Just a few weeks before we got married, my husband and I adopted a golden retriever puppy. We named him Sparky, and I can say with full confidence that he has lived up to his name because there is never a dull moment when he’s around.
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Whenever I’m having a tough time, a bad day, or I’m feeling down, I open up my “words of affirmation jar.” I’m still working on the name, but that’s not important. My “words of affirmation jar” is a white jar that sits on my desk. It’s filled with tiny little folded-up pieces of paper, each containing an encouraging or affirming message from my husband. This was his Christmas gift to me three years ago, and he has continued to refill it ever since he gave it to me. I remember one particular afternoon when I was feeling down and discouraged, I opened up the jar and grabbed a piece of paper. When it opened it up, it contained one word, followed by a few numbers.
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As I pulled into our driveway after church one Sunday last spring, I couldn’t help but notice the overflowing rose bushes in front of our house. Our front yard was looking pretty bare not even a month before, and now all of a sudden we had dozens of hot pink roses brightening up the landscape. Taking in the beautiful sight of those roses, I remembered that those bushes weren’t always so big and fruitful. My mind flashed back to the end of the previous summer, right as we were moving into our new house in Northern Kentucky.
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Every Sunday night, I lead a life group of nine high school girls. In my years of working with students, whether that’s in the context of youth ministry or coaching basketball, I’ve learned that while you’re there as an adult to teach them and give them wisdom, it’s often the students who end up teaching you. My Sunday night life group is no different.
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I want you to imagine a gardener sowing seeds in the fertile soil of a garden. Day after day, she tends to her plants with care, watering them, nurturing them, and patiently waiting for signs of growth. Yet, despite her efforts, the surface remains unchanged. Weeks pass, and still, there is no sign of life. Doubt creeps in, and she wonders if her labor has been in vain.
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I was reading a devotion by Lysa Terkeurst recently, and in it, she wrote a line that hit me like a ton of bricks. Or as I like to say, the Holy Spirit knocked me upside the head with a heavenly two-by-four. The line went something like this: You will make so much more progress in your life as a result of praying than you will from worrying.
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Trusting God in the unknown can be one of the hardest parts about being a follower of Jesus. For some reason, even though we know we serve an all-knowing, all-powerful God, we find it difficult to trust Him when life doesn’t seem to be going the way we thought it would. We walk into a difficult or unforeseen season, and we immediately start questioning our Heavenly Father instead of choosing to trust Him.
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I was reading in Luke chapter 8 the other day, specifically the story of Jesus calming the storm when he was in a boat with His disciples on the Sea of Galilee. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve read or heard this story over the years. But as I read it the other day, something new stood out to me that I’d never noticed before.
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This week is a really exciting week because, in a matter of days, I’m going to be releasing my brand new devotional - For My Single Friend: A 30-Day Devotional! I’ve been working on this devotional for SO LONG, and I’m so excited to finally release it. But if I’m being honest, I haven’t always felt so excited about this book.
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