Davalynn Spencer's Blog
September 28, 2025
Now What?
Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
Now what?
Have you ever wondered what happens next?
In my upcoming Christmas novella, the heroine finds herself asking, “What now, Lord?”
The hero is no different: “Now what, God?”
Both are in prickly situations.
This question is an age-old query. Something happens that changes everything, and we don’t know what to do.
Forces outside our control cause problems. Our own choices cause problems—something we did that wasn’t the right thing. Or something we said for the wrong reason.
Maybe we don’t do or say something we should have, and we miss our opportunity.
“Now what, Lord?”
Typically, we want God to get us out of the mess, fix things. People at one time called that kind of request a “fox-hole prayer,” panic-pleas from soldiers hunkered down under fire and promising, “If you get me out of this, God, I’ll be a priest—” or whatever the offer may be. A few soldiers meant it, many did not.
My Christmas novella, A Thorn In Winter’s Grasp, depicts characters in circumstances beyond their control as well as situations caused by their own choices.
Now what?
You’ll have to read the book for the answers. But until then, you’ll find an interesting story in 2 Chronicles 20 of the Old Testament. Jehoshaphat, a king in ancient Judah, faced an impossible situation outside his capacity to fix. But he went to God humbly with a perfect prayer for troubled times:
“We have no power … nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You” (2 Chronicles 20:12).
Jehoshaphat’s prayer was his answer: “Our eyes are upon You.”
God had been Jehoshaphat’s focus for years. The king knew God and His faithfulness. His was not a fox-hole prayer.
He also knew the wisdom of keeping his eyes fixed on the answer, not the problem. He didn’t know what God was going to do, but He knew God was faithful.
Does God get us out of messes we’ve created ourselves? Yes—it’s called grace. Yet He has set into motion the principle of harvesting what one plants, so he often helps us through the situation, rather than out of it.
The bottom line: God is good. He doesn’t leave us wallowing in the muck of our messes if we cry out to Him believing that He hears us. If we follow Him. Love Him. Obey Him.
Get to know Him like Jehoshaphat did. Read His answers in the Bible. It’s not too late.
Now what?
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September 14, 2025
In the Last Days …
Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
Words are powerful.
They have the ability to harm or heal.
Inspire or infuriate.
Comfort or kill.
But we must never be afraid to use them for the truth.
Fear is afraid of the truth, so it tries to make us afraid too.
“Speak the truth in love,” we are told.
That does not mean that people will always like what we say, or what they think we said.
“The times, they are a-changin’,” sang Bob Dylan.
Those words rang true.
“If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.”
Again, truth, touted by some, proved by many.
But “there is no fear in love, for perfect love casts out fear.”
Cowards fear the truth because the truth is stronger.
We saw that played out this week at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, when a young fearless man named Charlie Kirk was murdered.
When people die for what they believe, we call them martyrs. They would not want others to shrink back in fear but follow their lead and stand boldly. Speak boldly. Live boldly—in love.
In a letter written to a young man like Charlie, an old man warned:
In the last days, perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves,
Lovers of money,
boasters, proud,
blasphemers,
disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, unloving,
unforgiving, slanderers,
without self-control, brutal,
despisers of good, traitors,
headstrong, haughty,
lovers of pleasure
rather than lovers of God … (2 Timothy 3:1-4)
Does that not describe our world today, the world that Charlie Kirk saw out there and wanted to speak to?
We can’t say we haven’t been warned about what will happen in our country, our communities. The warning is right there in black and white, written in a book few people read but Charlie did, and he believed it.
Those who feared and hated Jesus wanted him crucified because of what He said.
Those who feared and hated Charlie Kirk—and others like him around the world whose names we don’t know—wanted him dead because of what he said. But he fulfilled his ministry. So did Jesus.
Evil continues but it will not win. Charlie did not lose, because he followed truth. Jesus is the Truth. And the Truth lives on.
Jesus invites us into life, not death, and He will soon return to set things right.
In the meantime, someone else, hopefully many someones, will pick up the blood-stained words of truth and speak them with boldness.
“The words that I speak to you are spirit,
and they are life”
(John 6:63).
~
In the Last Days
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NOTE: As a former teacher I beg you, limit the time that you, your children, or your grandchildren spend on social media. It has the power to influence, radicalize, and isolate, and one “who isolates himself seeks his own desire; he rages against all wise judgment” (Proverbs 18:1).
