return of the weekly multivitamin email, and we’re so with you — because who doesn’t need a bit of good news? We are figuring it out here, a bit of happy work in progress, but we are so excited for what is to come!
Let yourself smile, be crazy inspired, laugh, love & really live the gift of this life
just a little bit more this weekend…
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here
Advent, advent! We are on the cusp of Advent and readying our hearts for the most beautiful season of anticipation of all!
He’s coming! And He’s coming again!
such a powerful song, hasn’t been released yet!View this post on InstagramOne Unforgettable Testimony: “Oh Mom, God would be good if there was cancer.”A post shared by Jess Ray (@jessray)
Read and be inspiredWOW! Breathtaking! God’s glory on display!View this post on InstagramNot a Dry Eye Anywhere: “God Only Knows”Literally for Months I’ve Thought About This Message. Especially His Object LessonBeautiful — Especially The Last OneA post shared by Jari Romppainen (@jarcce)
View this post on InstagramProfound Read: “What Religion Black Friday Is?”A post shared by Daily Dose Of Art
(@art_dailydose)
Read here to find out! One of Our Very Favourite Gifts to Give
Beautiful: Don’t miss this!He’s A Favourite: “What Matters Most in Life ” View this post on InstagramPost of the Week From Around These PartsA post shared by Dr James Tour (@drjamestour)
Want to truly relax into Advent this year, here’s how:
Free! All for you here!On The Book Stack at the Farm
Chasing Sacred, written by Mikella Van Dyke walks us through how we can find firm grounding in the Bible.
Praying Through Loneliness, compiled by Kristen Strong, with devotions by our very own Shalom and daughter-in-love, Melba
Relax into Advent: your own Night Before Advent Party… To enter into the Story of God to restore & re-story your family!
Start your holidays here!Fave Tradition: The Eve of Advent is hereWith everything you need for the Annual Tradition of a “Night Before Advent” Hot Chocolate Party, completely redesigned, all FREE for our email list subscribers!
a “Celebrate Christ” bannerthe Hot Chocolate Part inviteHot Chocolate Station signs Frameable Prints to focus hearts on the reason for the season.Tags for your own Night Before Advent Box — to wrap up new holiday pajamas, and Advent books to focus hearts on Jesus for the entire Christmas season. And the printable poem: “The Night Before Advent”Not only will real hope, from my heart to yours, be emailed directly to your inbox, but too? You get free access to our really amazing whole Resource Library, including all the most recent free tools and frameables, AND our new GORGEOUS free ezine – all exclusive tools we’ve made just for you — hopeful, helpful resource of gifts for you!
Even more free Advent gifts (!!) for you coming in the weeks ahead!
Join our email family right here to not miss anything!
Best Devotional of the Year, ECPA, 2014, NYTimes Best Seller
(adult edition)
Best Inspirational Book of the Year, ECPA, 2016, NYTimes Best Seller
(family read-aloud edition)
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift
Best Devotional and Gift Book of the Year, Christian Book Association, 2019
(pop-up edition with 14 inch tree, 25 days of very short readings & advent flap calendar, hiding 25 Biblically inspired Ornaments. Any age!)
ECPA Children’s Book of the Year Finalist, 2024
Give the gift of brave to any child, of any age, to fight back any anxious feelings with a song they will carry in their heart always.
Love is more than what we feel— love is the time we give, the offering of our hearts, the things we make happen. We really love as much as we are willing to be inconvenienced… & go the extra mile for each other: Love is worth it. Pour of A Cup of Something Warm & Savor A few Moments of Christmas in the CotswoldsThat’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
November 29, 2024
How To Relax into the Best Advent So You Year Ends with Peace (& Free “Night-Before-Advent” Party Printables)
“The real wonder of Christmas is that we don’t have to make Christmas magical – when we simply enter into the wonder of what’s Scriptural. “
Someone mentioned to me in passing the other day that when they grew up, they actually realized that all the magic of Christmas — is really always the work of some mother.
And I laughed – loudly.
As a mama, I laughed and smiled and nodded – and deep within, I exhaled with a relief that my weary bones could actually feel:
The Wonder of Christmas is always really the work of our Heavenly Father.
The real wonder of Christmas is that we don’t have to make Christmas magical – when we simply enter into the wonder of what’s Scriptural.
25 Christmas Advent Devotionals: The Greatest Gift (adult edition): Best Devotional of the Year Award,
Christian Retailing
,
2014
25 Christmas Advent Devotionals: The Greatest Gift (adult edition): Best Devotional of the Year Award,
Christian Retailing
There’s one Story that’s the truest, realest story, a story that we can enter into, that will amaze us, carry us, remake us, revive us, restore us and re-story us – especially when the world’s at war, on fire, and all the news stories feels achingly dark.
“You are made by the Word, for the Word. And only when you press into the Word who made you, will you become fully who you were made to be.“
Yes, true, and I feel this too: There are narratives everywhere that are vying for our attention, stories that want our eyes, that want our buy in. There are headlines everywhere shaping the story, cultural pressures that are working to press whole generations into a certain mold.
We all live and breathe and have our being in an atmosphere of stories that mean to shape us and form us. Which isn’t a surprise, really:
This is a world made by the Word – so this is a world of stories, and everything in this world is a story that means to form our souls.
In a world made by the Word, there is only one Story worth staying in, there is only one Story worth being formed by.
So we light the candles this time of year and enter into the hush of Advent, because this is the truest true, in this world that cannot, in any way, have been made simply by some accident:
You were made by the Word, for the Word.
And only when you press into the Word who made you, will you become fully who you were made to be.
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: 25 Christmas Devos for whole family, NYT bestseller & Christian Book Award Winner for Best Inpsiriational book of year
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: 25 Christmas Devos for whole family, NYT bestseller & Christian Book Award Winner for Best Inpsiriational book of year
25 Christmas Advent Devotionals: The Greatest Gift (adult edition): Best Devotional of the Year Award,
Christian Retailing
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: Pop-Up Tree, 25 short Christmas Devos with 25 Ornaments to hang to tell story of Jesus: ECPA AWARD for Best Gift Book of Year 
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: Pop-Up Tree, 25 short Christmas Devos with 25 Ornaments to hang to tell story of Jesus: ECPA AWARD for Best Gift Book of Year 
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: Pop-Up Tree, 25 short Christmas Devos with 25 Ornaments to hang to tell story of Jesus: ECPA AWARD for Best Gift Book of Year 
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: Pop-Up Tree, 25 short Christmas Devos with 25 Ornaments to hang to tell story of Jesus: ECPA AWARD for Best Gift Book of Year 
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: Pop-Up Tree, 25 short Christmas Devos with 25 Ornaments to hang to tell story of Jesus: ECPA AWARD for Best Gift Book of Year 
This is why we, as a family, pray to Stay in the Story – not because it just matters now, today – but because it matters for generations, for always.
This is why we are a people who keep returning to this Story, the story of Jesus, and every spin around the sun, when the calendar year about turns – we return to Advent, to this adventure of a lifetime, this seeking Him, this looking for Him, this waiting for His coming, this coming to Him.
“Only the Word who made you, the Word and story of God, can fully understand you and your soul, like a mother knows all the curves contours of her child’s own face. Only when a soul molded by God will be fully whole. “
Because: Your soul will only be rightly, fully, wholly formed human – when it’s formed, informed, transformed by the heart of God, the Word of God.
Only the Word who made you, the Word and story of God, can fully understand you and your soul, like a mother knows all the curves contours of her child’s own face.
It’s only when you let the life of Jesus shape your life, that you will experience being shaped in the most life-giving ways.
Only when a soul molded by God will be fully whole.
