Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 16
September 20, 2024
When Doing It All Is Undoing You
Feeling fragmented and frazzled, many women today are caught in a vicious cycle trying to do too much, hold everything together, manage and control their circumstances, and avoid mistakes at all costs. But no matter how hard we try, there are many things outside of our control. In trying to do it all, we are undone ourselves. In Alyssa Bethke’s latest book, she shares about the struggle to let go of our struggles and unmet expectations and focus on turning our hearts to God. It’s a joy to welcome Alyssa to the farm’s table today…
Guest Post by Alyssa Bethke
One night last year, after everyone else was fast asleep in their beds, and I was gearing up for some hours of study on the couch for my seminary class the next day, I plopped down on our grey couch and pulled up my legs under me and got cozy. I was halfway done with my master’s, and I was loving every moment of learning and studying the Bible—a dream come true for me.
For the past months, I had chosen to fast from social media so I could really focus on hearing what the Lord wanted to speak to me. However, I had a few minutes to spare (okay, let’s call it what it was— procrastination), and I swiped my phone up and clicked on that little Instagram app. It sucked me in like quicksand.
They’re in Europe!
She’s coming out with a new podcast!
She’s coming out with a book!
She had a party tonight!
Look at her new house— wow!
She’s pregnant!
It wasn’t until ten minutes had passed that I finally, I looked up at the time, put my phone away, and grabbed my seminary book.
I sat down on the couch with a brownie in hand and let out a big sigh. I couldn’t concentrate on my book. I was excited for everyone’s updates on social media, truly. I knew the hard work that went into each project. So many of the announcements were answers to prayer, evidence of years of waiting and dreaming. I had prayed with a lot of those friends for those very desires.
And yet, within a matter of minutes, I also felt undone. What am I doing with my life? What do I have to show for my season? Who am I? What’s my purpose? Have I been wasting my life?
I felt insecure, unseen, and— here’s that word— worthless.
I was falling behind. I was missing it somehow. Shame came knocking at my door, and I let it walk right on in.
“To feeling that this life is not what you thought it would be, not only that it’s harder, but that no matter what you try, you can feel yourself unravel at times— in the big things of life and the small moments of our everyday.“
I am sure that in whatever season of life you are living right now, you can relate to falling into the comparison trap, to feeling insecure and disappointed with life. To feeling that this life is not what you thought it would be, not only that it’s harder, but that no matter what you try, you can feel yourself unravel at times— in the big things of life and the small moments of our everyday.
I know many of you can relate to feeling just flat-out exhausted from trying to manage the outcomes and the reality that life is not going the way you had hoped.
If you’re like me, you may find yourself struggling to know how to proceed, or to know what yours is to do, and to let go of holding your life and situations so tightly out of fear of everything falling apart. If we let go, will we fall apart?
But what about our hearts?
More than the outcomes, more than the situations themselves or even the endings to our stories; what about who we are becoming in the midst of all that is left undone?
When it comes to “keeping up with the Joneses,” breathing the air of our culture and walking in the demands and pressures of our day is insurmountably exhausting.
Because I hadn’t been on the ’Gram in so long, it was extremely apparent how quickly my heart swung from thankfulness and joy to insecurity and questions and doubts and— let’s just say it— jealousy late that night. And it’s not that social media causes those things in me, but rather it highlights the areas of my heart that are already broken.
The areas of my life that cause me to feel like I’m in pieces and that leave me weary and feeling forgotten. And my first response was not to run to the Father but to do something amazing! Insta-worthy. I felt the pressure to prove myself. Show myself. Which then quickly faded into self-pity.
But do I have anything to show?
As I sat on my oversized gray couch, having completely demolished my brownie, I was fighting to believe in my heart what I know in my head: it’s not about what you accomplish or do.
Yes, we’re made to partner with God in doing good works to bring His light to the world, but the most important gift you can give to people is your presence, your transformed self.
Who are you? Who are you becoming?
It’s not about your resume; it’s about your heart.
When I think of the most influential people in my life, my family and mentors who have helped shape me, I don’t think about their resumes. It’s not the things they’ve done that have changed my life. It’s who they are while they spend time with me that sticks with me— how they listen, look me in the eye, ask questions, make me feel like they have all the time in the world and are delighted to be with me. It’s their posture of kindness, grace, and love. It’s how they speak into my life, the wisdom and grace and truth that they share. How they pray over and for me. How they pursue me. How they are available.
“As you sit with Jesus, honest with your cares and heart, you will begin to gain sturdiness of soul, becoming secure no matter the outcomes.”
How they follow up to see how I’m doing with the burdens and cares that I share with them. It’s their very presence, their transformed selves, their whole and holy selves.
It’s that they too are on the journey of seeking to be full of Jesus and choosing to be fully devoted to Jesus. That is their gift to me.
The same is true of me. Of you. Of each one of us. Our greatest contribution on this earth, our greatest gift to others, is not what we can do and accomplish, but it is our transformed selves.
It’s choosing to look to Jesus, to sit in His love and let His love and light transform us. To slow down and become women who are self aware, honest, humble, and gracious.
And as you look to Jesus, turning your face toward Him, surrendered to His goodness and care, you will radiate with His love.
As you sit with Jesus, honest with your cares and heart, you will begin to gain sturdiness of soul, becoming secure no matter the outcomes.
Alyssa Joy Bethke loves Jesus, matcha, and the sun, and squeezes as much pickleball and reading into her week as possible. She is married to Jeff, the love of her life, and is mom to three of the greatest gifts: Kinsley, Kannon, and Lucy. The Bethke family recently moved from Maui to Tennessee and are embracing the wild adventure of a life surrendered to God. Alyssa and Jeff help reclaim God’s design for men, women, and families at Forming Men, Forming Women and Family Teams.
In When Doing It All is Undoing You, Alyssa Bethke gives you permission to let go of the emotional stress weighing you down and find beauty in the life you already live.
{Our humble thanks to Worthy Books for their partnership in today’s devotional.}
September 18, 2024
You’ll Live a Different Life If You Start Telling Yourself a different story: How Journaling Can Change Your Life
The therapist lets the words hang in the room after he asks them, his eyes not leaving mine.
You are not ever telling your heart to beat, and you are never not telling yourself a story.
“Uh….. so you’re asking how did I really actually feel when they said they love me?” I’m awkwardly rephrasing, repeating his question, to buy myself time, to somehow pay attention a bit longer to feel whatever it is that I am feeling.
Late afternoon sunlight moves across the table and lights the side of a vase, fills it, and there it is — it’s all I’ve got, and it’s only one word, and the light of it fills me.
I whisper it, brimming a bit with leaked emotion, spilling light:
“Grateful.”
I’m just overwhelmed — hushes —- with gratefulness for love, for the miraculous grace of love.
“You will need to write this all down, and let me tell you why,” the therapist leans forward.
“Journal out these moments of feeling love like a screenplay — write how did it make you you feel, what did they say, where did they say it, how they said it, what was the feeling in your body, where was the feeling, and what happened next? Engage the neurons in your mind around this good moment — and you will begin to literally rewire your mind, your story —- and begin to imagine and anticipate a good story for your future.”