Inspirational Western Romance – where the hero is heroic.
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August 31, 2025
You Are What You Eat
Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
In our rural neighborhood, several backyards boast chickens. During my morning walk, I hear different rooster calls ringing through trees and down private lanes.
I know what they are saying because my father told me when I was a child. Each morning, the roosters from ranches near ours would begin the day with, “Lock the barn door.” The second rooster ordered, “Give me the key!”
Dad may have been telling me childhood tales, but he was right about the back and forth part, somewhat like the Responsive Reading from our Baptist hymnal that was recited once each month.
But today, I am sad to say that our own little flock has dwindled—four hens turned out to be roosters. Of course Rojo the King would not cut them any slack, so we gave three away, and one flew the coop on its own.
Anyone with chickens knows that roosters don’t crow only in the morning. I think Rojo crows every time one of his girls lays an egg. But for whatever reason, he will often crow throughout the day.
One afternoon while I was out watering my hanging plants, the crowing caught my attention. It was a definite call-and-answer routine between Rojo and the nearest neighbor’s rooster.
However, both roosters were “saying” the same thing. First one and then the other, in the same rhythmic pattern and at the same pitch. Crowing in stereo.
These boys have been neighbors for so long and have had so many over-the-fence conversations that they are beginning to sound the same.
People do that too. We start to sound like what we spend a lot of time with or listen to.
Have you ever heard, “You are what you eat”?
I believe we are also what we listen to, hang out with, and read. If we spend enough time with something or someone, it’s likely that we’ll end up the same.
Are those things and people true, good, and wholesome? Do they uplift and encourage?
We mimic by nature. That is why it’s so important to be careful about what we feed on and what we let our children feed on.
What’s crowing in your backyard?
Bad company corrupts good character.
1 Corinthians 15:33
Walk with the wise and become wise;
associate with fools and get in trouble.
Proverbs 13:20
~
You are what you eat, listen to, hang out with ...
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Bern held his plate out to Etta. “Last night you mentioned my preaching and where I learned it.”
She cut him a slice of pie, then set the pan in the picnic basket, rested her hands in her lap, and fixed her attention on the mountains.
Did she know it was easier for him when she wasn’t looking into his soul?
“As I mentioned once, my pa was a preacher. All my growing-up years, I heard what he said about the Good Book and watched how he lived what he believed. His brother was the sheriff, and when I wasn’t with my pa, I was with Uncle Chess.”
Bern’s throat started to swell, and he reached for the jar of water, offering it first to Etta. She declined, and he took a swig, trying to untangle the knotted memories that were getting in the way of his words.
“Uncle Chess got crossways with a fella who had skipped out on his debts and hurt a lot of people in town. He served time in prison for it, but swore he’d get even. A couple years later he returned and shot my uncle in the back. Since I was blood kin and happened to be standing right there, he took aim on me as well.”
Etta’s hands flew to her mouth and her rosy color drained. “Were you hurt?”
He shook his head. “Another shooter dropped him in his tracks as he cocked his gun.”
“Who?”
Bern hadn’t told many folks about his family, especially not in Lockton. “The preacher.”
She reached for his arm. “Your father.”
Bern frowned, then covered her hand so she’d know she wasn’t what pained him. “Their roles always seemed to cross over, Uncle Chess quoting Scripture and Pa wearing a sidearm under his Bible-totin’ hand.”
He looked at her then, moved by the storm in her eyes. “I’d be dead if Pa hadn’t worn a gun.” ~Mail-Order Misfire
Inspirational Western Romance – where the hero is heroic.
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(c) 2025 Davalynn Spencer, all rights reserved.
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August 3, 2025
A God Start
Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
“Have a god start to your day.”
Oops. That wasn’t what I meant to say, but it was too late. No taking back the words once you hit “send.”
My thumbs are fatter than the virtual keys on my smartphone. That’s why the text I sent my friend had a typo that changed the message.
I meant to say “Have a good start to your day.” But as I watched the message box turn blue to the accompanying musical “swoop,” I realized the words winging away were better than my original intention.
Isn’t that just like God? What He has in mind is better than anything I come up with.
So here’s wishing you a God start to your day.
Take a moment. Begin with Him.
