Category Archives: Personal Growth

10 Things to Try When Today is Too Hard to Face

When All You Want To Do Is Stay in Bed Today

Some days are just too overwhelming. The pressures, frustrations, hardships, and struggles make it feel like making it through today is impossible. It’s on those days, that it feels like the only thing you can do is crawl back into bed and throw the covers over your head instead of facing the day.

I had one of those days recently. Well, I’ve had more than a few of those days lately. Part of it is some life struggles and trials we’ve been going through, but part of it has been the weather. We’ve had lots of cold, rainy days. Whenever we have lots of rainy days, I struggle with being depressed. It was on one of those rainy, depressing days that I honestly wanted to crawl back into bed and just pull the covers over my head instead of facing the day.

I slept in past when I usually get up and finally made myself do my morning time routine, then take a shower. While I was taking a shower, I thought about this post. What would I say to someone else if they were having a day like I’m having today?

You’re Not Alone

So know that you are not alone. I have days like this. I know what it’s like to feel like you can’t make it through the day. Those days are so incredibly long. So here’s my encouragement to you. While I can’t take the pain away, and I can’t fix whatever’s going on in your life, I can come alongside and say, I get it. And I can share a few things that I do to help me make it through a day like that.

10 Things to Try Today

I made a list of ten things to try on a day when you don’t feel like you can make it through. You don’t need to all of them; maybe try one or two on a hard day.

Get out of bed. It feels like the only thing you can do is stay in bed or go back to bed, but choose to climb out of bed. That’s the first step to making it through today.
Take a shower and get dressed for the day. Even if you’re not going to leave your house for the day, still get dressed for the day. This will help you to feel a little more human and will keep you from going right back to bed.
Put on worship music that will direct your thoughts towards God. If you need a list of good worship songs to listen to, try our playlist: 40 Days of Faith. We created that playlist for our spiritual growth campaign at church.
Spend a few minutes doing your morning time routine. Even just a few minutes of reading your Bible or a devotional, praying, and journaling will help your spirit and help you to be able to make it through today.
Eat something. Sometimes getting some good food in us really can help change our spirit. The food can give us energy and the strength to be able to face the day.
Try to get out of the house for even just a few minutes. There’s something about being inside all day that feeds our depression and discouragement. Choose to do one thing that will get you out of the house today. It may be as simple as going for a walk, dropping off a letter at the post office, picking up a prescription. Just do something that gets you out of the house for a few minutes.
Write down at least five things you are thankful for. I’ve heard it said that you can’t be grateful and depressed at the same time. Try it and see! Spend just a few minutes writing down your blessings.
Do something you enjoy. On a day that you’re struggling to make it through the day, do one small thing that brings you joy. Go get a cup of your favorite coffee, read a few chapters of a book you really enjoy, watch an episode of your favorite tv series, go buy a donut from your favorite bakery, take a walk, etc.
Spend time with somebody. When I’m struggling, I want to be by myself. When my husband is discouraged, he needs to be around people. If this is you, call a friend to meet for lunch or for coffee. Call a family member or friend just to talk for a little bit.
Read an encouraging book. There’s been many times in my life when I’ve gone through hard times that a book has been like a balm to my soul. Here’s just a few recommendations: Kisses from Katie, Uninvited, The Hardest Peace, Undone, and The Hidden Pain.

What Do You Do

Those are some of the things that help me when I’m having a really bad day. Try a few of them the next time you’re struggling. Maybe share the list with a friend who’s going through a hard time.

What do you do when you’re having a hard day? What helps you get through? Let me know in the comments below!

For More Encouragement

For more encouragement on this topic, check out my post, Getting Through This Season of Rainy Days.

Friends Wanted: How to Cultivate Friendships in a Lonely World

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I think it’s pretty easy to say that we all want friends, not just acquaintances or friends on Facebook. We all legitimately want those few people in our lives who love us and understand us and want to be a part of our lives. We crave deep friendships with people, yet most of us haven’t figured out how to find those kinds of friends, let alone invite them into the deepest parts of our hearts and homes.

Find Your People

I’m reading Find Your People by Jennie Allen right now, and it’s been both encouraging and convicting at the same time. She deals with this issue of building community in a lonely world.

The fact of the matter is, we all want friends and people to do life with. Yet, I daresay most of us would say that we feel all alone in this world most of the time. In this digital age, we have people around us 24-7 through social media, emails, tv, blog posts, etc. So, how come it is that we go to bed feeling all alone in this world?

The 3-5 Friends Challenge

The scientific proven number of people that we can track closely with is 3-5 people. That’s it. While it sounds like we should have more friends than that, if you truly stop and think about it, that’s probably more than we could say we’re truly close with.