This is why we wait in the dark of Advent for His coming, why we wait and anticipate Him by turning of the pages of this Story that knows and holds and enfolds us:
Find yourself in the Story of God – and you find your truest self.
Enter into the Story of God – and you enter into the heart of Christ and find your heart mending.
When we enter fully into the story each Advent, stay in the Story in midst of all kinds of loud, chaotic, catastrophic stories – the Word becomes the clearest window to see how this world turns, and how we can turn to find the surest way through.
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: 25 Christmas Devos for whole family, NYT bestseller & Christian Book Award Winner for Best Inpsiriational book of year
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: 25 Christmas Devos for whole family, NYT bestseller & Christian Book Award Winner for Best Inpsiriational book of year
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: Pop-Up Tree, 25 short Christmas Devos with 25 Ornaments to hang to tell story of Jesus: ECPA AWARD for Best Gift Book of Year So here, on the cusp of Advent, now is the time to light hope in the dark and feel all the anticipation spark and ignite our hearts – turning the pages of the Story, burning hotter and hotter through these days of December, till we can’t contain all this hope and start a wildfire of lit love.
This word, Advent, it’s rooted in the Latin verb “adventio,” meaning – “I am coming, I arrive.”
This word, Advent, it’s rooted in the Latin verb “adventio,” meaning – “I am coming, I arrive.” We only arrive – when we keep coming to Jesus.
As the year winds down, as I deeply feel the frailty and endless faults of my humanity, as we sit in the wonder of Christmas and wonder if we will ever arrive and be all we were meant to be, we are the people who direly need the adventure of Advent, this waiting for His coming, His arrival.
Because: We only arrive – when we keep coming to Jesus.
Maybe now, at this point in our story, at this time of year, the only question to ask is:
What story will we let deeply form us, which story will get to re-story us?
How will we prepare for Christmas so we don’t miss Him, so we stay in the Story that can truly restore and re-story us, how will we intentionally prepare Him room, how will we prepare our tender hearts… to be mended… by pressing into His heart?
Relax into Advent & Deep Peaceand with your own Night Before Advent Party… and enter into the Story of God to restore & re-story your family!
The Eve of Advent is here!
And we all get to begin! With everything you need for the Annual Tradition of a “Night Before Advent” Hot Chocolate Party, completely redesigned, all FREE for our email list subscribers!
a “Celebrate Christ” bannerthe Hot Chocolate Part invite Hot Chocolate Station signs Frameable Prints to focus hearts on the reason for the season.Tags for your own Night Before Advent Box — to wrap up new holiday pajamas, and Advent books to focus hearts on Jesus for the entire Christmas season. And the printable poem: “The Night Before Advent”Not only will real hope, from my heart to yours, be emailed directly to your inbox, but too? You get free access to our really amazing whole Resource Library, including all the most recent free tools and frameables, AND our new GORGEOUS free ezine – all exclusive tools we’ve made just for you — hopeful, helpful resource of gifts for you!
AND–we have even more free, exclusive Advent gifts (!!) for you coming in the weeks ahead!
Join the list right here to not miss anything!
This Advent, Stay in the Story that the rest of your year, rest of our family, will need– for generations after you
3 Award-Winning, NYTIMESBestelling 25 Day Christmas Devotionals
for the Whole Family
— ALL NEARLY 50% OFFThe Greatest Gift (adult edition): Best Devotional of the Year, ECPA, 2014
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift (Family Edition): Best Inspirational Book of the Year, CBA, 2016
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: Best Devotional & Gift Book of the Year, CBA, 2019 (pop-up tree, 25 days of readings, 25 day advent flap calendar, hiding all 25 Biblically inspired ornaments! For any age)
And then Click here for All The Free ornaments & Gift Tags for The Greatest Little ChristmasNovember 26, 2024
A Prayer & Liturgy: to Give Thanks Together around the Table
A quiet liturgy & prayer of thanks, to simply read around the table together, before the feasting, feeling free to read the bold together in unison:
Now is the time, the long awaited time, to bring in the sheaves, the baskets, the apples, the bushels of all the things that runneth over with a bounty of grace and to offer up our thanks.
Now is the time we feast on a harvest sunlight, that’s ripened into a sweetness to savor, now is the time to gather in the rain from sky over head, that has grown slowly into goodness, as all rains do, and to gather round the table, to taste His amazing grace.
God’s Grace always germinates great glory.
Now is the time to hold this harvest, that is all the begging hope of our prayers, the beading sweat of our brow, the bending ache of our back, to hold the fruit of our labor and all the astonishing, incarnated love of our God, who withholds no good thing from us who are His — and to eat and feast and to swallow down all His grace into bodily strength.
Because this is always true:
The smallest seed — even the seed of a moment — holds the surreal possibility of a harvest beyond imagining.
God’s Grace always germinates great glory.
And now, this harvest, around this table, is a testament to the slow emergence of the good, slow, and steady efficiency of God, the slow but certain evidence of resurrection coming from the depths of the earth and the dark.
(Patience is always the soil of any good harvest.)
How can we gather round a table with the bowls of bounty and ever synthesize all our awe and wonder over the very real miracle of photosynthesis? How to thank the Maker of the fruit of these plants, that have spent their days gathering up sunshine, streaming solar sugars down to roots, only to unfurl even more leaves, leaves which are really but baskets that harvest the sun, leaves that defiantly dance brave in the wind, taking the heat and the rain without turning away, till all the plant stalks are heavy with prayers and promises fulfilled, till our hands and hunger is filled with the bounty and good grace of God?
So how can we too not stand and raise hands in praise?
How can we not stand at the end of harvest time and see everything differently now?
Because if one infinitesimal, unsuspecting seed, can be entombed in a smothering dark burial in the earth, if one seed can break apart like a sharp shattering, if one seed can put a seeking shoot down in what seems like the wrong, rooted direction, before it ever turns toward the sun —- and yet there still be a harvest of rich good, even out of what all seemed like a series of movements in the wrong direction — then, it’s true, we live in our Father’s world, where bounty can rise out of brokenness, and even the most unlikely can yield a wondrous yield.
“…God is the great composter, who works all the unexpected and unwanted still into an unlikely harvest of comfort.“
So how can we do anything now but worship with thanksgiving and testify:
Dirt can turn into what tastes delicious.
The smallest seed can fulfill the deepest need.
Every seed, and Christ Himself, proves it: Tombs in the earth can be a womb that deliver abundance.
And this harvest, this feast, is now like holding the miracle of manna, and it is nothing less than a strange miracle to behold that this harvest and feast before us grew rich and ripe and good, precisely because it grew out of all of the muck and mire.
This is because God is the great composter, who works all the unexpected and unwanted still into an unlikely harvest of comfort.
This is the strange and comforting miracle that always fills us: Our God wastes not the rot.
This harvest and feast now is a paradoxical parable in the Kingdom of God: There is all around us, a slow, counter-intuitive, upside-down way that is nurturing all into maturity, that God Himself is doing holy, harvesting work everywhere, all in His time, in the soil of all our souls.
True, this harvest, or any harvest, may not be all that was hoped, but it is true of all harvests:
There may have been more, there may have always been more, but always what is — is always a miracle of grace.
So no matter the size of our harvest in this season, here and now is an occasion for an abundance of thanksgiving, because none of this yield was guaranteed, none of this yield or feast might have been, none of this harvest of grace around this table was a given:
“Now is the time to taste sun and sky and savor and thank God that we are all sustained by Love Himself. “
But sunlight was freely given, and the soil of the earth cupped heaven’s water like a gift, to patiently, miraculously, raise up this crop, and God Himself called us all to be here and to know we belong at His table of grace, so how can we not now give thanks, us the harvesters with hands risen —-
that God on High Himself, might harvest our thanksgiving, and be filled with great joy.