He’ll change your perspective.
Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
for to you I entrust my life.
Psalm 143:8
A God Start
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Leaving the boys to their chores, Grace gathered Harley and rode up to what she’d always considered her brother’s ridge. Cale used to ride off by himself, unaware that his little sister followed from a distance, curious about why he did such a thing.
These days, she understood. The solitude offered a different perspective on not only the ranch, but life in general.
Cedar branches brushed against her chaps, their berries giving off a pungent perfume. Birds skittered—robins and sparrows. A hawk screeched overhead, and from a distance she heard the faint song of a meadowlark.
As she approached the lip of the ridge, Harley’s ears cocked forward. He’d never been up on the Hutton heights where a person felt small and insignificant against the legendary Rockies. Ridge after ridge rolled off to the west, but below spread quilted pastures and grazing land, seamed by tree-lined creeks and streams.
Maybe it was age that pushed a person to this ridge, in search of childhood freedom.
It took her breath away—the bird’s-eye view that lifted her from care and responsibility. Made her unreachable and immune to worry, fear, and heartache. Alone, yet not—as if seated at the foot of a loving Creator she could … trust. ~Covering Grace
Inspirational Western Romance – where the hero is heroic.
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July 20, 2025
The Leaves of Our Covering
Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
Last week my summer squash showed me something about families.
As I moved aside platter-sized leaves to water the soil beneath them, bees hummed from flower to flower and several buds were growing into full-fledged squash. It was a busy place under that canopy. Protected by the arching green leaves, offspring sprouted, grew, and matured.
When I seeded those squash plants in early summer, I had to protect them from the sun’s oppressive heat, flooding rain storms, and voracious rodents and insects. It took a lot of care.
Now, the plants’ generous leaves hold moisture in the earth around them, spreading to create a protective covering and safe place for their ‘young.’
The squash family mirrors the human family.
As a former teacher, I have seen many children from loving homes with parents and grandparents who care for, provide for, and protect them.
But I’ve also taught young ones who are alone emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically, unsheltered from elements so brutal to children. Unless they find protection and nourishment, they don’t withstand the onslaught.
How many youngsters today are left in the heat to dry and scorch? How many of them don’t have family or guardians to teach them God’s ways? Without learning the truth, they are likely to believe whatever current culture tells them.
There is an enemy in our world and he is after our children. We would do well to strengthen ourselves in the Lord and spread the leaves of our covering so we can encourage our young people. May we assure them that God sees, hears, and loves them and has a purpose for their lives.
Your children will be
like vigorous young olive trees
as they sit around your table.
Psalm 128:3
The leaves of our covering
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Note: The white on my squash plants is flour with which I dust them to discourage grasshoppers.

Routine had helped ease the tension between Etta and Bern, and each Sunday they walked to church with Gracie between them, almost like a regular family. Some of the women had warmed toward Etta, and she credited Dottie Dalton with that improvement. Two mothers had even commissioned dresses for their daughters. Not Mrs. Prigg, of course.
The garden repaid her efforts tenfold, and she and Gracie filled their aprons each morning with fresh vegetables. Etta scoured the kitchen in search of canning supplies, and finally found a box stashed away in the barn. Another bit of Gracie’s mother hidden from view.
But the garden wasn’t the only thing sprouting up, and besides maintaining her household chores, Etta spent the evenings adding ruffles to the hems of Gracie’s dresses. In August, she made the growing girl a new dress for her tenth birthday and baked a vanilla cake with butter-cream frosting. Even their dog, Buster, got a piece in celebration. ~Mail-Order Misfire
Inspirational Western Romance – where the hero is heroic.
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(c) 2025 Davalynn Spencer, all rights reserved.
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July 6, 2025
Drunk on Despair and Desperation
Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
“For the Lord is the God of knowledge,
and by Him actions are weighed.”
1 Samuel 2:3 NKJV
The first time I saw this quote I wanted to know who made such an insightful observation.
Then I learned it was a SAHM who went from sad to glad because she had turned to the One who could make a difference in her life.
A woman named Hannah spoke these words, but they were not her first that were recorded.
She first said something like this:
Oh God, please help me. My heart is breaking. Please hear me. Only You can help me. Oh God, please, “out of the abundance of my complaint and grief” I am crying out to You.