Here’s a challenge. Take a moment and write down the names of 3-5 people that are your closest friends. By close friends, this is what I mean:

Someone that lives near you that they could drop everything and be at your house in a few minutes if needed (Note: one of my good friends lives an hour away, but we make it work)
Someone who truly cares about you and wants to know how you’re doing
The person that loves you just as you are and isn’t trying to change you but is willing to confront you if you get way off-base or off-track
The person who sees you for you with all your faults and flaws and still loves you and wants to spend time with you

If you’re like me, you found this exercise a little harder than you thought it would be. That’s because we all struggle in this area of making friends. You may have hundreds of followers on Facebook but not any friends that you do life with day-to-day.

My Answer to Finding Friends and Cultivating Friendships

Making friends is something I really struggle with. I don’t let people into my life easily. I’m a very independent person and hate to be a bother to anybody. I used to stress because I knew I needed friends, but I didn’t know how or where to find them. I had no idea where to even start. Then one day, all that changed in a way I never saw coming.

One day, out of the blue, Matt told me he wanted to start small groups at our church. He handed me a book to read on the topic. I read the book and understood all the in’s and out’s and why’s of starting small groups in our church. I’ll be honest, though, I wasn’t really looking forward to it. That was over seven years ago.

My Small Group

Fast forward several years. It took several groups and reshifting people and groups before we finally started gelling with our group. We have now been with our small group for six years. They have been become such a vital part of our lives that I can’t imagine doing life without them.

These pictures were taken at our last Friendsgiving. We started as strangers and have now become close friends. I know that I could call anybody in my group in an emergency and they would drop whatever they were doing to come help. We’ve been through so much life together—the highs and the lows, the good and the bad. We have forged such deep friendships over years of meeting together weekly and settling around our table with good food, fellowship, Bible study, and prayer.

I’m not good at tracking down friends to do life with, and my small group has become the outlet for me to meet with my friends faithfully each week. I know that without the structure of meeting with my group every week, I would not invest in those relationships like I need to. I would probably let those relationships just slip away.

Starting a Small Group

If you, like me, have found yourself lonely and wanting to develop deep connection and community with people but don’t know where to begin, let me encourage you to join Matt and I tomorrow morning at 9am EST on our Manney Resources Facebook Page.

We are doing a training on small groups. We are going to share with you the simple system we use to get groups started.

These are the words Matt wrote about the training tomorrow: Small groups are the difference between those who make it and those who don’t. Life is too short and difficult to go at it alone. Learn the power and impact of developing a small community, finding a rhythm for your schedule to meet, and how to leverage the power of friendships to grow your faith and change your life.

We will be answering all these questions and more:

How do I start a group?
Who should I invite?
Where should we meet?
What’s the format for a small group?
What Bible studies should I use?

If you want to cultivate friendships and stop doing life by yourself, be sure to tune in tomorrow morning at 9am!

For More Encouragement

Jennie’s book, Find Your People is a great read! I’m really loving it and being challenged by it. You can also read one of my posts about our growth group, Love is Still the Answer.

When God Chooses Not to Take It Away

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God hasn’t Taken It Away

One of the hardest things to deal with in this life is when God chooses not to take something away. This week, Macey, our six-year-old, worked on one of those all about me papers. She had to fill in the blank with her favorite foods, colors, what she likes and doesn’t like, etc. She brought it to me when she had completed it, so she could show me her answers. The first one on the page said, I worry about ___________________. I looked at her answer and then looked at it again. She had written growing up in the blank.

She sat next to me on the couch. “I worry about growing up because of my Diabetes,” she said quietly and with a bit of uncertainty. I just stared at her for a beat before I pulled her into my arms.

“Macey, you don’t have to worry about growing up,” I told her. We talked for a few minutes before I sent her to play, but those few words hung heavy on my heart for quite a while. I told Matt about it later, and he reacted the same way I did. “That’s not something a six-year-old should ever have to worry about,” I told him. I hate that she has to deal with it, that God hasn’t just taken it away. But even as I said those words, I couldn’t help but think about other little kids who worry about growing up. I think of kids who have it so much worse than my Macey. Kids with cancer, with terminal illness, and more.

The Pain in This Life

No matter how bad you think your life is, there is always somebody who has it so much worse than you do. All you have to do is look around. This life is full of tragedy, heartbreak, pain, and loss.

I felt myself spiraling with thoughts of concern for Macey and the life ahead of her. Fear of the future, hurt for her, frustration all began to come at me. Then I read in my morning time some verses that have become so dear to me over the years.

God’s Grace

Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away.Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:8-10NLT

I read these verses and stopped. I pray every morning for God to heal Macey of her diabetes or to provide a cure. Right now, there is no cure for Type 1 Diabetes. She will be on insulin for the rest of her life. I’ve asked God to just take it away so many times, especially during those long, painful days in the ICU. I can feel Paul’s pain when he says, “I’ve begged God to take it away.”