Stringing your thoughts together with lines of ink — begins to unknot and rewire the processes in your mind.
I’m nodding…
Stringing your thoughts together with lines of ink — begins to unknot and rewire the processes in your mind.
Because The Word Himself made your mind — the process of journaling words begins to remake your mind.
Ink is more than just cheap therapy — ink actually begins to rewrite your one precious mind.
“Just journal out this conversation, and what you will be doing is returning again to this liminal moment, to this thin space where you saw how God was present right here in someone’s love, in someone’s words,” the therapist’s nodding.
And I’m writing this all down, how writing things down will write new patterns into thinking, will write a new script into your life.
Because The Word Himself made your mind — the process of journaling words begins to remake your mind.
Because this world is not some accident, but is made by design, by the Word — this then is a world of stories, and you are always telling yourself story upon story.
You are not ever telling your heart to beat, and you are never not telling yourself a story.
Word-made beings, we live and breathe and have our being in the stories that we tell ourselves.
The research of Smorti, Pananti and Rizzo (2010), that asked patients diagnosed to keep a long-term journal, discovered that journaling helped “to create many autobiographical connections between their life events” and it’s true:
When you pull out a pen and journal, dot your i’s and cross your t’s —- you start to connect the dots of your life — and see the full story of who you are and where you are, so you don’t feel lost, so you are wholly found.
And I can see it, even as I’m scrawling these ink scrolls of ideas across the page:
The more we journal our story — the more we journey into a deeper understanding of our story.
The more we journal our story — the more we journey into a deeper understanding of our story.
We may journal and write our stories down in straight lines, but none of our stories are linear.
Just as the Word Himself encircles us, just as this world the Word made is circular, so our stories are circular, and in the returning again and again to our stories, this reviewing of our stories, actually gives us a different view of our story.
We only understand parts of our story through distance — and the distance from our hearts to the end of our pens.
What is the story I’m telling myself about our relationship? What do I believe is happening in this story? What is my longing in this story? What am I afraid of in this story?
We only understand parts of our story through distance — and the distance from our hearts to the end of our pens.
What is my deep worry in this story?
What is my deep want in this story?
Fall victim to small stories —- and you live a shrivelled life.
Live large, magnanimous, generous, charitable stories —-and you’re given a large, generous, magnanimous life.
The story you tell yourself —- is the story that ends up shaping your life.
I think about this on the drive home through late fall’s golden light, I think about this when I’m telling the Farmer Husband just as we turn out the last light, about how we only start living a different life when we start telling ourselves a different story.
We only start living a different life when we start telling ourselves a different story.
“You know, Ann, after all these years, what I can say is…” his voice’s tender as he sits on the edge of the bed in this gentle circle of lamplight. “The story you tell yourself can be the most dangerous thing about you — or the most freeing thing about you.”
And I feel like I’m standing in so much light:
There is a Word that is Truer and greater than your story that is here. “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us….” (John 1:14)
And whatever part of your story that didn’t get what it needed, can find what it needs in the Word Himself and His story.
The story you tell yourself —- is the story that ends up shaping your life.
When the sun rises the next day, I reach for a pen like a flaming pillar of fire to see the way, part the waves; I reach for a pen and page.
Fresh Day.
Fresh Mercies.
Fresh Pages.
And all of us made by the Word, made of story and word, begin to write… into a Fresh Us!
All this golden light just keeps finding us this time of year, helps us to just keep finding all of ourselves and the whole, good story.
Wanna Change Your Life? Start Changing the Story You’re Telling Yourself
Take our free 4 Week Journaling Masterclass: FRESH PAGES
Starts October 1st : Fresh Day, Fresh Mercies, Fresh Pages, Fresh US!
Pre-Order either of both of my 2 (!!) New Journals with you & all these free gifts are yours!
Your complimentary enrolment in Ann’s 4-Week Journaling Masterclass: FRESH PAGES with video teachings & live-streamed classes. Learn how to write to change your life!2. A welcome to our private SACRED Prayer Community, gathering together on Zoom from the quiet, intimate space of The Village Table.
3. Your own “Go Deeper” Journaling Toolkit with journaling prompts, a prayer guide, Identity in Christ printable bookmarks with daily notes to soul, a playlist & a resource guide to our favorite journaling supplies!
4. Your own seat in our private online community of journalers, with regular live-streamed journaling retreats
5. The chance to win your own writing retreat on Ann’s farm, staying in a shepherd’s hut on the river…
Just Pre-Order either one of our Life-Changing Journals right now, & receive all these free gifts, including:
Our Free 4 Wk JOURNALING MASTERCLASS: FRESH PAGES
Pre-order now to begin with October 1st! Fresh Pages, Fresh Us!
September 16, 2024
Heirlooms & Heartstrings: How to Keep Treasuring the Image of God in Our Children
Amanda Erickson is passionate about helping moms thrive in their motherhood and build a family that flourishes. Amanda’s journey is one of transformation—being captivated by the perfect love of Jesus while navigating postpartum anxiety and anger amid the challenges of early motherhood. Now she helps families find peace in the middle of chaos, have purpose in their parenting, and make discipleship the goal of discipline. Her story and insights are sure to inspire and encourage you today. It’s a joy to welcome Amanda to the farm’s table today…
Guest Post by Amanda Erickson
Whether by a stroke of luck or incessant prevention on our part, somehow my husband and I managed to make it through the toddler and preschool years without any coloring on the walls or furniture.
Naturally, we thought we were in the clear, and for a few years crayons, markers, and pencils stayed neatly in their arts and crafts spot on the shelf, easily accessible to busy, creative, little hands.
That all changed when our youngest was in first grade.
Yes, you read that correctly, and to be sure, we were as surprised as you may be. Because we’d kept all writing utensils out of reach when our children were small, we’d never had an actual conversation about keeping art on paper, not the walls.
By the time Elijah was in first grade, it had completely escaped us that maybe we should have a chat about our expectations for artistic expression.
One night just before bedtime I was sitting on the boys’ bedroom floor talking with Elijah while he got into his pajamas. We were following our normal bedtime routine: lights low, soft voices, steady movement toward being ready to snuggle and read before lights out. As we talked, Elijah pointed at the bottom drawer of the boys’ dresser. “Mommy, look! It’s a smiley face!” he said with so much pride and excitement, watching me closely to see my reaction.
“My response would reveal to my son which was more important, him or the family heirloom.“
In a split second I felt the gentle nudging of the Holy Spirit in my heart. See, Elijah hadn’t drawn on the cheap plastic shelves in their closet or the easily replaceable furniture elsewhere in their room. No, he had etched a tiny smiley face on a sturdy, well-made chest of drawers that’s been in the family for generations. That was his chosen canvas.
If this had happened earlier in our parenting, I would almost surely have lost it. And if not lost it completely, I know I would have reacted very sternly by “laying down the law.” But this was many years into purposefully pursuing peace and gentleness with our children.