She was so distraught that the pastor at her church thought she was drunk.
Yes, she was drunk. She was drunk on despair and desperation, so she went to the only One who could help.
And He did.
These words come from a prayer of thanks and they can be found in I Samuel 2:3. The entire chapter is an amazing story, but I encourage you to read chapter 1 as well so you get the whole picture.
Hannah learned that God knew her and her heart—really knew her—and that He also saw her actions and considered them. This phrase was perhaps a precursor to “a tree is known by its fruits” and “you will reap what you sow.”
For those of you who don’t know what a SAHM is, it’s a stay-at-home-mom. Hannah wasn’t a SAHM in chapter 1 but she was in chapter 2.
Some of the best teaching in the world has come from mothers, whether they are SAHMs or those who also work jobs outside the home. Their hands are as full as their hearts, and their prayers ring in the courts of heaven.
Thank God if you have a praying Mama, and petition God’s mercy upon her if she isn’t. If you are the Mama now, bend your heart and knees on behalf of those who look to you, and cover them with the Lord’s canopy of grace.
For you can be certain that “the Lord is the God of knowledge.” He knows what you do, He sees you, and He cares.
~
Drunk on despair and desperation.
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Etta set her teacup and saucer aside and unfolded the thin paper the pastor had given her. Uneven script, almost juvenile in its lack of refinement, covered the sheet. At her glance, Pastor Fillmore nodded, then rested against the chair back with his coffee in hand, prepared to wait for her perusal.
Lockton, Colorado, October 1879
Dere Pastor Fillmore,
I hope this letter finds you and your wife well since me and Gracie and Ruth left. Ruth went to heaven some three years past. Gracie fares well as does the small congrugation I serve temporary being the sherif and all but my heart grows weary to bear my burdens alone. Would there be a kind and helpful mother-type woman in your church willing to come to Colorado and help me? Like the mail order brides who join other men here at the Rocky Mountains.
God bless you for your help. Please write back to Gracie and send to the general store.
Sherif Bern Stidham
The pastor’s eyes clearly danced in anticipation of Etta’s opinion.
She accommodated him. “This does not read like a letter penned by any man, whether educated clergyman or desperate sheriff.” ~Mail-Order Misfire
Inspirational Western Romance – where the hero is heroic.
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June 15, 2025
Letting God Heal Your Heart
Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
Please welcome friend and fellow author Susan G. Mathis as she shares about God’s healing after loss in her new book, Madison’s Mission.
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
Psalm 147:3 (NIV)
Grief has a way of making us feel like we’re walking through life with shattered glass in our chest. The heartache of loss doesn’t just hurt—it changes us. It can make us afraid to feel again, to love again, or to hope again. In Madison’s Mission, Madison knows this kind of pain intimately. After losing her family in Ireland and then her beloved aunt, she feels as though there’s little left of her heart to give. Now she serves as a lady’s maid to the ailing Mrs. Boldt, and the thought of another loss terrifies her. She’s built walls around her emotions, especially when it comes to Emmett, a kind and steady presence who longs to be close to her.
But Madison’s story reminds us of a deeper truth: God is not finished with us in our sorrow. In fact, it’s often in our brokenness that His healing begins. God meets us in the middle of our pain.
Psalm 34:18 tells us, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” He doesn’t wait for us to be “over it.” He doesn’t rush us through grief or demand a timeline for healing. He meets us right in the midst of it—with compassion, patience, and love.
Like Madison, we may feel that trusting again is too dangerous, too risky. But God gently reminds us that He is a safe place for our sorrow. We don’t have to hide our pain from Him.
After deep loss, fear can take root. Fear of losing again. Fear of hoping again. Fear of being vulnerable. But fear is not from God. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” – 2 Timothy 1:7
Healing starts when we stop letting fear write the story and start letting God do what only He can—restore, renew, and rebuild our hearts. For Madison, that means slowly learning to let others in, to risk love, and to believe that not every story ends in loss. Sometimes the very thing we resist is what God uses to bring healing. Emmett is patient with Madison. He doesn’t push, but he doesn’t walk away either. And little by little, she learns that not every close relationship leads to heartbreak—that God can use human kindness to stitch together the torn places in our hearts.