Because I can feel his pain, I can also hear God’s words so clearly. “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness. So when you’re weak, then I am strong.” When you have something that you’ve begged God to take away from you and he hasn’t, only then can you truly understand these words. I felt these words wrap around my heart, even as the tears came. I needed to remember: God’s grace is enough for today.

Strength in Weakness

Because God’s grace is all I need, he will make me strong through my weakness. What’s even greater is that God will work in Macey’s weakness. She can come to know God’s grace in an intimate way in her own life, but it’s my job to teach that to her. It’s my job to help guide her in her faith so that she can learn to be strong through God’s grace.

Do you have something in your life that you have begged God to take away or change and he hasn’t? A looming divorce, financial hardship, cancer, terminal illness, the death of a loved one, loneliness, heartbreak. I say these words to you, “God’s grace is enough.” I know it doesn’t seem like it, and it definitely doesn’t feel like it. But as someone who has been there and is still there, I can come alongside and wrap my arms around your shaking shoulders and say those words. You can learn to be strong by walking through your weakness with Jesus at your side.

We can know that we have begun to understand God’s grace and find his strength in our weakness when we can come alongside someone else and wrap our arms around them and say, “God’s grace is enough. Let me tell you how it was for me.”

For More Encouragement

A great book on this topic is It’s Not Supposed to be This Way: Finding Unexpected Strength When Disappointments Leave You Shattered by Lysa TerKeurst.

A Disastrous Date and My God Problem

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Our Disastrous Date

Last week, Matt and I went to Chick-fil-A for our weekly breakfast date. I was really tired, and that’s not a great setup for a good date. Nevertheless, I pushed myself to get ready and get out the door, convinced I could make this work.

Well, you can probably see the handwriting on the wall. It didn’t go well. We started talking, and I started sharing. No matter what Matt said, no matter how he tried to encourage me, I was just not having it. Finally, he got frustrated because I obviously didn’t want to be pulled out of the dark hole I was in.

By the time our date finished, we hadn’t really solved anything; and both of us were discouraged and frustrated. The drive home was silent. When we got almost home, Matt pulled over. We both knew if we pulled up in front of the house, the kids would come running out. That would ruin any chance we had of trying to make things right. We talked for a few more minutes. Both of us apologized, and I told him I was really tired. I shouldn’t have even brought up some of the things I said because I wasn’t in a frame of mind for dealing with it.

My Meltdown

We came home after that. A few minutes later, I was swamped with school questions, fighting kids, and a messy house. I went upstairs to the bathroom to have a few minutes of peace, if I was lucky. (Moms, you know what I mean!)

I sat down on the toilet with the lid down and looked out the window, utterly dejected. After a few minutes, I prayed and told God how tired and frustrated I was and how I had made such a mess of things on our date. Sitting quietly for a moment, I waited; and God brought this thought to mind.

“Do you feel better? You shared your frustrations, fear, worry, and anger with Matt. Do you feel better for it?” I answered the rhetorical question. No. Ironically, I had done the exact same thing a few weeks ago. I hadn’t felt any better after that date either. So why did I do it again? Then this thought hit me. There are certain fears, worries, cares, concerns that you can only take to God. Once that thought hit me, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It suddenly seemed so clear. I was trying to get Matt to meet this deep inner need that he was never going to be able to meet.

My Struggle was with God

See the struggle I was having was with God. I was frustrated with God not coming through on things I thought he should. My faith was fragile that day. I was hurt and felt unloved by God. All of those things I was feeling should have been directed to and dealt with by God. Instead, I took them to my husband, expecting him to be able to do something about it.

God reminded me in the few silent minutes I carved out in the bathroom that there are certain needs I have that only God can fill. That emptiness, loneliness, hurt, and pain is a God-sized hole in our heart that only he can fill.

I’m not going to be a sadist and say that you need to go at it alone, that only God can meet your needs, and you don’t need other people. That’s absolutely not true, and God has really showed me over the last few years how incredibly much I need people in my life. But there are times, I believe, that only God can meet us in that dark place that we’re in. And if we try to tell other people about it or bring them into the darkness with us, it only makes things worse.

Finding God in the Darkness

So, if you find yourself in the boat I was in, if you feel like your heart is cracking. You’re struggling with your faith, hurt, and fears. You’ve tried to talk to other people, but no matter what they say, you can’t be encouraged, it may be that you have a God problem that only God can fix.

So stop getting frustrated with people who can’t fix you. Look up and talk to the only one who can really meet you in this dark place. Let him be the one to hear your burdens, fears, worries, and concerns. Remember I Peter 5: 7, one of my favorite verses.

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.
I Peter 5:7

If we can begin to understand this concept of taking our deepest fears and concerns to God instead of other people, we will find he is there for us. He’s been waiting all along to carry those burdens for us; he was just waiting for us to release them to him.