I instinctively knew I had a choice in how I reacted, and the stakes were high: My response would reveal to my son which was more important, him or the family heirloom.
Of course my child is more valuable than treasured furniture that had been passed down to me. And yet standing there in the heat of the moment looking at this well-loved antique that had just been damaged, it would have been easy to send an unintended message that the antique dresser was more important than my child.
“If we’re going to be able to face such situations with supernatural peace, we must have a foundational understanding of why children are so valuable. They are so treasured and loved by God because they are made in His image. “
If we’re going to be able to face such situations with supernatural peace, we must have a foundational understanding of why children are so valuable.
They are so treasured and loved by God because they are made in His image.
When our artistically inclined son took his creativity and artistic prowess to that chest of drawers, recognizing his inherent worth and dignity helped me keep perspective so that I could respond with grace and kindness.
I took a breath and gave him a soft smile. “Thank you for showing me your art, Elijah. Your art is so important to me. I’m surprised you drew on the drawer, though. I’m curious about that.”
He looked at me, confused. “Oh, that’s because I didn’t have any paper in here,” he said, as if he was stating the obvious.
Of course.
While not the most mature or informed decision, I had to admit that coming up with an alternative canvas was not entirely unreasonable.
“I see. You know what, your art is important to me; it’s why we have so many pictures hung up and saved. You decided it was time to draw, but you didn’t have any paper—that makes sense! I don’t think we can hang this up, though, because it’s not on paper. Hmmm!”
I could tell that I had his attention and that he was following every word I said.
I shifted my tone from curious to slightly more serious, trying to shy away from being harsh or shaming.
“You know, these drawers are special too. Did you know they belonged to my grandma and grandpa?” Elijah’s eyes got big, a new connection and understanding dawning. He shook his head and looked at his smiley face.
“Here’s the thing, bud,” I said, a hand on his shoulder. “You know your art is special to me. But these drawers are special to me too. And they were not meant to be special together. Where does your art belong?”
Elijah’s exuberant pride had turned to quiet introspection (or at least whatever a seven-year-old can muster late in the day when he’s less than an hour from being asleep). He looked at me and then at the drawer. “Paper,” he said quietly.
“You’re right. And now that I know you know this, that’s where I expect it to stay. If you want to practice carving or etching on wood, we can find a way for you to do that with wood that hasn’t been made into furniture. For now, we’re going to keep pencils on the art shelf, not in your room. And I’ll work on making sure there’s paper there, too, so that whenever you want to draw, you have everything you need.”
I can honestly say that my family heirloom is even more precious to me now.
Not because I wanted a tiny smiley face in the bottom right corner of the bottom drawer, but because I was able to navigate that conflict with Elijah with peace and purpose, gentleness and grace.
It’s now a beautiful reminder of how far we’ve come.
Amanda Erickson is wholly and completely captivated by Jesus. A recovering perfectionist, she has found peace and purpose in the perfect love of Jesus. She’s passionate about helping moms be less stressed and angry so they can flourish in their motherhood. A former foster mom and pastor’s wife, Amanda is an artist with a free spirit and can often be found watercolor painting, sipping coffee on her front porch swing, making up silly songs for her kids and dogs, and hiking the woods near her home in East Texas.
In The Flourishing Family, Dr. David and Amanda Erickson offer a transformative parenting perspective deeply rooted in Scripture and backed by modern neuroscience. This book equips Christian parents to cultivate peace, gentleness, and confidence, aligning their parenting approach with the teachings of Jesus. By showing parents how to lead with compassionate discipline and honor the image of God in their children, The Flourishing Family helps change families and homes from the inside out.
{ Our humble thanks to Tyndale Refresh for their partnership in today’s devotional.}
September 13, 2024
We’ve got to Talk about this: Why You Really Matter & About Suicide & How We need You
(I can’t stop thinking about conversations I had this week about how one of the greatest lies of evil is that we aren’t needed somehow, or that things are kinda hopeless and that we don’t matter, and how this week was National Suicide Prevention Day — and maybe we’ve just got to say all this out loud, and return to it again and again…)
You can feel like there is no way to keep on living this way – nor any real hope of living any other way.
“You are actually not disposable – you are absolutely irreplaceable.“
You can feel like the dark is more like a wildfire burning up all your tomorrows, all your hope, all your future, all the marrow in your bones, and you’re just honestly desperate for some relief.
You get to fully feel all of that — and you get to be fully loved just as you are, and you’re wanted in far more rooms than you can ever imagine. You may not feel it, but you don’t want to miss the good up ahead of you that you can’t see just yet, the laughter so loud you’ll throw your head back and it will feel like a rush of life in your bones, a resuscitation, and you’ll feel lighter and you’ll see the glimmer of light for a minute and don’t doubt for a moment that that light is coming for you.
If we live in this world, and you aren’t here to witness us, to be with us, how could we really fully exist without you?
Don’t doubt that there are moments coming around the next corner that you don’t want to miss, don’t ever doubt that you, your presence, would be achingly missed if you weren’t here for those moments — to witness the way sunsets paint water, and scarlet autumn brushes the edges of the maple leaves, and the first early morning snowfall dusts the world and this old world needs you here as a witness who doesn’t miss its moments of miraculous beauty.
Your life has so much worth and weight that we need you, we want you, as a witness to our lives. We need to look out from our lives and scan for where you are, and see your face here, right here, see your eyes, feel you are right here with us.
Just as the sound of the falling tree, without a conscious mind and ear there to perceive it, doesn’t fully exist — so without you, we aren’t fully ourselves.
You know how they say — If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?
And the reality is: Sound exists only in the experience of the human witness.
This is true of all of life:
Colors only fully exist when there are witnessing eyes to process it – or it’s only energy waves. Smell only fully exists if there are witnessing cells there to interpret it – and sound only fully exists if there is an ear and witnessing mind to sense the vibrations and define the frequency.
If there are no vibrating membranes in the ear of a human witness, there is no real sound in the world. There is actually never any sound in just the sound waves themselves. Without a human witness to experience the falling of the tree, there is no sound, only rapidly moving particles vibrating in air. The world needs a witness to fully exist.
And what we need you to know is: If we live in this world, and you aren’t here to witness us, to be with us, how could we really fully exist without you?
Just as the sound of the falling tree, without a conscious mind and ear there to perceive it, doesn’t fully exist — so without you, we aren’t fully ourselves.
Your world needs your witness to fully exist. We are only fully us – if you are here with us.
Just as sound is actually the product of our ears, so we are all actually the formed and shaped product of each other – of you. If there is no you in our story, in our room, in our lives, there is no real us in the world. We need you here to witness our lives, because the very act of your witness and withness, changes and shapes and forms the very nature of who we are.
Just like an object doesn’t exist without a subject — we would not fully exist as our truest, fullest selves without you.
You are actually not disposable – you are absolutely irreplaceable.
Your world needs your witness to fully exist.
We are only fully us – if you are here with us.
Whenever you part the room, whenever you part this world — we will forever lose a part of us, will never fully be the same, never fully be us.