Whether it’s a friend, a family member, or a gentle stranger, God often sends people into our lives to reflect His love when we need it most. Romans 15:13 offers a prayer we can all cling to in times of sorrow: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Hope doesn’t mean forgetting. It doesn’t mean pretending the pain didn’t happen. It means trusting that God still has a future for us. That He is writing a story we can’t yet see—and it’s full of grace. Loss may shape our hearts, but it doesn’t have to define them. Like Madison, you may be walking a road of grief—but you are not walking it alone. God is with you, and His healing is already at work.
Letting God heal
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Step into the captivating world of Boldt Castle in 1903, where dreams are forged in the fires of adversity and love.
Madison Murray, the devoted maid to the legendary Louise Boldt, harbors a singular mission—to care for her ailing mistress while hiding her own painful past. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she meets Emmett O’Connor, the distinguished foreman overseeing Boldt Castle’s extravagant construction. Their connection sparks with promise, yet the chasm of class difference and hidden secrets loom large.
Just as their budding romance begins to flourish, tragedy strikes, shattering their world. A deadly accident leaves Emmett wrestling with guilt and at the center of an investigation that could unravel everything he holds dear. Then Madison finds herself ensnared in a dangerous coverup that threatens her very life.
When Mrs. Boldt passes away, Madison is left reeling—jobless and burdened by the weight of her perceived failures. In a world filled with uncertainty, can she summon the strength to move forward and confront her past? Will Emmett rise above his challenges to forge a future alongside the woman who has captured his heart? ~Madison’s Mission
Susan G Mathis is an international award-winning, multi-published author of stories set in the beautiful Thousand Islands, her childhood stomping ground in upstate NY. Susan has been published more than thirty times in full-length novels, novellas, and non-fiction books. She has fifteen titles in her fiction line, garnering numerous book awards. Susan is also a published author of two premarital books, two children’s picture books, stories in a dozen compilations, and hundreds of published articles. She makes her home in Northern Virginia and enjoys traveling around the world but returns each summer to enjoy the Thousand Islands. Visit her website at https://www.susangmathis.com/fiction-books for more.
Madison’s Mission book trailer.
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(c) 2025 Davalynn Spencer, all rights reserved.
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June 1, 2025
Soak It Up
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
Sometimes I just want to be a sponge.
Not the kind that scrubs grout in the shower or scum around the sink. I want to be a human sponge that gets to lie back and soak up the sunshine. Soak up the ambiance of a nice restaurant, the romance of a good movie, the beauty of a crimson sunset over the Rocky Mountains.
Sometimes I don’t want to participate, make an extra effort, contribute to whatever-it-is—I just want to soak it in.
I confess, that’s a pretty lazy attitude. And when I’m tired or stressed, it gets worse, as it did several years ago after a debilitating injury to a loved one. My desperate need for a break from it all sent me to a three-day writer’s conference in Texas.
While driving to the airport, I told the Lord I wanted to be a sponge when I got there. Just soak everything in rather than worry about pitching my book ideas to publishers. I didn’t want to interview or be interviewed. I was tired of performing.
Leaning back in my narrow window seat for the two-hour flight, I considered how self-centered the sponge idea was. Sheesh—me, me, me. Get all I can. Had I really fallen that far?
And then God corrected me, but not in the way I expected.
“What does a sponge do when it’s squeezed?” He asked my weary spirit.
Well, it gives, I suppose.
It drips out on whatever’s nearby.
It can give a drink to the thirsty, like soldiers offered Jesus on the cross.
It can cool a body, as I did with my feverish toddler years before.
Wipe away the dirt. Cleanse.
“Yes,” He whispered. “Be a sponge. But soak up Me. And when you’re squeezed, I will pour out on those around you.”
God’s compassion overwhelmed me. We are sponges; I just hadn’t seen it from His perspective. He created us to be porous. We absorb and we leak.
Everything we listen to, read, and watch seeps into us and forms patterns in our thoughts and dreams. Is it good? Is it of Him?
How right He was when He said, “Soak up Me.” How desperately I need Him.
Thank You, Lord, for Your incomparable mercy and grace. Wash over me and fill me with You. Amen.
O God, you are my God;
I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
where there is no water.
Psalm 63:1
~
Be a sponge.
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“Soak It Up” is Day Six in my devotional book, At My Right Hand – 90 story-devotions for women. Available in e-book or print.
