Monthly Archives: October 2022

Peace in the Midst of Life’s Hard

Finding Peace

Sometimes, peace seems so elusive, especially when you’re going through a difficult time. David, the expressive Psalmist, teaches us how we can have peace even during hard moments in life.

Like an Olive Tree

I read a verse this week during my morning time routine about an olive tree that made me do some further Bible study and discover some great truths.

Why would David compare himself to an olive tree?

But I am like an olive tree, thriving in the house of God. I will always trust in God’s unfailing love.
Psalm 52:8 NLT

About the Olive Tree

Why an olive tree? What is it about an olive tree makes David compare himself to it? I know almost nothing about olive trees, so I did some study.

Olive trees are pretty low maintenance. They don’t need a lot of water; they just need direct sunlight. They flourish in dry, hot summers; which is why they do well in the Middle East. They’re obviously very valuable because of the oil they produce.

So what makes them special? Olive trees are first mentioned in the account of Noah and the flood. The dove brings back an olive branch, indicating to Noah that it was safe to leave the ark. An olive branch often represents peace because of this first instance of an olive branch.

Olive trees grow slow but are fruitful and sturdy trees. In the Bible, they’re represent beauty and abundance. People recognize olive trees today for their beauty and for what they represent—oil. Olive trees are beautiful, resilient, fruitful, and represent peace. Sounds like something pretty great to compare ourselves.

Peace in the Midst of Hard Times

What’s more interesting to note, is that David penned these words right after he was outed by Doeg to Saul. So now Saul knows where David is, and David has to run for his life. So when David says, “I am like an olive tree, thriving in God’s house; I always trust in God’s unfailing love,” we can understand what he’s saying. David is saying, “I am at peace, even in the midst of bad circumstances, because I trust in God’s love.”

David is one of the most expressive writers of the Bible; he gives us so much emotion throughout the Psalms. In this verse, David gives us a picture of how he saw himself, how we can see ourselves, when we trust in God’s unfailing love and believe in his goodness even in the midst of life’s hard.

Peace for Today

I don’t know what you’re going through today, but God does. He sees you. He hasn’t forgotten you. He loves you, and He will get you through today. His unfailing love surrounds you today, so live in that knowledge. Find your peace in that today and thrive.

For More Encouragement

For more encouragement, check out my post Finding Peace in Non-peaceful Times. A great read is The Hardest Peace by Kara Tippetts.

The #1 Thing I’m Most Passionate About

What I’m Passionate About

If you’ve spent any amount of time with me in this corner of the world known as Faithfully Stepping, you know that I am passionate about developing a morning time routine. I believe having a time each day that you spend with God reading his word and praying is the most important thing you can do every single day. The reason I am passionate about it is that this is the way we develop our relationship with Jesus; and developing a relationship with God is the most important thing we can do.

The physician Luke put it this way:

Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.
Luke 12:21 NLT

Developing a Relationship with God

We know that our relationship with God is incredibly important, but sometimes we don’t know how to go about creating or cultivating a relationship with God. That’s where having a morning time routine comes in. When you follow a consistent morning time each day, you set yourself up to spend time with God each day. When you spend time with somebody every day, it’s impossible not to grow closer to them. That’s how it is in our relationship with God. You may not even get something every single day from your Bible reading, yet you feel blessed and encouraged simply by having spent time in God’s presence.

The Thirty-to-THRIVE System

So how do we do this? How do we create a morning time routine? Matt and I teach a simple system. It’s called 30-to-THRIVE.

You spend ten minutes reading from either your Bible or a devotional. If you need a good devotional, check out Manney Resources. We have several 30-Day Devotionals to choose from.
Then you use your journal to work through your prayer for the day. If you use our journals, there’s a section for gratitude, confession, and requests. Then there’s a section to write down what you learned from your Bible reading or devotional for the day.
Lastly, you spend time reading a book. This can be a Christian inspirational book, a book for work, a leadership book, a new hobby book, whatever you choose. It’s simply something that adds value to your day. I like to read Christian inspirational books as a part of my Bible reading time. Matt often reads a leadership book or a book that has something to do with working with people or pastoring. Check out my page for book reccommendations, or you can pick up one of our books.

Resources for Morning Time

You can find everything you need to get started at Manney Resources. Below is a picture of just a few of our resources. Journals on the left, books on the right, and devotionals at the top.

Making It Special

To make your morning time special, I suggest adding a candle, a cup of coffee, some pretty pens, and a basket to keep all your materials in.

That’s it; that’s how you create a morning time routine. It’s simple, yet it can change your life. If you are more of a visual type of person, I created a video series on getting a morning time routine started.

If you can develop a morning time routine and stick with it, I can guarantee you will grow in your relationship with God and in your faith. It will become the grounding force in your life and will carry you through times of discouragement, depression, and defeat. How do I know this? Because it’s done that for me; that’s why I’m so passionate about it. This is simply a tangible way to have a relationship with God, and a relationship with God is the most important thing in your life!

More Encouragement

For more on this topic, check out my post, Revolutionize Your Morning Time with These Ten Products.

How Well Do You Love Quiz

L.O.V.E.

Love. It’s a pretty amazing thing, but it can also become so trite. We know we’re supposed to love people, but sometimes we lose our way a little bit. A great way to see how we’re doing with anything in life is to take a test, to rate ourselves. I got this idea from my husband Matt. He told me he had to rate himself on the characteristics of love from I Corinthians 13 in a zoom group he’s in. I thought it was a great idea and decided to do the same thing for Faithfully Stepping.

Pop Quiz

So here’s a little pop quiz. Take a few minutes to rate yourself in each category. Just use piece of scratch paper and keep your score.

SCALE: 0–1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10

0- Not at All——————–10- Killing it!

Scoring

How did you do? If you scored 120, you’re perfect! You can stop reading this post because you have arrived!

96-120……………………. You are doing really well! Keep up the good work and keep loving!

50-95……………………… You are doing a okay, but it’s time to step it up in a few areas.

30-50………………………. It’s time to make loving others a priority and really work at it!

Below 50…………………. You can do this, but it’s going to take some effort on your part!

Complete and Full Love

When you read through this list, some of them may surprise you. It may seem that some of them are completely obsolete and seem to have nothing to do with love. Here’s the thing—I didn’t write the list. God did, and each of those characteristics or traits are what he considers to be a part of loving.

This kind of love found in I Corinthians 13 is the whole picture; it’s a deep, rounded, and complete kind of love.

A test simply reveals where we are at. So this simple exercise is just a gauge of where you’re at. It’s a reminder to focus more on living a life for others, a way to see where we’re struggling so we can begin to change that.

For More Encouragement

One of the best books on love is Love Does by Bob Goff. It’s such a great, uplifting and encouraging book that will challenge you and inspire you to love others. You can also check out my post, Love is Still the Answer.