So I know you’re beyond weary and done with how dark it is, how hard it all is, but I just really need you to really know:
You matter because you actually change all matter in the world.
If you aren’t here to witness our wins and our ways and our wounds, if you aren’t here to witness our losses and our loves and our laughter, if you aren’t here to witness us crossing some finish line, witness us actually holding up some wild, impossible dream, witness our tears and our trials and our triumphs – a part of us will always be missing.
What matters most is that you know how much you matter to us. Whenever you part the room, whenever you part this world — we will forever lose a part of us, will never fully be the same, never fully be us.
If you give up believing that you belong, we will spend so much of our lives longing for you to be here with us – because we need you to fully be us.
Every single one of us is facing our own flames — and every single one of us needs to be with one other person facing theirs. Being with someone in their flames, helps put out some of yours.
And because we need you so desperately – we will come sit with you where it feels desperately hard. Because we so fiercely need you – we won’t leave you alone, we’ll come be with you in your flames.
Every single one of us is facing our own flames — and every single one of us needs to be with one other person facing theirs. Because it also turns out: Being with someone in their flames, helps put out some of yours. It’s its own kind of miracle: You fight your fire by helping someone fight theirs.
So you’ve just got to know:
You won’t have to bear your flames alone, we won’t let you bear your flames alone, and we will bear each other’s burdens and we will bear each other’s flames – because we all need each other to bear witness to each other’s lives – to witness the real hope of fully living.
When you’re looking for a reset, a turn around, a different trajectory…. a real change.
When you’re ready to find a new way of being…
For every person who has faced a no-way sign on the way to their dreams, WayMaker is your sign, that there is hope, that there are miracles, and that everything you are trying to find a way to, is actually coming to meet you in ways far more fulfilling than you ever imagined.
Grab Your Copy of WayMaker and the WayMaker Group Book Club Study — and begin the journey toward change you’ve secretly been hoping for.
September 12, 2024
Walking through the Fire: Why nothing stops Jesus’ love for you
If you’re like me, you’ve heard a hundred sermons about grace in your lifetime. But if you’re also like me, you still might struggle to understand exactly what it is, what it means for you, and how to live it out in your life. That’s where Joby Martin comes in. In his new book Run Over By the Grace Train, he does a deep dive into grace, and he talks about it and explains it like no one else. I’m thrilled to invite Joby Martin to the farm’s table today…
Guest Post by Joby Martin
At my house, we’re Georgia Bulldog fans.
Why? Because we’re Believers.
My Bible’s written in red and black, so just take it up with the Lord.
We’re pretty die-hard fans so we usually go to the opening game of the year. Georgia typically schedules the biggest cupcake team of the year for that game, and that’s my favorite kind of game to go to.
I don’t need to go to a close game. I don’t need stress. I want to sing, “Glory, glory to old Georgia,” until my voice is gone. I want half the stands to be gone by the end. Hope we win by 200.
My family and some friends and I drove up for the game. We won. I lost my voice. I think the score was 7,000 to nothing. Then we checked into this hotel. Pretty swanky. All the doors faced the atrium. When I was a kid, all the doors faced the parking lot. This was not that.
When you walked into this one, the atrium was massive. Twelve stories. You could fly a plane in there.
Shops and restaurants all around the edge. We checked in, and then my daughter, Reagan, and her friends, Wiley and Windsor, went to their room to do whatever girls do, and the boys and I went to this little bar and grill.
I ordered some chicken wings and refreshments, because my throat was parched because I’d been singing “Glory, glory to old Georgia.” We were just sitting there waiting on the wings when this alarm sounded. “Fire, fire, please move to the exits. Fire, fire.”
And I did what any good dad would do. I sat there, because it was probably nothing. Plus, I had wings coming. But my friend said, “Well, let me check.” He walked out to the atrium, looked up, and immediately spun and ran back in, panicking. And he ain’t a panicky dude.
“Bro, it’s a fire.”
But I was not convinced, because I had wings coming, so I sauntered out into the atrium and, when I looked up, it was not a little bit of smoke.
It was legit.
I grabbed all three… Wrapped my arms around them…I squeezed them in and started jabbering, “It’s going to be okay . . .”
Where did my thoughts immediately go? Right.
Reagan and her friends were on the tenth floor. Fire on the twelfth. And my mind went to all the places where every mama and daddy’s mind goes. All I could think is, “Reagan is on the tenth floor, I’m down here, I have to get there.” Chaos had spread through the hotel. People were running everywhere in every direction. Not to mention that the glass elevators had been shut down.
I found the stairs and started running. I reached the stairwell, opened the door, and was run over by a sea of people coming down. And I thought, “I got to get to Reagan.” And so I went huffing it up the steps and elbowing my way against the current.
About here, two things hit me with equal weight: I had not trained for this. I should’ve upped my cardio game about eight months ago. Second, I was wearing flip- flops. My daddy used to always say, “The only thing you can do in flip- flops is get your butt kicked.” Which is a fact. And about every floor and a half, I’d bump into another hotel employee saying, “Sir, you can’t come up here,” to which I’d respond, “That’s cute.”
To their credit, the hotel workers had been knocking on all the doors. So, about the fifth floor, who did I bump into? I turned one corner and I saw Reagan, Windsor, and Wiley.
I grabbed all three.
Wrapped my arms around them. I squeezed them in and started jabbering, “It’s going to be okay . . .”
If you have been around preteen girls, you know there can be a lot of emotion on a normal day. Add a fire and no dad and, I mean, they were crying, too. There was a lot going on.
At this point, we filed in with everybody else, exited the stairwell, and got everybody reconnected with their family.
We gathered outside our hotel— because it was still on fire— and we walked down the sidewalk to a wing place, because my last order got lost. We were sitting at a table, I was catching my breath, and Reagan was pretty upset. Still emotional. I was trying to calm her down.
“Baby, I don’t care what’s going on, I don’t care what the circumstances are, I don’t care where you are or what you’ve done, there is nothing on this planet that could keep me from coming after you. I would walk through fire for you.”
“He loves you enough to walk through fire to get to you, whoever you are, whatever you have done. He already has.“
This is the message of Ephesians 2: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:4–10).
This is the message of the Gospel.
God did whatever it took to rescue His children. When it says in Revelation that He has feet of burnished bronze, it’s because He walked through fire, and the fire refined them.
Later that night—in a new hotel—we pushed our beds together. It was like Daytona. Four wide. And Reagan said, “Daddy?”
“Yeah, baby.”
“You would walk through fire for me?” she asked, with a little crack of emotion in her voice.
“Of course I would walk through fire for you.”
Let me be clear—this emotion, this thing in me that runs up the stairs, or tried to before cardiac arrest set in, did not come from me. It did not originate in me. I love Reagan because Jesus first loved me.
And he loves you too. He loves you enough to walk through fire to get to you, whoever you are, whatever you have done. He already has.