So eat the fruits of the earth, heap the berries, savour the pumpkin pies, gather all around and give thanks.
Now is the time to taste sun and sky and savor and thank God that we are all sustained by Love Himself.
The earth and all our souls are more than satisfied with the fruits of God’s heart, the bountiful overflow of His yielded life — so we yield ourselves to Him, and whispered our endless, honest thanks.
And all God’s grateful people raised their hands and said:
Amen!
Free Downloadable Printable Place-Setting Prayer For Your Gathering,To Give Thanks Together Around Your Table: free in our Library for your gathering!
And… the Perfect Hostess Gift… the perfect meaningful gift For All Your People this season… the perfect gift For yourself:
These Two Journals To Genuinely live a life of prayerfulness & thankfulness
When life feels anxious, give yourself the gift of more God & less stress, and a daily, beautiful retreat with: SACRED Prayer: 90 Days into Deeper Intimacy with God and Gifts and Gifts and Gratitudes: A Gratitude Journal for a Year of One Thousand Gifts
November 25, 2024
How You Could Discover More of the Most Influential Book in the World With this Powerful Tool
Mikella VanDyke is a Bible study teacher who uses her gifts to encourage women to love God’s Word. Using her signature approachable style, she will help you conquer any confusion you have surrounding the Bible. Through her personal story and the Inductive Bible Study method, she presents a systematic, empowering approach that helps readers go from confused about how to do deep Bible study to having clarity on what to focus on. As you chase the sacred narrative woven through the pages of Scripture, let Mikella guide you to a deeper understanding of God’s Word and the ultimate destination of the journey: a Savior full of wisdom, depth, truth, and love. Today I invite you to join us for a heartfelt conversation about Bible Study. It’s a joy to welcome Mikella to the farm’s table today…
Guest Post by Mikella VanDyke
After spending most of my childhood as a missionary kid in Thailand, I have used a variety of transportation methods in my lifetime.
I was brought to school by a rickshaw—a man pedaling a bicycle with us kids sitting in the back of the cushioned open-air vehicle. I have been escorted around town on a motorbike and a dirt bike, and I’ve had my fill of tuk-tuks (three-wheeled motorbike contraptions) and songthaews (bus-like public transport vehicles). The airplane revolutionized transportation, and I have been on airplanes countless times.
Airplanes have changed what we can see, experience, and learn. Like an airplane, the Inductive Bible Study method can transport you to a new vantage point.
It can take you to a land that I truly hope you will make your life in: the Bible.
It’s a land that, if you choose to live in it, will produce fruit by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. A land where you will learn and lean into God. A land where you will realize that God is ever present.
A land where your heart can be trained to see His daily provision for your every need.
In a far greater way than modern transportation, the Bible has profoundly impacted humanity.
“As we take refuge in the pages of Scripture, we find a who at the end of the journey: a God who loves us and desires to have a relationship with us.“
The Bible is the most influential book in the world.
Its writing took place over a span of 1,500 to 1,600 years on three different continents. The Bible has stood the test of time, and we see this over and over again. It is in this remarkable book that we draw near to God and He draws near to us. As Psalm 34:8 says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”
Dwell upon His words as you taste His goodness. As we take refuge in the pages of Scripture, we find a who at the end of the journey: a God who loves us and desires to have a relationship with us. A God bent on His pursuit of us. He is within us and around us, and He communicates to us through the pages of Scripture. What great news that He has made His dwelling in our hearts!
If I had never found Inductive Bible Study, I know God would have been gracious to reveal to me much about His Word, but I don’t believe I would understand the Bible at the depth I do now. While I was getting my MA in practical theology, God used Inductive Bible Study to transform my life. As I sat in on my first hermeneutics class as a mom of two kids, the professor explained we would need to root ourselves in the historical context and find at least ten to fifteen observations in the text. I remember being overwhelmed at the thought How will I find that many observations in this passage?
But in that class, I was trained to see what was already there.
“…slowly studying a passage of Scripture and seeking to understand its context is a completely different matter. On this path, you read God’s Word with no other intention but to really know Him.”
We live in a sound-bite culture, barely able to focus on one thing for long. Our attention spans have dropped to around 8.25 seconds, shorter than that of a goldfish.1 When it comes to spiritual matters, this does not bode well for us because studying God’s Word takes time.
In our jam-packed lives, it is becoming increasingly difficult to convince people that there is value in spending time saturating oneself in the Word. Some people manage to complete Bible-in-a-year plans, and there’s no doubt a benefit of getting a rooftop view of the whole Scriptures. Reading the Bible in a year is a wonderful, time-consuming goal. But slowly studying a passage of Scripture and seeking to understand its context is a completely different matter.
On this path, you read God’s Word with no other intention but to really know Him.
On this path, you spend enough time with God to gain His perspective, testing the familiar sayings that are meant to encourage us but in reality are often taken out of context.
Can the Inductive Bible Study method help you? Yes! Is this method inspired? No! But can it guide you in your study and make the Word come alive to you? Yes!
There is no one right way to study the Bible. There is no perfect time of day, either—Bible reading looks different in every season.
What I do know is that the Bible will change your life, just like learning to study it in-depth changed mine. It will change your outlook on everything in life.
Reading God’s Word in an orderly way is like cleaning and tidying your house. If my home is cluttered, it is a lot harder to vacuum and mop without bumping into things.
But once I’ve cleaned and ordered my house, I can see more clearly what else needs work. In the same way, an orderly method to approaching God’s Word in your personal Bible study will lead to much fruit.
Adapted from Chasing Sacred: Learn How to Study Scripture to Pursue God and Find Hope in Him by Mikella Van Dyke, releasing in September 2024.
1. John Mark Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry (Colorado Springs, CO: WaterBrook, 2019), 39.
Mikella Van Dyke is a wife, mother, and the founder of Chasing Sacred, a ministry that provides resources to help women study the Bible and grow closer to God. She has a master’s in practical theology from Regent University, coleads Bible studies at her local church and enjoys sharing God’s Word at conferences and retreats. She and her husband, Jamie, live in New Hampshire with their five kids, and she’s often found riding a four-wheeler or reading the Bible with them.
In a culture full of chaos, stress, and confusion, we can find firm grounding in the Bible when we truly take the time to understand and experience what it says. In Chasing Sacred, Bible teacher Mikella Van Dyke breaks down the misconceptions and reservations so many of us have about what it means to study the Bible. Using her story alongside the Inductive Bible Study method to teach a systematic, empowering approach, she will help you
learn a practical, step-by-step method to understanding God’s Word; gain a fresh perspective on what it means to study the Bible for a new generation;engage in a healthy habit of Bible study that encourages confidence and eliminates shame; andfeel equipped to lead a small group or ministry in your community.As you chase the sacred narrative woven through the pages of Scripture, let Mikella guide you to a deeper understanding of God’s Word and the who at the end of the journey: a Savior full of wisdom, depth, truth, and love.
{Our humble thanks to Tyndale Momentum for their partnership in today’s devotional.}
November 23, 2024
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins For Your Weekend [11.23.2024]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
And we are back! So many of you have asked for the return of the weekly multivitamin email, and we’re so with you — because who doesn’t need a bit of good news? We are figuring it out here, a work in progress, but we are excited for what is to come!
Let yourself smile, be crazy inspired, laugh, love & really live the gift of this life
just a little bit more this weekend…
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here
Moonlight and auroras and the wonder of it all— watch this and just imagine being under that sky!
Watch
Even without retreating to the desert, we can train our wandering minds with ancient monastic wisdom
Read and be inspired
Don’t miss this beautiful reflection on building a life overflowing with thanks
Read right here
How can you watch this and not smile?! This here is just really good for the soul.
Watch! Hilarious!
