Monthly Archives: September 2021

When Broken Leads to Blessed

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So I tried a new thing this week. I took my weekly blog post and turned it into a video. If you’d rather watch me talk about this week’s post instead of read it, click the link HERE.

Broken to Blessed

One of my favorite things is reading a story in my Bible that I’ve read and heard hundreds of times and getting something brand new from it. This happened this past week. I was reading about the miracle of the little boy who gives his lunch to Jesus. Jesus takes his five loaves of bread and 2 fishes and uses it to feed over 5,000 people. This week when I read through the story, I stopped and underlined the actions that Jesus did.

Jesus said, “Bring them here.” Then he had the people sit on the grass. He took the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread to the disciples. The disciples then gave the food to the congregation. They all ate their fill. They gathered twelve baskets of leftovers. About five thousand were fed.

Matthew 14:18-21 MSG

Those words kept my attention. I couldn’t stop thinking about them and wondering…Is that how God still does miracles today? I wrote those words in my journal; then I spent time looking up each word’s origins. When I studied these words and verses, it gave me a whole new insight into this miracle that I’ve never thought of before.

Blessing the Distribution

In the miracle of the loaves and fishes, the bread had to be broken first before it could be distributed. Jesus didn’t first multiply the food and then pass it out. He could have, easily. Think about it. He could have snapped his finger or said a command, and suddenly there would have been all the bread and fish needed to feed the large crowd. But that’s not how he did it. No, the increase came as he was passing it out; it came in the distribution of the bread. 

The same thing happened in the Old Testament with the woman and the oil. Remember the story where Elisha told the woman to gather all the vessels she could find? Then he instructed her to pour the oil into the vessels. Once again, the oil didn’t immediately appear. No, the oil increased as she poured it out.


Matthew Henry, in his commentary, says, “Thus grace grows by being acted, and, while other things perish in the using, spiritual gifts increase in the using.”

God Blesses the Giving


So what does that mean? The principle is that God blesses the distribution. As we give of ourselves, God gives us more energy and strength. When we share our food and money with others, God blesses it and makes it go further. When we share our gifts with others—writing, painting, speaking, humor, hospitality…God blesses it in the lives of others. 


It doesn’t mean that God blesses in a lump sum up front, but rather God increases our reach in the lives of others. As we pour out ourselves and our gifts, God blesses it and increases it. We want the blessing in a heap, at the beginning. But that’s not how God works. He works over the course of time, blessing as we give ourselves to others. 

God Blesses Your Broken


For me personally, I am an author and a blogger. I would love for my “art, my craft” to reach hundreds of woman and encourage them and help them right now. Yet, that’s not how God uses me. He uses my broken, my distribution. He uses one of my blog posts in one woman’s life, one of my devotionals in another woman’s life, my book in somebody else altogether. My life is being poured into others a little tiny bit at a time. God blesses the pouring out. I may not see it right away; I may never see it. But others can be filled and blessed by me sharing myself and my art. My only job is to continue to pour myself out into others and let God use my broken and turn it to blessed.

How are you pouring into the lives of others today?


For More Encouragement

I am currently reading A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live by Emily Freeman as a part of my morning time routine. It took me a little bit to get into it, but now I’m loving it! Her book goes hand-in-hand with this post. If you’re looking for a great read, check it out.

Understanding Each Other

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Macey and Maggie

Understanding Each Other

When I see this picture of my two little girls, it makes me smile. Mostly, because these moments are few and far between. You never know with these two. Maggie and Macey are the best of friends at times and the worst of enemies at other times. One of the things we come back to time and time again with these two, as well as with our older kids is this…You need to be understanding of each other.

When our kids fight, it’s because neither of them is willing to give. They have to learn how to accept the other person for who they are. They also have to figure out who they are and learn to work with that.

Understanding Ourselves

So many of us struggle in relationships because we don’t fully understand ourselves. God gives us helpful insight into this problem in the book of Matthew.

If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.

Matthew 10:39 MSG

If my focus is primarily on myself, I’m never going to figure myself out. It seems backwards, but God says, “Focus on me instead. Get to know me.” When you focus on God, you will actually find both yourself and God.


The clearer we see God, the clearer we see ourselves. God says he made us in his very image. So it would make sense that the closer we get to God and understanding him, the closer we get to understanding how he made us. Only then, can we begin to understand other people.