Joby Martin is the founder and lead pastor of The Church of Eleven22 in Jacksonville, Florida. Since launching the church in 2012, he has led a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. In addition to providing The Church of Eleven22 with vision and leadership, Pastor Joby is an author, national and international preacher and teacher. He is the author of bestselling books If the Tomb in Empty and Anything Is Possible.
His latest book, Run Over By the Grace Train, explores the topic of grace: what it is, how we receive it, and how it changes absolutely everything about us.
Charles Martin is a is a New York Times bestselling author of 15 novels, including his most recent, The Letter Keeper. He has also recently authored two nonfiction works, What If It’s True? and They Turned the World Upside Down. His work has been translated into 30+ languages.
{Our humble thanks to FaithWords for their partnership in today’s devotional.}
September 6, 2024
Don’t Fear Really Feeling: How Your Emotions Are Key To Unlocking Real Hope & Connection
I once had dinner at Anjuli Paschall‘s welcoming home, with her posse of kids and wise husband and generous friends, and I didn’t want it to end. She’s just down-to-earth, large of heart and deep well of honest wisdom. When you sit with her heart — it always enlarges yours. It’s an absolute grace to welcome Anjuli to the farm’s table today…
Guest Post by Anjuli Paschall
“You’re too sensitive.”
Her words stung. Of course, she is right.
What’s wrong with me? Don’t be one of those girls.
You know, the girls that cry and make drama and a big deal out of nothing. I pride myself in not being like those girls. I tucked away my tender heart and winked back at my mentor trying to convince her how everything I just shared wasn’t that serious after all.
The conversation rolls on, and my too sensitive heart goes into a hiding place that sisters with shame and guilt for feeling too much in the first place.
I grew up believing some lies about feelings.
I wish the Church, culture, and my community would have taught me how important and valuable feelings are to my growth as a follower of Jesus. I wish I knew that a powerful prayer life requires paying attention to my emotions and heart. Feelings are not my enemy.
They are not good or bad; rather they are necessary to have a flourishing relationship with God. When I reflect on my spiritual life and the formation I received, I truly wish my pastor would have helped me unpack these realities.
Here are 3 things I Was never taught about feelings:One thing I was never told me about my feelings was that feelings can be trusted. I was taught to be suspicious of my feelings. Jeremiah 17:9 (NLT), “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?”
“My feelings don’t give me a license to do whatever I want to do. Rather, feelings are just telling me what the condition of my heart is. “
It was passages like this one that set me on high alert. I was always policing my heart for bad feelings—anxiety, dread, anger. Any feeling that was “bad” was not allowed. I alone was responsible for getting my heart into tip-top shape.
In time, I slowly cut myself from my heart. Pushing down and out the bad and pulling up the good, right, and pretty. But the next verse Jeremiah 17:10 reads, “But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.”
Yes, the heart is mysterious. It is filled with evil and glory. But it is the Lord who searches the heart and reveals truth. God searches. God enlightens. God shines light in darkness.
I am not the sole surgeon of my soul. It is God who moves, purges, cleanses, and forms my heart.
When I open my heart to God in prayer, God’s gentle hands do the sanctification work within me.
Feelings are always true, but they aren’t always right.
What I feel at this moment is what I feel. It is true. My feelings don’t give me a license to do whatever I want to do. Rather, feelings are just telling me what the condition of my heart is. Feelings offered to God in prayer help me grow in discernment.
The second thing my pastor never taught me about feelings was that feelings are actually biblical. Feeling my feelings is biblical.
“Feelings aren’t just a part of being human, they are necessary for a deep abiding connection with God.”
The entire book of Psalms, for example, is filled with feeling prayers. From rage to depression, feelings are expressed boldly and unapologetically. From fear to excitement, feelings are all over the thin pages of Scripture. There are countless feelings, and each one can be found in small print verse after verse and chapter after chapter.
Moses was frustrated. Peter was scared. Mary was delighted. Martha was anxious. David was terrified. Sara was surprised. Eve was ashamed. Jesus wept. Every single person in the Bible felt something. It was through their feelings that they actually connected to God, themselves, and others.
Feelings are the gravity of intimacy.
When followers of God were honest about their feelings, it allowed them to encounter Christ.
Feelings aren’t just a part of being human, they are necessary for a deep abiding connection with God.
The third and last thing my pastor never told me about my feelings is that I will face temptations with them. Feelings are messy. Feelings become one more thing to deal with. Painful feelings can get in the way. I have so many strategies to not feel what I feel.
The three major temptations I will face with my feelings are the temptation to control, temptation to dismiss, and the temptation to indulge. I’ve fallen prey to each of these temptations.
“Feelings are actually a pathway to prayer. Feelings are merely an indicator that my soul needs more care.“
I am tempted to control my feelings by bossing them around, trying to change them on my own, plow through them, or get rid of them altogether. This usually looks like grabbing my feelings and doing something with them.
The opposite temptation is to dismiss my feelings entirely. When I feel something uncomfortable, I suppress it and push it under. This usually looks like being busy and avoiding my heart.
Lastly, I am tempted to indulge my feelings entirely. I lose my sense of agency and fall into my feelings. I lose my capacity for reason and common sense.
These temptations are real, present, and strong. What my pastor didn’t teach me was that there was a way through my feelings where I didn’t need to be overly controlling, dismiss them, or indulge them entirely. Feelings are actually a pathway to prayer. Feelings are merely an indicator that my soul needs more care.
Now, my sensitive heart is coming out of hiding and discovering that it is okay to be soft and strong.
Feelings bring us into true discernment and growth. Feelings are biblical and necessary for true intimacy. Feelings can lead us away from God when we don’t pay attention to the temptations within them. I am learning that when I name how I feel, open my heart to God, and pray honestly, I can experience the love of God and find freedom.
When I enter my feelings even with squinty eyes and hopefully a nice friend by my side (perhaps a professional counselor and always Jesus), I find the mysterious joy of being fully human. I no longer feel all chopped up inside, finding wholeness, integration, union, and, ultimately, peace (even when the most intrusive feelings poke at us at 3 a.m.). I have to always start here—how do I feel?
Whatever words come next become a prayer that God leans in and intently listens to.
And I came to wonder: What if there was a book with a prayer for every feeling you feel?
What if there was a book-guide that helps you move toward God with every emotion that resides inside of you?
What if — there was a A Collection of Liturgies Offering Hope for Every Complicated Emotion — that could be a resource for you today and for years to come?
Because we all need to Feel: … and sit with: A Collection of Liturgies Offering Hope for Every Complicated Emotion — to be assured that:
Feelings are, more than anything, a gift.
Feelings are messy, and we all have different strategies to deal with them–usually controlling, avoiding, or indulging them. But what if you allowed yourself to follow your feelings in prayer instead of trying to run from them?
In this beautifully illustrated collection of prayers and liturgies, spiritual director Anjuli Paschall helps you move from being stuck in your feelings to a place of peace by
– identifying and giving you words for every emotion–the good, the confusing, and the complicated–helping you name exactly what you feel
– offering you 75 prayers to pray–one for every feeling
·-providing Scripture for every emotion
Feel is a resource to guide you throughout your day and offer you hope, wisdom, and courage through some of the most challenging seasons of your life. Instead of navigating around your feelings, allow them to guide you toward healing, wholeness, and abiding connection with God. And then, you will begin to see how feelings are a doorway into intimacy with a Savior who loves you.