What an honour to join Dr. Lee Warren and discuss neuroscience, theology & prayer
Listen here
Yes! More of this! Let’s cheer each other on!
Watch their faces!
Genius: The Grandma Stand! Love waiting with open arms.
Don’t miss this
Oh, to feel music like this sweet soul!
Watch him sing!
Simply in awe of the creativity and beauty!
You won’t believe how this starts —and what this artist does next!Post of the Week From Around These Parts
Forget trying to capture the spirit of the season: Do this instead.
A read for your heart right here — start the holiday season hereOn The Book Stack at the Farm
Praying Through Loneliness, compiled by Kristen Strong, with devotions by our very own Shalom and daughter-in-love, Melba
Jenn Tucker — one of my dearest friends — has a beautiful new book, Present in Prayer.
Free Gifts for You For Giving ThanksWe have so many free gifts to share, including this Gratitude Board Kit. Start a new tradition by inviting everyone to create their own Gratitude Board. Share the thankfulness journey with your people!
Join our email family for this and so many more free resources!And don’t miss this Thanksgiving Tree! We’ve been doing this for years — write what you’re thankful for on one side, and find Scripture verses on the other! Scatter them across your Thanksgiving Table!
Join our email family for allllll the printables!Give the Gift of GratitudeGifts & Gratitudes, my new gratitude journal, makes a beautiful hostess gift for Thanksgiving — some folks have let us know they are even putting one at each place setting for their Thanksgiving table! Beautiful!
Because Thanksgiving isn’t meant just some of our holidays — but all of our days!
The best hostess gift
That’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
November 22, 2024
Before You Put Up Your Christmas Tree, You’ve Got to Read This. No, Really. The DE-STREESSING Tree Tradition We All Need
As I hang ornaments on our own wee Charlie Brown Christmas tree this year, I’m grinning like a fool, thinking how they say “that simply sitting looking at trees reduce blood pressure as well as the stress-related hormones cortisol and adrenaline.”
That research’s actually discovered that “participants walking in a forest experienced less anxiety, hostility, fatigue, confusion, and depressive symptoms, and more vigor… that those who gazed at a winter forest reported significantly better moods, more positive emotions, more vigor, and a greater sense of personal restoration.”
Surprisingly, the data concluded how forests powerfully affect our brains: “People living in proximity to trees had better “amygdala integrity”—meaning, a brain structure better able to handle stressors.”
And here we all are:
Tis the season where the whole spinning planet orbits with people living in closest proximity to trees —all trying not to be stressed right out of our collective tree.
And I’m stringing up the lights and smiling huge because:
What if the very fact that we are living in close proximity to trees right now not only made us all more than a bit more stress-free, but actually healed our cracked hearts in more ways than we ever dreamed?
Because right there on our coffee table that’s made of century old beams hewn from gnarly trees, there’s the open Sacred Word and how did I not notice is more closely before:
“All other trees might make us a bit more stress-free,
but only the Tree of Calvary literally frees us.“
How the Maker of this World opens our human story in the Garden with two trees in a garden, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil — and then tells how it will all end, with only one tree standing:
“On each side of the river is the Tree of Life… The tree’s leaves are for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse.” (Rev. 22:2-3 CEV).
All trees will give way to only one Tree of Life:
The tree where Jesus gave the gift of Himself, infinite Love, to pulverize death, and destroy all the damning curses, and tenderly mend up and heal all our heartbreak and trauma.
All other trees might make us a bit more stress-free — but only the Tree of Calvary literally frees us.
Scripture, in the original Greek, could have referred exclusively to the cross (stauros) throughout the text, but instead, surprisingly, Scripture keeps pointing again and again to the tree (xylos).
The apostles, in the book of Acts, don’t say that Jesus went to the cross but that He sacrificed Himself “on a tree” (5:30; 10:39) — and that He was taken “down from the tree and [they] laid Him in a tomb” (13:29). The holy text says He offered His servant body to bear “our sins in His body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).
“Everywhere we turn this time of year, Christmas whispers:
Christ’s coming was more than about going to a cross —
but about going to a Tree.“
Everywhere we turn this time of year, Christmas whispers: Christ’s coming was more than about going to a cross — but about going to a Tree.
Why make it a deal that Jesus came down to ultimately go up to a Tree?
The Ancient Jewish Torah reads that “Anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse” (Deut. 21:23 Berean Standard Bible).
Every Christmas tree can testify: Jesus came down to go up to the Tree of Calvary to take every hurt, every curse, and set all the weary captives free.
And here I am, with the weather forecast calling for snow this week, and I’m looking out the window, waiting, while hanging , each one artistically depicting stories from the Bible, all in the family tree of Jesus, which originates from the prophecy:
“Then a shoot will spring up from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots will bear fruit…In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a banner to the peoples; Him shall the nations seek…” (Isa. 11:1, 11)
, but are actually said to be, by noted historians, as the “original use of the family tree, as a visual representation of a genealogy.”
And it’s no small wonder, no small gift, that we, through Jesus’ sacrifice at the Tree of Calvary, can all be part of the family tree of Jesus, can all be named in the genealogy of God!
And, as I put up the tree, I’m struck all over again: If we don’t come to Christmas through Christ’s family tree, and we simply come into the Christmas story just right there at the Christmas tree—it’s bewildering to fully understand the real meaning and hope of Christmas and Christ’s coming!
Because without. knowing the family tree of Jesus, the genealogy of Christ?
“The coming of Christ is right through families of messed-up monarchs & battling brothers, through affairs and adultery & more than a feud or two, through skeletons in closets & cheaters at tables.“
“Without the limbs of His past, the branches of His family, the love story of His heart that has been coming for you since before the beginning—how does Christmas and its tree stand? Its roots would be sheared. Its meaning would be stunted. The arresting pause of the miracle would be lost.
The coming of Christ is right through families of messed-up monarchs and battling brothers, through affairs and adultery and more than a feud or two, through skeletons in closets and cheaters at tables.
And Jesus claims exactly these who are wandering and wondering and wounded and worn out as His.
He grafts you into His line and His story and His heart, and He gives you His name, His lineage, His righteousness. He graces you with plain amazing grace.
Is there a greater Gift you could want or need or have?
Christ comes right to your Christmas tree and looks at your family tree and says, “I am your God, and I am one of you, and I’ll be the Gift, and I’ll take you. Take Me?” ~excerpt from The Greatest Gift
“Christ comes right to your Christmas tree & looks at your family tree & says, “I am your God, & I am one of you, & I’ll be the Gift, & I’ll take you. Take Me.“
And I take up , like a vow of my own committed yes, astonished and awed all over again, that I too am being grafted into the family tree of God.
And I now set out a wee tree by the kitchen sink, and two starry ones to anchor the hearth, and a forest of flocked ones on the buffet, standing sentinel over a nativity, and then two dwarf trees flanking the dining room table, because this what I know, that I know that I know:
Time began with two great trees — and time will end, and forever will begin, with only one tree… because of the Triune God gave Himself as the Greatest Gift at Calvary’s Tree.
In Christ, we are now never in soul-crisis.
Because Christ stretched out His arms in unending Love over us
on the Cross-Tree,
all our soul-crises are already over.
And all of us and a whole world of hurt, exhales relief when , because, right here, we are all in proximity to the most healing, calming truth in the whole of the universe:
Because Christ went to the Tree, there are now no real soul-crisis. All our brokenness and sadness and sinfulness and darkness and hopelessness is nailed to the Tree and we’re covered in a perfect grace the sets us completely free.
In Christ, we are never in soul-crisis.
Because Christ stretched out His arms in unending Love over us on the Cross-Tree, all our soul-crises are already over.
Because Christ went to the Tree, we get the greatest gift of being forever soul-safe in Him.