Understanding God

How do you get close to God? How can we begin to understand him?

My morning time routine

5 Ways to Get Close to God

  1. Start every day by spending time with him. I do this through my morning time routine. 
  2. Listen to uplifting, encouraging Christian music. Make a list on Spotify of your favorite worship songs. Then listen to them throughout your day. Listening to Godly music can bring a sense of peace and a realization of God’s goodness into our daily routine. 
  3. Be in church on Sundays. I know we can worship from home, and we’ve all had to do it because of covid. But if you can, try to be in church on Sundays. What you can’t get at home is the time of worship music and the fellowship with other believers. 
  4. Read encouraging and uplifting books that will help you to draw closer to God. I do this as a part of my morning time routine. You can find a list of books I recommend here. 
  5. Spend time with other believers who will encourage you in your faith. You can do this by joining or starting a small group. Or just find a friend or two who can encourage you in your faith and meet up with them once a week or month for coffee. Good, strong friendships can help to keep us moving forward in our faith. 

The more time we spend getting to know God, the more we begin to understand ourselves. Only once we understand ourselves can we begin to understand other people and better our relationships.

For More Encouragement

Check out Manney Resources for resources to help you grow your faith one morning at a time or read Developing a Faith that’s Strong Enough to Stand On.

There’s Beauty in the Unmaking

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the unmaking of a tree

Beauty in the Unmaking

There’s beauty in the unmaking of something. I saw this tree a few days ago when I was out walking and snapped a picture. My daughter asked me why I took the picture. To her it was just an ugly tree losing its bark. To me, it was a beautiful picture of what could be.

At first glance, the tree does look kind of ugly. In this moment, it’s a tree that doesn’t command our interest. It’s in the middle of undergoing the changing process. But when all the bark comes off, it will be beautiful in its natural form. 

God’s Work of Unmaking Us

I feel at times like this tree—God is unmaking me and unraveling me, piece by piece. Sometimes I feel like by the time he’s done, I won’t have anything left. Sometimes it’s painful. The more God reveals my weaknesses and changes me, the more I feel broken and unusable. And yet there’s a beauty in the unmaking, well maybe not in the unmaking, but in the finished product. There’s beauty in seeing something in its true nature—raw, unfiltered, without makeup, no touch ups… just as it really is. 

That’s what we look for in others, right? Openness, trueness, authenticity. Yet, why is it so hard to produce it in our own lives? Because it’s painful. It’s painful to be stripped bare; it’s painful to be unmade. Yet when God wants to use us, this is exactly what he does.

Real-Life Examples

Look at some of the examples from the Bible—Jonah, Peter, Elijah, and Moses. Jonah was thrown overboard a ship and forgotten. Peter denied Christ and lost his reputation and credibility. Moses was left on the backside of a desert, seemingly forgotten for 40 years. And Elijah hid and was fed from birds while trying to escape for his life for a time.

These men were stripped of their title, rank, credibility, and pride. Only then did God decide He decide could use them. Jonah was used to preach one of the greatest revivals in history. Peter preached at Pentecost and thousands came to Christ. Elijah battled against the prophets of Baal and won, and Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt and through the Red Sea on dry land. The timing was different for each of them. It was 3 days for Jonah, 50 days for Peter, an unknown time for Elijah, and 40 years for Moses. (Here’s an important side note- don’t compare your story to anybody else’s. It won’t help! God works in each of our lives differently. We can’t compare our story to anybody else’s story or experience.)

Coming to the End of Ourselves

It’s only when we come to the end of ourselves that we find God’s grace is enough. When we are at our lowest, when we are at our weakest…that’s when God can use us. His strength becomes our strength.

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

I Corinthians 12:9,10 KJV

If you’re in a place today where you feel like God is unraveling you or unmaking you, I get it. I’m there myself. Don’t give up. Instead, release yourself to the process. Cling to Him during the process and trust him to get you through it.

Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.

Psalm 55:22 NLT

This unmaking of you won’t be the breaking of you. Instead, it will produce something far more beautiful.

For More Encouragement

For more encouragement on this topic, check out my book, The Hidden Pain: When You Fear God is No Longer Blessing Your Life.