{ Our humble thanks to Bethany House for their partnership in today’s devotional.}
September 3, 2024
Five Ways to Carve Out Time for God, Every Day
Karen Ehman and Ruth Schwenk are both dear, wise friends who make time with God a priority. Karen’s blog was one of the first I ever read, and she’s never stopped being a mentor to me, and Ruth’s wisdom truly is the fragrance of Christ. It’s a grace to welcome Karen and Ruth to the farm’s table today…
Guest Post by Karen Ehman and Ruth Schwenk
One of the questions I am most frequently asked is “How do you connect with God during your day?”
That question simply can’t be answered in a one-size-fits-all response—because we each are in different seasons of life—but I do have strategies to share. Without a doubt, I can tell you what the first step is: BE PREPARED.
The well-worn saying is true, “If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.” This is true when it comes to carving out time to connect with Jesus. No plan? No time with him. That is often how it goes.
Years ago, when I began my walk with Jesus, I discovered how imperative it was that I spend time with him reading the Bible, praying, and being still in His presence.
“We will have a much greater success rate if we plan ahead, putting our appointments with God on our calendar just like any other important meeting, and have all the tools we need in one place.“
Older Christians warned me not to be legalistic about it by insisting on a time of day or length of time. I also learned that there wasn’t only one method for doing this well. But I did come to understand how crucial it is to be prepared.
We will have a much greater success rate if we plan ahead, putting our appointments with God on our calendar just like any other important meeting, and have all the tools we need in one place.
Hosea 10:12 speaks about our quest to seek the Lord during our days in terms of growth and gardening: “Sow righteousness for yourselves and reap faithful love; break up your unplowed ground. It is time to seek the Lord until he comes and sends righteousness on you like the rain.”
The Hebrew word for “seek” in this verse is darash. This word doesn’t just mean to look at something or someone. It can mean one or all of the following: to care, to study, to inquire, to consult, to investigate, to ask or question, and to search carefully for.
Isn’t this the goal of our time with Jesus?
We show him our care and love during our time spent alone with him. We investigate Scripture, carefully searching for his will. And—much like a gardener—we need to be patient, allowing seeds that have been sown to grow into a harvest of faithful love. Sometimes we need to break up the unplowed ground, exploring new territory with the Lord. Sometimes this territory is unfamiliar or even frightening. But he is there all along. As we seek him, he sends righteousness on us like the rain.
Here are five tips to help you develop a personal & consistent time with God:1. Release pictures of perfection from your mind.
You know those images because you’ve seen them on social media: a well-worn and perfectly color-coded Bible with a cup of steaming coffee nearby. I’m not saying I don’t enjoy a cup of coffee on the porch when I read my Bible.
What I mean is that we have to get familiar with non-picture-perfect times because they are much more common than the social-media-worthy ones. I’ve met with God on the sidelines of a baseball field. I’ve spent time praying in a coffee shop between medical appointments. The goal is not perfection. The goal is consistency.
2. Reexamine your schedule.
Another false notion is that time alone with God must happen before anyone else is awake. Everyone has a different schedule. Think through your commitments for the coming day before you go to bed. Identify when you can spend time with God—early in the morning, last thing before bed, or sometime in between.
3. Break it up into smaller portions.
Connecting with God does not need to be done in one fell swoop. I might pray for a relative each time I brush my teeth. When I drive into the city, I pray for another loved one. When I drive home, I might pray for a friend. I leave a few Bibles out around the house, ready whenever I have a few minutes. We might not be able to spend an entire thirty minutes with God in one stretch, but if we break it up, we may still be able to meet our goal by the day’s end.
4. Assemble a TAG basket.
TAG stands for Time Alone with God. For years, I have kept everything I need for my meetings with God—Bible, a journal, pens, etc.—in one place. I’ve used backpacks, tote bags, baskets, and other containers that I could easily move from place to place. Gather your own items and make a TAG basket.
5. Use your ears.
One way to make sure you have a steady intake of Scripture is to broaden your thinking about Scripture from reading it only to also include hearing it: online, through an app, or with an audiobook. When you have times of waiting, such as in the carpool line, or when you are folding laundry, you can use your ears to take God’s Word into your soul.
Now make it a matter of prayer.
Ask God to help you creatively carve out time each day to grow your relationship with Him.
And then feel how His presence flourishes your soul.
Ruth Schwenk is the trusted author of several books and founder of the popular blog The Better Mom. Ruth is a Michigan football super-fan and a self-proclaimed foodie. But her greatest joy is her family. Connect with her at TheBetterMom.com.
Karen Ehman is a New York Times bestselling author and Bible teacher with Proverbs 31 Ministries as well as a writer for Encouragement for Today, an online devotional that reaches more than four million women daily. Connect with her at KarenEhman.com.
Ruth and Karen’s new book, The Love Your Life Project, offers women a forty-day, step-by-step, personalized plan to discover God-ordained meaning for their lives, cultivate productive habits, safeguard times of rest, and live out their passions and priorities.
{Our humble thanks to Bethany House for their partnership in today’s devotional.}
August 26, 2024
When Your Kids Wander far & You Feel a Bit Lost
Lorie Hartshorn is a lover of Jesus, her family, and the local church. She’s a wife, mom of three married children, Gramma to five littles, and a fellow Canadian Bible Teacher. She shares transparently about her family struggles as her three children ran from Jesus, leaving her and her husband questioning their own identity and purpose. Their family story is a testimony of the power of Jesus to transform and rescue, and it continues to bring hope to many. In her new book, FOUND, Lorie shares her story and the stories of others who faced identity crises. She shares from her recent book and video series, FOUND—Discover the Power of Your True Identity. It’s a delight to welcome Lorie to the front porch today…
Guest Post by Lorie Hartshorn
I remember it like it was yesterday.
I had ventured out to get pictures of my two little boys. Justin was close to three years old, and Curtis was six months old. As any good mom would do, I dressed them in their matching tartan vests and headed to a photo center in a large retail store. The boys smiled on cue, and I was a proud mama.
As I stood by the cash register to pay the clerk, I turned around—and Justin was gone!
I frantically looked around the area, but he couldn’t be found.
The clerk could see my frantic state as I called his name louder as each minute passed. The staff called the manager, and soon, an announcement was made over the PA. My mind raced, and my stomach churned. How could I lose my precious child?
Every parent’s worst nightmare flashed through my mind. Had he been abducted? The manager headed to the front doors to lock them while we searched.
As he approached the double doors, he spotted a small boy sitting on one of the coin-operated rides with a big smile on his face. He asked the boy for his name; sure enough, it was Justin. The manager took him gently by the hand and brought him to me.
I cried and hugged him while the other clerks and even customers cheered. My precious son, who is one of the most valuable people in my life, had gone missing—but what was lost had now been found.