And all the lights of all the trees flicker, even the sad Charlie Brown ones, igniting hearts with the wonder of a Tree doing more than just making us only a bit more stress-free — but ultimately making us completely free.
****
Trace Your Real Family Tree, from Creation to Creche, with all 3 of our Advent Books:
The Greatest Gift
(adult edition)
Best Devotional of the Year, ECPA, 2014,
NYTimes Best Seller
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift
(family edition)
Best Inspirational Book
of the Year, CBA, 2016,
NYTimes Best Seller
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift:
Best Devotional &
Gift Book of the Year, Christian Book Association, 2019
(pop-up edition 14 in. tree, 25 days of readings & advent flap calendar, hiding all 25 Biblically inspired ornaments! For any age!)
Destress Your Soul This Holiday? We’ll send A Free Peaceful Advent Video to you Every Day
Tap play on the video below & come join us on the farm, as we light a candle & take a moment to hush the hurry, and intimately encounter the very real & enfolding presence of Jesus with us here, right here:
Every day, beginning today and right up to Christmas Day, we’re inviting you to the farm to light a candle with us through a small and simple video like this one. Delivered right to your inbox, so that you don’t have to try catch it in the middle of all the noise of the internet, we’ll send it right to your quiet everyday.
To get this visual experience and join us on the farm every day, simply be sure you are subscribed to our email family, so you don’t miss out on any of the daily videos, along with all the beautiful and completely FREE gifts we’ve created for you this Christmas.
JOIN OUR EMAIL FAMILY & WE WILL SEND YOU AN ADVENT VIDEO OF BEAUTY & STILLNESS, RIGHT TO YOUR INBOX EVERY MORNING
And get all 25 of our “Holiday Sticky Notes for Your Soul” as a free printable, available for you to download as part of our bundle of free gifts, with our deepest thanks for being a part of our email family.
With a 2-sided option this year, you can hang these sticky notes up as your own adult Advent calendar, quietly counting the days to Christmas, and giving you the greatest Gift of all:
Spaciousness,
Non-anxiousness,
&
More of His presence,
the Prince of Peace Himself!
JOIN THE LIST HERE & ALL THIS HOLY HUSH OF BEAUTY IS SLIPPED IMMEDIATELY INTO YOUR INBOX
November 19, 2024
Forget Trying to Capture the Spirit of the Season: Do this Instead
When I turn around in the round-about of our little country town, and head down main street, there’s this white banner, painted with a flurry of snowflakes, strung up across the street, and I drive right under this scrolled script font that reads:
“Capture the Spirit of the Season…”
And I’m the one caught, snagged on a completely different notion that strikes like a bit of a glorious epiphany:
What if you didn’t have to capture anything, neither the spirit of this season nor anything else — but simply accepted the invitation to just slow down enough to let the Spirit captivate you this season?
Because: When you try to capture the spirit of the season, it’s your joy that can actually get caught in the trap.
When you’re racing around trying to capture the spirit of the season, you’re the one that can get caught up in all these trappings, that leave you actually missing out.
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I meet a friend at our small town bakery and we linger over a cup of coffee and laugh ridiculously loud and it feels like relief.
The laundry’s still not folded that evening, but I go ahead and light candles with our littlest girl. I press pause on all my interior overthinking that’s always in overdrive, and match her silly grin when she asks for another slice of pie, her eyes dancing happy. We curl in with the Story and this is the way.
“We don’t have to capture any spirit of the season – we simply get to surrender to the Spirit.“
You don’t have to race after, hunt down, or capture any of the Spirit of the Season — because there’s the Holy Spirit who never stops coming after us, chasing us down, with goodness and mercy (Psalm 23). It’s the Spirit “who gives life… The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life,” whispers Jesus, the Word, who is the gift who comes. (John 6:63)
We don’t have to capture any spirit of the season – we simply get to surrender.
Surrender the pressures of the season, surrender the imposed overwhelm, surrender all the impossible expectations, surrender all the soul-crushing hustle and bustle, and simply surrender to the Spirit and wonders of His grace.
Because ultimately? All true spiritual growth is about truly surrendering and letting go. The very antithesis of chasing to capture anything — spiritual growth is always in the surrender. Surrender all the pressures that threaten to capture you and drag you away from joy and Him, and surrender to giving time to the Story of God and the Spirit who frees us to astonishing wonder and awe.
“…when we surrender all the pressures that are pushing and hurrying us past the wonder and awe and the presence of God — then wisdom captures us, and joy holds us, and God binds our hearts to Him and we are free to truly experience the wholeness and holiness of the season! “
She opens the pages of the Wonder of the Greatest Gift again and her eyes open wide all over again. I open pages of The Greatest Gift who is coming again, and I feel my hope rising all over again. This is the soft place her and I choose to land:
We aren’t going to let this season be about any frantic, futile chasing, trying to capture what’s endlessly evasive; His words are spirit and life, and we are going to rest and stay in the Story of God, so we don’t miss Him.
The wonder of the season, of all our being, is in His sure Word.
And what I can’t get over every time I open His Story, open the pages of His Love Story, and this is what captures my heart:
You have to open the door of wonder – to get to real wisdom.
That’s what not one of us can afford to miss this season:
If you want to grow in wisdom, you’ve got to grow in wonder.
Wonder that none of this old world is an accident, wonder that this is a miraculously and supernaturally visited planet, wonder that the One who is the Breather of stars folded into a virgin’s womb, so He could come and breathe saving hope into you.
Wonder that God’s coming, and He’s coming to dwell in you, and He’s coming again to make all our heartbreak come untrue.
Wonder again like a child, and you get to come close to Him.
Wonder opens the door to the wisdom we’re all looking for.
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When she opens up the Wonder of the Greatest Gift, and that pop-up tree rises again, and she starts opening the Advent flaps to discover the wee hanging ornaments that will tell all over again, the story of His coming, right from the beginning of time — I feel it like the safest embrace:
No matter what stories are unfolding around us in the world, this is the story we are staying in; this is the story – the story of the family tree of God, the story of Jesus’ love coming for us through every ancient story in His Word, the story of His grace meeting all the people in all kinds of messed up places — the greatest love story ever told.
When we stay in the whole Story of the gift of His coming — we are made whole by His presence right here.
And when we surrender all the pressures that are pushing and hurrying us past the wonder and awe and the presence of God — then wisdom captures us, and joy holds us, and God binds our hearts to Him and we are free to truly experience the wholeness and holiness of the season!
“When we stay in the whole Story of the gift of His coming — we are made whole by His presence right here. “
A pile of clean laundry is still in a basket in my room, drowsing contented.
The mudroom is literally and boldly living up to its name — and I’m trying to just grin and shrug my shoulders about it!
The dog chewed a hole in the wall in the garage. I need to clear the last of the wilting, weedy flowerbeds out before the first of the snow flies cold.
But even still? I still get to light candles, I still get to still my interior world. I still get to unwrap the whole story and the gift of His coming and all His grace in the present moment as my very own present.
When I find myself driving back into town to pick up some whip cream for our littlest girl who’s looking for an extra dollop of wonder and sweet, I smile with the relief of it all and want to string up another banner that reads:
“Surrender to His Spirit this Season…and win the wonder of wisdom, the joy of now, and all the awe of God!”
Who knows if the weather forecasters will get it right if it will be a white Christmas this year or not… but there’s this happy relief that we can always slow and surrender to staying in the Story that always makes the holidays gloriously bright.
This year, let His wonder awaken you again, captivate you, capture your heart! More Of Jesus Only — and have a STRESS-FREE, WONDER-FULL Christmas.Read the whole Christmas Love Story, from Creation to the Creche, with all 3 of our Advent Christmas Books:
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Jesus came down — and a bit of heaven can begin now, even here.