Inspirational Western Romance – where the hero is heroic.
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(c) 2025 Davalynn Spencer, all rights reserved.
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May 18, 2025
I Am the Vine
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
I like working in the spring sunshine—turning soil, setting plants, and watering. Life pushes out around me in pale green sprouts and budding fruit trees, reminding me of its regenerative force.
And since I want our back yard to be as beautiful as the new gazebo my pastor-husband, George, recently finished, the springtime surging through my veins one Saturday morning encouraged me to tackle an old, gnarled vine that clung to an equally ancient, stone wall.
Dull, dry, and lifeless, the vine had to go.
“Our grapevine is dead,” I announced.
George glanced at it from his open workshop across the yard. “No it’s not, it’s just dormant. Give it time.”
He was right. Within two weeks, tiny green sprouts formed on the vine at various spots and soon unfurled into graceful leaves.
The vine grows up the side of an old stone milk barn, around a pipe trellis, and then meanders across the top of a chain link fence. As it goes, it sends out slender threads that wrap like steel wool around whatever they can find. Some of the branches are so long and dry, it’s a wonder they bloom at all. I have come close to pruning a runner only to find a cluster of leaves six feet down the seemingly dried up vine.
How can this be—such long stretches of dry dormancy, and then a sudden sprout of life?
Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 NLT).
The living metaphor in my back yard causes me to stop and evaluate my own life. Am I “in the vine?” Do I draw strength daily from Christ the vine who supplies my every need and very life force? Or do I go for long periods of time neglecting to feed on His Word or grow in His image?
Thank You, Lord, for Your patience with me, for not lobbing me off during a long dry stretch and throwing me on the trash heap. Help me tap into You for life and sustenance, to be more consistent, and to draw daily from Your life-giving source. Thank You for providing everything I need. Amen.
Remain in me,
and I will remain in you.
For a branch cannot produce fruit
if it is severed from the vine,
and you cannot be fruitful
unless you remain in me.
John 15:4
~
I am the vine.
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COMING SOON!
A second collection of 90 story-devotions for women.
At My Right Hand
Inspirational Western Romance – where the hero is heroic.
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(c) 2025 Davalynn Spencer, all rights reserved.
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May 4, 2025
10 Birthday Tips for Happy Returns
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
“Free returns.” That phrase catches my eye when I’m shopping, whether in person or online. If it doesn’t work for, fit, or please me, I can return or exchange it. Sounds like many happy returns, right?
Nope.
Many happy returns is a shortened phrase derived from a longer expression from the 1700s: “Many happy returns of the day.” Essentially it meant, “We hope this day comes around for you again and again.”
Today we reserve many happy returns for birthdays—those mile markers we can’t return or exchange.
Since I recently celebrated another birthday, I’d like to share a few tips I’ve picked up over the years.
Here’s hoping your many happy returns will be truly happy, regardless of how many you’d like to return.
10 Birthday Tips for Happy Returns
1: Don’t weigh yourself on your birthday. It’s depressing and you shouldn’t be depressed on your birthday.
2: Do not shop for a swimsuit on your birthday. See number 1.
3: Do not diet. Never eat diet food on your birthday. Eat whatever you are hungry for, which is usually cake and ice cream.
4: Do not eat the candles on the cake (if you get one). Wax sticks between your teeth and makes it look like you ate the candles on your cake.
5: Do not expect people to remember your birthday. You are not Viggo Mortensen, the first lady, or a prime minister. This means your spouse, children, parents, siblings, and co-workers may not remember. Yes, it is wonderful if they do, but don’t let that expectation grab you by the throat, because when they forget (and some or all of them will) the unmet expectation will drag you down. Instead try one of the remaining five tips.
6: Send a card to someone you know with the same birth month.
7: Find someone with a need that you can meet and meet it—like a stay-at-home mother of small children who could use an afternoon off. Deliver groceries or do a chore for someone who has trouble getting around.
8: Donate your age in food by weight or dollar value to a local shelter.
9: Donate your age in money to the pregnancy center or other charitable organization.
10: Smile. Be grateful that you are under the sky and above the grass. Thank God for another year, day, hour, and breath. Some people would give anything for just one more.
Gratitude is an amazing antidote for just about everything – even age.
~
In everything give thanks;
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:18
10 Birthday Tips
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