Fast-forward fifteen years later, and my son got lost again.
He became disconnected from his family, into the world of addiction and rebellion.
Within a few months, all three of our children were running from Jesus and were lost in the party scene. They weren’t the only ones who got lost.
I lost my grip on who I was as a mother, wife, teacher, and leader. The things that defined me had let me down. I was in the middle of an identity crisis. Who am I if I’m a failed mother?
“Every human being is a reflection of God in this world, but we lost our true identity and purpose in the garden. That’s why Jesus came—to restore what was lost in the garden and enable us to find our true identity again. “
Chances are that you, too, are experiencing an identity crisis because the world is in an identity crisis. From young to old, people are trying to find themselves. What does it mean to be human? What is the purpose of life?
Identity speaks to the core of who you think you are. Identity is how you define yourself and it’s often attached to the things that give you value and worth.
Sadly, we define ourselves by our relationships, stuff, status, or the things we’ve done or not done. Do we measure up? Who are we outside of our circumstances?
The truth is that answering these questions falls short of telling us who we are. It’s like looking into a distorted mirror and seeing a distorted reflection of yourself.
So, where do we find a perfect mirror? A mirror that will truly reflect who we are? I believe that Jesus is the perfect mirror. Jesus showed us who we are to be.
Every human being is a reflection of God in this world, but we lost our true identity and purpose in the garden. That’s why Jesus came—to restore what was lost in the garden and enable us to find our true identity again.
Genesis 1:26a NLT Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us.
We are designed to reflect God in this world, to be like Him. Jesus shows us what that looks like. Jesus shows us who God is and who we are created to be—his image-bearers, sharing in His purpose. We share God’s identity and mission—to represent Him on this earth. But we lost all that in the garden. Satan stole it from us, and humankind has been looking for it ever since. But God!
“He made us in His image to reflect His likeness and to participate in what He is doing. He invites us into a family, into a partnership to bring His kingdom and will to this earth—to our everyday experience.”
Ephesians 2:4,5 NLT But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.
Jesus gives us life! Sadly many of us live our lives as if Christianity is just a ticket to heaven, which leaves us missing out on all that’s available to us today. We’ve settled for a powerless Christianity. We go through life half-awake, not knowing who we really are and all that’s available to us. When the family is falling apart or the job fails, we are, too.
Identity and purpose are closely connected. For a long time, I searched for my purpose and thought it might be some mysterious thing God was keeping from me, and I had to figure it out.
This is not how God intended for us to live. He wants so much more for us. He made us in His image to reflect His likeness and to participate in what He is doing. He invites us into a family, into a partnership to bring His kingdom and will to this earth—to our everyday experience.
His kingdom has come, and we all too often miss it.
We’re overwhelmed by life’s struggles and looking in all the wrong mirrors, seeing a distorted view of ourselves.
God invites us to live like Jesus. To find your true self and purpose is to look into the perfect mirror, and that mirror is Jesus. He shows us who we were designed to be, and gives us everything we need to live the life He calls us to live through the power of the Holy Spirit.
“We are not defined by our circumstances, status, or stuff but by who God says we are—His dearly loved child and His image bearer. “
2 Peter 1:3 NLT By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.
1 John 4:17b NIV In this world we are like Jesus.
In the middle of difficulty, we can live like Jesus, reflecting God in the world! We are not defined by our circumstances, status, or stuff but by who God says we are—His dearly loved child and His image bearer. When your children are struggling, or your spouse leaves, you can be the person God designed you to be.
After years of struggle, tears, and many prayers, God found our lost children and brought them home—home to Himself and home to their true identity in Christ.
God wants to bring you home to your true identity in Him because everything that was lost in the garden is FOUND in Jesus!
It’s available to you, too.
Lorie Hartshorn is an International Speaker, Author, Pastor and TV Host. She loves to see people grow in faith and experience spiritual freedom. Lorie’s powerful video-driven bible study, Finding Freedom, is a wake-up call to the reality of spiritual warfare and the power of prayer.
Her recent book and accompanying 8-part Video Series, FOUND, will help you Discover the Power of Your True Identity www.loriehartshorn.com
{Our humble thanks to Word Alive Press for their partnership in today’s devotional.}
August 23, 2024
Wanna Doable plan to SAVOR Last Summer Days Before Fall (Easy 14 Point Plan)
Only a few more weeks technically, according to the calendar and the solar equinox, left of summer now.
I can struggle with fall, as all of summer dies away — and there’s all these harbingers of the long winter coming.
So even as kids head back to school and pumpkins ripen, I’m all here for the string of days left of sweet corn and swimming suits and bare toes and zinnia bouquets and light like falling on faces we love and all the days are adding up to make years.
True, there’s only a few more days till our youngest daughter starts back to reading and writing and arithmetic.
And our Shalom heads out the farm laneway, turns and waves, and drives down our gravel road, off to her next year of university, a handful of days now here in the very last weeks of summer, before we stand on the front porch and wave goodbye, as the minutes slip away, and everything changes, yet again.
“You don’t miss a beat when thankfulness is the beat of your heart.”
You don’t miss a beat when thankfulness is the beat of your heart.
You only get so many summers. They say that, and sure, it’s true: All 4 of our sons have about flown the coop, up and gone, calling another door home. All our time together, it all went by in a blink. Why did I think it somehow wouldn’t?
And yet it’s also true, no matter the ages of your kids: Simply offer your kids real withness and witness — and there will be more days and ways to keep enjoying each other, no matter what the calendar says.
That doesn’t change the fact that there are days when I have to blink back the ache for more days we took off for more of the lake, just to light one more campfire and roast just a few more melting s’mores.
So before the sun even comes up today, and this week slides toward the weekend, the clock ticking so loud in my ears — there’s this rolling over in the morning toward the Farmer, this desperate murmur in his ear:
“Yep, here we are again: Only a few more days left of summer —- what are we going to do?”
The Farmer doesn’t even open his eyes, and I can feel his steadying smile.
“Be grateful. We are going to be grateful.”
And he draws me so close the words brush my ear, those words of every soul whisperer, and you never miss a beat when thankfulness is the beat of your heart.
“It’s never the wasting of time that hurts so much as the wasting of our intentions.”
And before the sun goes down, a bunch of the kids carry corn cobs up to the side porch and we sit there in this circle husking and I keep looking round at their sun-kissed faces, that’s all I can think, my hands all full of these husks:
It’s never the wasting of time that hurts so much as the wasting of our intentions.
There are corn husks and silks all over the porch. Who cares what the calendar says?
Calendars can con: there are really only as many days left as you actually really choose to live.
In the end, everyone ends up at the end of their lives — but only a few live the whole expanse of their life.
And come evening, after everyone leaves the dinner table, I’m still sitting there —
eating the last of chocolate crumbs right off the plate.