Come let Jesus touch our broken relationships & heal us & reconcile us with His PEACE.
This Advent, Stay in the Story that the rest of your year, your family, will need.
The Greatest Gift (adult edition): Best Devotional of the Year, ECPA, 2014
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift (Family Edition): Best Inspirational Book of the Year, CBA, 2016
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: Best Devotional & Gift Book of the Year, CBA, 2019 (pop-up tree, 25 days of readings, 25 day advent flap calendar, hiding all 25 Biblically inspired ornaments! For any age)
And Click here for All The Free ornaments & Gift Tags for The Greatest Little ChristmasSo you don’t miss out on Jesus this year & the The Greatest Christmas.
November 15, 2024
Loneliness May Be Your Reality, But It Isn’t Your Destiny
You know how we are in the middle of a loneliness epidemic? As a gal who’s spent a good deal of time on both the military spouse and civilian sides of the fence, Kristen Strong knows what it is to experience loneliness in a variety of contexts. And whether through her writing or in person, she makes other women feel seen and welcomed. Kristen has linked arms with more than forty other word-wondrous writers (including my daughter and daughter-in-love who are both published (!!) in this new book!) to share stories of walking through loneliness in order to encourage you in your own story. More than once, I’ve told Kristen that she’s the world’s most encouraging woman, and it’s a grace to welcome her to the farm’s table today…
Guest Posy by Kristen Strong
Nine weeks pregnant with twins, I steadied myself as I sucked up all the air in my tiny bathroom when I drew in a sharp breath. After taking care of my pre-bedtime business, I turned around to flush, and that’s when I noticed the startling swirl of scarlet in the bowl.
I closed my eyes, hoping against hope that I’d imagined it. But upon opening my eyes again, I still saw the telltale sign of a problem.
I mentally Rolodexed who I could call for help and reassurance. My husband was out of town and, given the “top secret” nature of his job in the military at the time, I had no idea where he was, let alone a phone number for reaching him.
Also, this was the late ’90s, when texting didn’t exist. Furthermore, I lived eight hundred miles from any family. I did have a couple of local friends, but one of them was also out of town, and the other had a toddler to care for and a husband who was away.
I had a handful of acquaintances, but given the late hour, I felt like I couldn’t justify bothering anyone, friend or acquaintance.
“Well, God, I guess it’s just You and me,” I said to myself as I took off my pajamas, put on my clothes, and walked to the garage.
Alone and nervous about the welfare of my babies, I decided to go to the hospital.
As I drove to the emergency room, my loneliness overwhelmed me until tears made it difficult to drive.
“…on the way to the hospital when I held loneliness and fear rather than answers, I felt Jesus’ acute presence in a particularly powerful way.“
Had I felt lonely before this? Definitely. At that point, I’d been a military wife for about three and a half years. With a husband who frequently traveled, and a steep learning curve on how to make friends, I’d felt lonely more often than not.
But this time, my loneliness felt like a neon light, flashing at me from all directions. Terrified I was losing one or both babies, my sense of isolation intensified the fear, and vice versa.
After arriving at the ER and figuring out where to park, I hurried out of the car and slammed the door. I walked as quickly as I dared, willing my heartbeat to slow down. After what seemed an eternity, I reached the doors and walked into the ER. I checked in at the front desk and then a nurse took me back to a partitioned room and directed me to lie down on the bed. It took several agonizing minutes for her to hook me up to an ultrasound machine. And then came the music that no professional symphony orchestra could ever match: not one but two strong heartbeats.
I laid my head back on the pillow as relief flooded my body, and the stress poured out of my eyeballs.
The nurse squeezed my hand and said, “That’s good news indeed.”
If I told her “Thank you!” once, I told it to her fifty times. It’s funny how a stranger can suddenly feel like a good friend, can feel like she’s the actual comforting arms of Christ.
“Yet in those times of fear and isolation, the thick curtain between myself and heaven was replaced with a gauzier veil. And through that veil, I could more strongly sense and know the Savior’s presence, come what may.“
Arriving back home well after midnight, I felt awash in relief yet still lonely as I had no one to share the night’s events with. At the same time, I experienced an overwhelming sense of being seen and cared for.
Yes, I know that’s partially because, in this instance, things worked out as I’d desperately hoped, thanks be to the good Lord above. But more than that, on the way to the hospital when I held loneliness and fear rather than answers, I felt Jesus’ acute presence in a particularly powerful way.
You don’t get to be my age without experiencing the loneliness of hardship and loss that didn’t come with the grace of favorable answers. Yet in those times of fear and isolation, the thick curtain between myself and heaven was replaced with a gauzier veil. And through that veil, I could more strongly sense and know the Savior’s presence, come what may.
In the ER, would it have helped me to have someone pray with me and hold my hand as I agonized through a hundred what-ifs? Of course—a thousand times over.
The presence of Jesus through friends during hard times and regular times has given me unmeasurable relief and comfort through the years. Because whatever our circumstances, be it a difficult move or a difficult marriage or something else, a lack of friends makes any problem feel worse. It makes the loneliness we experience within our difficulties worse.
But in those scary minutes of intense loneliness at the hospital, I don’t know if I would’ve experienced the presence of the Lord to the degree I did if He hadn’t been all I had in that moment.
And in that moment, He was enough.
And so it goes with any and all of our seasons of loneliness. Though we’ll endure periods of isolation or separation within our lives, God will never, ever leave us on our own in our loneliness.
What’s more, we aren’t to endure it alone forever—God wants us to have our friends and support system. During desperate times as well as “regular life” times, He wants us to have our friends with whom we share the silly and the serious, the holy and the humdrum.
No matter what, God’s heart always beats for you (Romans 8:31). This isn’t only true when life goes as you’d like, surrounded by a plethora of friends. It’s also true in your long, lonely seasons when friends are few and far between.
May you know that even as you wait for your loneliness to lessen, even as you work through the pain of friendships and relationships lost and a lack of answers, God is working for your good and His glory.
He has friends in mind for you, dear heart—you’re not the anomaly.
Trust Him, because He’s surely got you and will see you through your lonely season.
[image error]Kristen Strong, compiler of the book Praying Through Loneliness and author of other books too, writes as a friend walking alongside you in your lonely season to a more helpful, hopeful destination. She loves sharing laughs, long talks, and meaningful stories with family and friends while holding a cup of strong black tea. She and her USAF veteran husband, David, have three beloved adult children. As a military family, they zigzagged across the country (and one ocean) several times before calling Colorado home. Connect with Kristen at kristenstrong.com and read more about Praying Through Loneliness at prayingthroughloneliness.com
Praying Through Loneliness is a light for anyone walking in a dark, debilitating season of loneliness. With the current crisis of loneliness and lack of friendships in today’s culture, this 90-day devotional offers both lived perspective and attainable promise for how to find community and friends, especially within your difficult personal circumstances. Take comfort in the vulnerable, personal stories from more than forty women who share their honest experiences of feeling isolated, struggling to find friends, and still finding a meaningful way through.
{Our humble thanks to Thomas Nelson for their partnership in today’s devotional.}
November 11, 2024
Finding Peace in the Ever-Present Presence of God
I’ve personally and deeply known Jenn Tucker as one of my dearest friends for the last 10 years & she is nothing if not a genuine woman of the Word. A woman who trusts that God is trustworthy, that He communicates, and a life of intimately communicating with Him, and daily listening to Him, leads to a life of deeply fulfilling communion, even, especially, in crisis. And as two very close friends who can testify to this truth, two mothers, two daughters of the King of kings, Jenn and I have long walked together through some achingly dark nights of the soul, standing with each other, kneeling with each other, grieving with each other, breathing prayers with each other, for each other, and the hard things become holy things as we bring them to Him. It’s one of my greatest joys to welcome Jenn to the farm’s table today…
Guest Post by Jennifer Tucker
When Hurricane Helene made landfall on the Florida coast, it left a trail of destruction that stretched more than 500 miles inland. Countless communities were completely devastated in what has been described as “an almost unimaginable disaster.”1
The severity of the storm was shocking. A hurricane like this, with such tremendous rainfall, had a less than 0.1% chance of happening in any given year—that’s only once in every 1,000 years.2
No one expected the level of devastation that Helene left in its path. Homes and businesses were destroyed, roads were completely washed away, towns were flooded, more than 2 million homes lost power, and more than 230 lives were lost. Communities are still digging through the rubble, picking up the pieces and beginning the slow and painful process of recovery.
The damage is great.
The pain is deep.
The recovery will take a long time.
And life for so many will never be the same.
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SEAN RAYFORD/GETTY IMAGES
There are seasons in our lives that barrel through like a hurricane.
Whether it’s an unexpected crisis, an unwanted trauma, or an unimaginable loss, these events can quickly flood our lives with pain and fear and doubt, threatening to uproot us and wash us away.
These are the watershed moments3. These are the moments that forever divide our lives into a clear “before” and “after,” leaving a lasting impact in their wake and changing the trajectory of our lives in some marked way.
Life after these moments will never be quite the same.
When my daughter was hospitalized for the first time, and the doctors pulled me into a private room to discuss the severity of her condition and the concerns for her safety and health, I felt a complete loss of control and an overwhelming sense of uncertainty.
“The truth is: doing things for God is not at all the same as spending time with God.“
I didn’t know what the next step forward was, let alone how to take it. It felt like a pit had opened up and swallowed me whole, and suddenly I was in a new kind of terrain that I knew nothing about and had no idea how to navigate.
I didn’t want to walk this road. I didn’t want this to be our story.
Up until that point, I had put a lot of the focus of my faith into all the things I did for God. I read my Bible and I served at church, I led ministries and went on missions trips, we had family devotions and prayers before dinner and bedtime. I checked all the boxes. I did all the things I thought I was “supposed” to do to be a “good Christian.”
But when l found myself in that hospital room, blindsided by a storm of a size and magnitude that I had never imagined, I was shaken to my core.
As anxiety and doubt began to surge over me, I could feel the roots of my faith coming loose…I was drifting away on a wave of worry and fear and helplessness. I had no framework for this kind of suffering. My roots were not deep enough to hold me in this kind of storm.
I had spent so many years focused on doing good things for Christ. But doing all the things for God, without slowing down and actually being with God, had left me with shallow roots. My faith was easily shaken when the storms raged down, because the substance of my faith was dependent on my own abilities instead of on Christ’s complete sufficiency.
The truth is: doing things for God is not at all the same as spending time with God.
“Productivity is not a substitute for presence.“
Productivity is not a substitute for presence.
That hospital room became holy ground where my faith was stripped bare and the presence of God was all that I had.
That’s when breath prayer became my lifeline.4 I had nothing left in me but two little lines from Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need.”
I breathed and prayed my way through that crisis, clinging to the truth of that small handful of words. Like a ring buoy thrown out to me in the middle of a raging ocean, breath prayer kept me tethered to Christ through some really dark and difficult days.
But as the storms of that season continued, as weeks turned to months and months turned to years…as suffering lingered and pain persisted, as new crises and new struggles hit, as prayers were left unanswered (in the way we wanted, anyway) and hope grew harder to hold onto…I found it increasingly difficult to keep my mind from spiraling into a dark pit of fear and despair.
The damage was great.
The pain was deep.
The recovery was taking a really long time.
And our lives would never be the same.
I had to find a way to be ok even when the circumstances surrounding me were not ok. I had to figure out how to remain calm when all around me felt like chaos. I needed more than just a lifeline to tether me to Christ, I needed an anchor to secure me to His presence and steady me in His Word.
I needed to be grounded and rooted in something—in SomeOne—stronger than myself and greater than my circumstances.
Meditation became that anchor for me.
Intentionally setting aside meaningful times of stillness and silence with Christ, to pray and deeply contemplate His Word and purposefully be with Him, has kept me securely grounded in Christ and has fundamentally transformed my faith.
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Meditation is not some weird, new-age ritual—it is a deeply Biblical practice that is focused on Scripture and is a means for communing with Christ.
Throughout Scripture we are directly instructed to meditate on God’s Word—to focus our thoughts on it and to contemplate the Word in way that causes it to sink deep into our hearts and take root in our souls, changing us from the inside out:
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.” Joshua 1:8 ESV
“Blessed is the one . . . whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.” Psalm 1:1–2 NIV
“Meditation didn’t change my circumstances but it changed me within my circumstances “
Meditation anchors us and grows our roots down deep. If our roots are strong, the winds of worry won’t uproot us, and the storms of anxiety won’t wash us away. If we’re deeply rooted, we may bend in the wind, but we won’t break easily.
When seasons and circumstances change, when the watershed moments bring droughts of discouragement or floods of anxiety with them, we can remain anchored and secure, weathering any storm that might come.
Over time, I learned how to be still and befriend silence. Meditation didn’t change my circumstances but it changed me within my circumstances. It shifted my focus off of the storms and onto the One who walks on the waves and is with me through it all.
There are still dark and stormy days, and I still experience waves of worry and gusts of anxiety…the problems are not all fixed and life is still not at all like it once was. But a steady rhythm of meditation has helped me shift the way I weather the storms that come.
So when my oldest daughter, a sophomore in college at the time, came to us and told us she was unexpectedly pregnant, though I was shocked and shaken at first, I wasn’t crushed and I didn’t crumble beneath the waves of worry that washed over me. My faith stayed steady as we walked with her through her own watershed moment.
“It shifted my focus off of the storms and onto the One who walks on the waves and is with me through it all. “
And when my youngest had a setback and needed a higher level of care and I had to live out of a suitcase in a hotel or Airbnb for months so that she could get the specialized care she needed, though I was weary and anxiety still rained down on me, I didn’t panic or despair. I was able to hold onto a deep and abiding inner peace in knowing that God was with me—and with her—through it all.
Meditation is a gift you can give to yourself today, a gentle invitation to simply quiet the noise around you and within you so you can tune your heart to the presence of God and focus your mind on His Word.
Whether you’re weathering a difficult storm, overwhelmed by current events, or worried about what lies ahead, try taking a few minutes today to slow your pace and quiet all the noise. Breathe deep and turn your focus to God’s ever-present presence with you, right here and right now.
You can walk whatever hard road lies ahead because you are not alone. God loves you. He’s with you.
He’s holding you.
And He won’t ever, ever let go.
Footnotes:
1. How Hurricane Helene Became a Deadly Disaster Across 6 States
2. More Than a Month Later: Communities Struggle to Rebuild After Hurricanes Helene and Milton,
3. The word “watershed” is a geographical term that refers to an area of land that divides the flow of
rivers: the water is going one way at first, until the watershed moment, when it gets rerouted
toward a different trajectory.
4. https://annvoskamp.com/2022/09/hard-days-need-a-lifeline-breathe-deep-try-this/
Jennifer Tucker is an artist, graphic designer, and the bestselling author of Breath as Prayer: Calm Your Anxiety, Focus Your Mind, and Renew your Soul, winner of the 2023 ECPA Christian Book Award for New Author of the Year. Her new book, Present in Prayer: A Guided Invitation to Peace Through Biblical Meditation, is a gentle invitation to linger long in the presence of God as you meditate on His Word using the centuries-old meditative practice of lectio divina. Jennifer is a wife, mother, and grandmother, as well as a devoted follower of Jesus and an advocate for mental health. She lives in Georgia with her family, and she shares her heart and art online at littlehousestudio.net.