The Easy Seize-the-Last-of-Summer Plan
Free Printable of the Seize-the-Last-of-Summer Plan
Just do two a day:
1. Make a fruit pie
2. Eat under stars
3. Walk through the woods, some trees, long grass
4. Dip both feet in water
5. Sing hymns around flame {choice: candles or campfire}
6. Lick drippy ice cream
7. Find a swing and swing high
8. Pick a bouquet of wildflowers : set in sill. Or #BetheG.I.F.T. and give it away.
9. Play one game of anything out on grass {frisbee, baseball, soccer, croquet, volleyball}
10. Eat something fresh {from the garden or the market or your mother’s}
11. Lay down on grass, look up and watch clouds for five minutes
12. Dance. Dance on the beach, on a porch, on your toes, dance on until something in you feels lighter.
13. Open a window. Listen to the world. Slow. Still. Pray before that open window.
14. Sit with someone you love and watch the sunset. Say it out loud: Thank you.
Click here to Print Free Seize-the-Last-of-Summer Plan :14 Simple Memories to Make Anywhere in the Last Few Weeks of Summer
{Looking forward to seeing your photos on Facebook or Instagram of your own
#SeizetheLastofSummer #1000gifts}
I’d love to share My 2 (!!) New Journals with you & all these free gifts with you to celebrate the gifts of today!
Your complimentary enrolment in Ann’s 4-Week Journaling Masterclass with video teachings & live-streamed classes.
Learn how to write to change your life!
2. A welcome to our private SACRED Prayer Community, gathering together on Zoom from the quiet, intimate space of The Village Table.
3. Your own “Go Deeper” Journaling Toolkit with journaling prompts, a prayer guide, Indentity in Christ printable bookmarks with daily notes to soul, a playlist & a resource guide to our favorite journaling supplies!
4. Your own seat in our private online community of journalers, with regular live-streamed journaling retreats
5. The chance to win your own writing retreat on Ann’s farm, staying in a shepherd’s hut on the river…
August 10, 2024
You want to read this: How to Grow Older
Here’s to blowing out another round of candles on the cake today and beginning another spin around the sun! Growing older is this gift that makes all the present moments sweeter.
It’s joy that reverse ages us.
There was a rainbow arching over our cornfields last week and I ran across the lawn to snap a picture of its bowed promise, and the summer rain felt like resurrection on my face and I laughed happy and I could feel it: It’s joy that reverse ages us.
If your eyes keep looking for loveliness, you keep from growing old and only grow more lovely.
He and I sat on the porch later and rocked in the old rocking chairs, watching the shimmering rhythm of the rain dance with the sun all across the hollyhocks in the garden, and down the front walk, and I turn to see him smiling and I can testify to what I saw: If your eyes keep looking for loveliness, you keep from growing old and only grow more lovely.
After dinner last Sunday, when we wander down the back lane by the river, down by our wee flock of sheep grazing in the blush of a summer sunset, one massive bald eagle takes to the air from somewhere the other side of the willows, takes our breath away, and there wasn’t time to take a picture, only time enough to take in all this glory.
Let something take away your breath, and you let awe of God take away your age.
We shake our heads, astonished.
Let something take away your breath, and you let awe of God take away your age.
I’m thinking this come Monday, when the Farmer and I clean up after chores and head to the visitation of a kind, neighboring farmer who lost his life under a tractor. This is a story I know. This is a story I desperately wish I didn’t know, that they didn’t know, that no other farmer’s daughter ever has to know. This is a glorious world that holds the most bewildering grief. This life aches with beauty and with pain.
My Farmer slips his worn hand through mine, steadying me, as we wait in line to pay our deepest respects. We nod to farmers we’ve known and lived beside for the last 30 years and think of how we are all looking older than we imagine we are, how time and love and living is making us all real. All our gentle wrinkles are time wearing away all that doesn’t matter until we are left with the essence, with what will really matter in the end.
That glorious flash before your eyes just before you die is actually the thing called your one and only glorious gift of a life.
We linger with all these framed pictures of different seasons of one man’s life, when he first got married, when he held his first baby, when he walked his first daughter down the aisle, when held his first grandbaby, when he gathered with his family for the last time, but never imagined it was the last time.
“What do you want in all of your photos in the end, when they set out the picture frames of the story of your life at your visitation, what do you want your life story to say?” I quietly ask the Farmer on the way home, cornfields blurring by.
“That we really loved God… that we really loved our people… that we ran our race really well because we ran it in the right direction,” he measures his words, feeling the weight of our one life, and he reaches out for my hand.
What changes your awful days is awe of God.
And I take it… take all these moments and take none of this living for granted because this life is ending and what matters is what direction every one of our days take, that we take joy, take life as an astonishing gift, take it deeply personally, all this love of God.
At this point, this is what I know as I blow out a small blaze of candles today:
That glorious flash before your eyes just before you die is actually the thing called your one and only glorious gift of a life.
You can give way to the grief — or you can give thanks that you loved enough to grieve.
What changes your awful days is awe of God.
If you turn the right direction when you’re down in the trenches, you can still see the stars dance.
You can give way to the grief — or you can give thanks that you loved enough to grieve.
We love as much as we accept that we are loved.
Live fully and your life has no room to fear death.
The more you open to prayer, the more you close your soul to being perturbed.
The more you open to prayer, the more you close your soul to being perturbed.
Because you’re made by the Word, life isn’t about trying to find yourself, life is about opening to the Word Himself to write your story.
You only get to live once on this side, and you won’t get it right, so once won’t seem good enough — but if you let Jesus be all your right, you get to live the best for all eternity.
Pray, lament, give thanks, and hold space for the tension, and God gives you Himself.
When the candles blaze today, when I blow them out and all the years of smoke clears, that will be the invitation, that is always the invitation: Relax into the gift of all this, that it is a rare and miraculous gift to even get to exist.
Frame your days with sacred prayer, and certain gratitude, and your life will be a masterpiece of love.
Frame your days with sacred prayer, and certain gratitude, and your life will be a masterpiece of love.
And you find your own life rewritten and restored and re-storied, into a life that is the kind of picture of meaningfulness you want to see in the end.
The fresh grace to begin a new year, to begin again now in this present moment – is the gift that cannot be missed.
It happens – when you blow out the candles, something can alight in you.
It’s my birthday! And I love you, & I’d love to share My 2 (!!) New Journals with you & all these free gifts with you to celebrate!
Your complimentary enrolment in Ann’s 4-Week Journaling Masterclass with video teachings & live-streamed classes.
Learn how to write to change your life!
2. A welcome to our private SACRED Prayer Community, gathering together on Zoom from the quiet, intimate space of The Village Table.
3. Your own “Go Deeper” Journaling Toolkit with journaling prompts, a prayer guide, Indentity in Christ printable bookmarks with daily notes to soul, a playlist & a resource guide to our favorite journaling supplies!
4. Your own seat in our private online community of journalers, with regular live-streamed journaling retreats
5. The chance to win your own writing retreat on Ann’s farm, staying in a shepherd’s hut on the river…
CELEBRATE WITH ME! Pre-ORDER HERE & YOU GET ALL MY THANKS & SO MANY FREE GIFTS!
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