Does the busy, hurried pace of your daily life ever leave you feeling weary and overwhelmed? Do you find that even when your body isn’t moving, your mind is still racing? Do worries, ruminations, distractions, or a spiral of negative thought patterns keep you from the stillness and deep peace your soul longs for?
Present in Prayer invites you to intentionally quiet the noise around you and within you, to slow down and practice being fully present in prayer as you allow the Holy Spirit transform your thoughts and renew your mind through the practice of Christian meditation. Deep yet accessible, each of the thirty beautifully illustrated meditations calls you to silence, prayer, and thoughtful reflection on a Bible passage using the framework of the centuries-old practice of lectio divina. As you sink into a new spiritual rhythm of thinking about whatever is true and lovely and pure and excellent, you will find purposeful prayer and lasting peace that only God provides. Learn more at presentinprayer.com
{Our humble thanks to Thomas Nelson for their partnership in today’s devotional.}
November 8, 2024
The Unexpected Gifts of Quiet
Sarah Clarkson is just the loveliest writer who lives in an old English vicarage with her husband and four hobbitish children. She loves beauty, books, and imagination, and wants to offer those as hope to a broken world. She’s spent the last several years wrestling with what it means to reclaim quiet as a way of life amidst a culture driven by noise, screens, and distraction. With four children, a husband in ministry, and three moves, she’s found these to be some of the least quiet years of her life, yet she has come to believe that quiet is the homeland each person is meant to find, the place we discover ourselves held by a speaking God, and perhaps most poignantly, a place of refuge in times of grief or trouble. It’s my absolute joy to welcome Sarah to the farm’s table today…
Guest Post by Sarah Clarkson
The quiet I sought that day was a space to grieve.
I walked down to the café where my drink and name were known due to my almost daily morning attendance in that season.
Usually I came with a stack of theology and about five notebooks, ready for frantic work on the graduate dissertation that was fast escaping me amidst the turmoil of our lives. Today I came only with Bible and journal and the headphones that would make the corner table by the window the cloistered space I needed.
I was too restless for silence; none of my usual corners for prayer in the old Oxford churches I loved would do.
So I sat in the café window with my coffee and let the buzz of the street, the ebb and flow of humanity under the grey spring sky, give form to the start and stop of my own stuttering thoughts. But my mood did not lighten.
Dread gathered and tightened in the regions beneath my mind as I began to understand that what I had come to hammer out was not a decision between various options but rather my consent to the only option available, one I could not find it in myself to want.
For five years, Oxford had been my home, the place of an intellectual flourishing I had long yearned to find, the city in which I married and settled in my first little red- doored row house, the place in which my first child was born.
But my husband, after three years of training for priesthood in the Anglican Church, was required to serve a further three-year curacy (an internship under another priest). Our options were limited for various reasons, so we had to consider random offers from other churches in England. Only one had really come through, and to me it did not seem a place we could flourish; it meant removal to a far corner of England I barely knew, one with no friends or connections nearby.
It meant young motherhood with no support, uncertain housing, and a church and culture that looked very different from what I knew and trusted.
“The gifts of quiet are nothing if not a return to what is essential, what is elemental within us: the stripped- back, barefaced truth of heart and mind.“
I knew there would be more goodness than I could yet see, but I also knew, viscerally, that it would be hard. I did not want the struggle I knew would attend our lives there. I could have wept, there in my seat in the sealed quiet of my headphones, but I began to write instead.
And what I wrote was lament. The beat of my blood was strong in my ears, a protest that thrummed in my fingers as I penned my anguish, my sheer revolt. The quiet of that day was a stripping of any pretense I had of acceptance or calm. Quiet revealed the roil and outrage of my inmost self. When I had finished writing, I sat in a drained, ravaged silence.
Sometimes what quiet offers isn’t peace but grief. In all my long years of writing and thinking about quiet, it has always been far too easy to fall into the assumption that quiet, rightly performed, guarantees serenity. As if, should we find struggle and anger and lament in our hush, we’ve done it wrong. But I’ve learned to understand it usually means we’ve done it right. The gifts of quiet are nothing if not a return to what is essential, what is elemental within us: the stripped- back, barefaced truth of heart and mind.
Much of that stripping does bring peace as we discover God’s presence and kindness haunting our lives in countless ways we had forgotten to notice. But the condition of all quiet in this world is that of grief. When I picked up my Bible that day with limp, reluctant hands, feeling I had failed in my task, I turned to Psalms. The ancient, anguished poetry of the psalms has always sheltered me, given voice to my rebellion and grief.
They did not fail me that day. In the regular cycle of my reading, I found myself at Psalm 31. I read listlessly until I found the words in verse 9 that gave voice to my lament:
“Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress.”
From that point, I read the words of the psalm as if composing them myself, until I reached David’s affirmations of God’s abundant goodness, and then I slowed. I tried to mean what I read, but I failed until I stumbled into this strange and wondrous verse:
“Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city.” (Psalm 31:21)
“Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city.” (Psalm 31:21)
What could this mean? That David’s prayer was answered, and answered well, not by removal from his uproar but with wondrous shelter in its midst? I held this idea in my mental hands, turning it over in its strangeness. Would I, then, know God’s kindness in the besieged city of this unwelcome choice? Was it all right to name this decision for the hard one it was, to fully assert the distress I knew it would bring?
A great hush came finally to my interior world as I understood that God did not despise the struggle revealed by my quiet but rather allowed me to understand he would be present within it. Our lives would be difficult; I knew it then and found it to be true.
Those three years of curacy saw the death of Thomas’s mother, the birth of two babies, demanding ministry, three moves, pneumonia, appendicitis, and a worldwide pandemic that meant we were utterly cut off from any help amidst these crises. We were indeed isolated, too far from those we loved.
“I am more convinced than I have ever been before that the almighty Creator of the world involves himself in our affairs.“
But God’s kindness came to David in the very middle of deprivation and destruction, with enemies at the gates and fear in the air. God’s kindness came to me countless times in that difficult place; after those three hard years I am more convinced than I have ever been before that the almighty Creator of the world involves Himself in our affairs.
But I also know even better now that it’s always amidst the siege that God’s kindness arrives.
We live in a world at war and will until the kingdom comes and the story of the cosmos begins again. Our pursuit of quiet will always be attended by our anguish, our wrestling, our loss. Quiet does not remove those things from us; it offers the space in which we may give voice to them so that they do not destroy us, so that the alternate voice of God’s kindness may turn the besieged cities of our lives into “the rock of refuge” David found in his own wild distress.
In quiet, we learn to watch and wait for God’s help as it sets up camp in the very heart of our darkness.
Sarah Clarkson is an author who loves to explore the kinship between literature, beauty, and theology. She’s written about mental illness and beauty as theodicy in This Beautiful Truth, and her latest work is Reclaiming Quiet: Cultivating a Life of Holy Attention. She studied theology (BTh, MSt) at Oxford and hosts a regular series of talks exploring literature, poetry, and theology at her Patreon fellowship. She can often be found with a flat white and book in Oxford, where she lives with her Anglican vicar husband, Thomas, and their four children. You can explore her work at SarahClarkson.com or subscribe to her newsletter From the Vicarage, at SarahClarkson.Substack.com
In Reclaiming Quiet: Cultivating a Life of Holy Attention, Sarah invites her readers to step away from the rush and hurry of a life driven increasingly by distraction into a story shaped by the gracious power of quiet. What is quiet? What shape does it take in our ordinary hours? Who is quiet for? In writing about her own wrestle with quiet amidst four children and a demanding life, Sarah beautifully answers these questions and draws her readers with her into a life shaped by a chosen and joyous listening.
{Our humble thanks to Baker Books for their partnership in today’s devotional.}
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