More Encouragement

For more encouragement along these lines, check out my post, Finding the Tenacity to Wrestle with God. A good book recommendation is Get Out of That Pit by Beth Moore. I read it a few years ago and need to read it again. It’s a really good book.

You Can’t Wait Until Life isn’t Hard to be Happy

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you can't wait until life isn't hard anymore before you decide to be happy quote

Deciding to Be Happy

Matt tagged me in a post a few days ago. He told me to read the last line, that it was golden. It was a post about a girl who had passed away in February of this year. The last line of the article, written in her own words, was this line: “You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy.”

That’s a powerful line, especially when it comes from someone whose life backs it up. I’ve been thinking a lot about that phrase lately, especially after I saw that a girl I follow on social media passed away on March 1.

Brooklyn’s Faith

Brooklyn wasn’t someone I ever had the privilege of meeting, but I followed her online when I heard about her story. She was upfront and direct about the fact that she she was dying, and there was nothing anything could do about it. Brooklyn had chronic illness and all sorts of health problems, and she was very open about them. She had every reason to be miserable. Yet, if you followed her online and read any of her posts, she always had the biggest smile and was upbeat in her posts. It was both beautiful and heartbreaking to watch at the same time. These were some of the words of the last post she wrote before going to be with Jesus.

As I wait for my last breaths, I’ve been reading through the gospels. The Apostle’s description of Jesus’ crucifixion are a gut punch for anyone. Now dying myself, the description of how my Savior died is so much more potent. It leaves me in awe of a God who was born into flesh, willing to die in brutality and rise agin for the sin of humanity.
Brooklyn Salisbury

The Brokenness All Around Us

The world around us is broken. From the war in Ukraine, to the suffering of persecuted Christians, to kids dying from cancer, it can feel utterly and completely hopeless. Yet, somehow we’re supposed to reconcile all this with the life that Jesus wants us to—one of hope, faith, and love.

I read this verse in Proverbs this week, and it made me stop and consider.

For the despondent, every day brings trouble;
for the happy heart, life is a continual feast.
Proverbs 15:16 NLT

We can’t control what happens around us, but we can control how we respond to it. Have you ever noticed, some of the people that have the most horrible things happen to them are the most joyful people? How is that? They’ve chosen to have a happy heart.

I struggle with Having a Happy Heart

I am not a super emotional person, but I can be a super pessimistic person. Because I am a realist and see life in black and white, I can often see life on the cup-is-half-full side of life. That helps me be a little more even-keeled in life, but the downside is that I have a hard time choosing happiness.

I need to remind myself often that how much joy I get out of life is determined by me. God has blessed me with so much good. His faithfulness and unfailing love surround me.

But you, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy, slow to get angry andfilled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
Psalm 86:15 NLT

So then choosing happiness becomes like all other hard things in life. It becomes a discipline. The more we do it, the better we get at it.

So for today, I choose to be happy. I choose to see life as a continual feast. I choose to find the good. And the more I do that, the easier it will become.

For More Encouragment

learning to be happy in the midst of life's hard

One of the hardest but best books I have ever read along these lines is The Hardest Peace: Expecting God’s Grace in the Midst of Hard by Kara Tippetts. I will warn you, you need to have a box of tissues handy when you read it, but it’s an amazing book that I think every Christian should read.

Another resource is my book, The Hidden Pain: When You Fear God is No Longer Blessing Your Life. I wrote this during a very dark time in my life, when I had to come to grips with my faith and what I knew of God when that clashed with my circumstances.

You can also read my post, Our Week in the ICU and God’s Grace for Every Moment.

Want to Join Our 40 Days of Faith Booster?

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The Disciples’ Storm

In the Gospels, we read about a storm that took place when Jesus was in the boat with his disciples. He was exhausted from his early mornings and late night ministering to people, so when he got into the boat, he promptly fell asleep. While he slept, a huge storm built and soon wreaked havoc with their boat. It must have been some storm for these seasoned fishermen to be afraid! They wake up Jesus in a panic. “Don’t you care that we’re going to drown?!”

Jesus simply looks out at the wind and the waves and the tempest, and commands it to stop. The storm instantly stops, and the seas become peaceful once again. Then Jesus turns to his disciples. Don’t miss this part; don’t miss what he says when he looks each of them in the eye. He says this, “Why were you so afraid? Do you not have faith?”

Growing Faith that is Stronger than Your Struggle

Those words are still an indictment to us today. The world becomes a chaotic storm around us, and we panic and run to Jesus. “Don’t you know what’s going on? Have you seen what’s happening?! Where are you, God?” God simply looks at us and says, “My beloved child, don’t you have any faith?”

I don’t know about you, but I want to have the faith that Jesus expects me to have. I don’t want to fall apart when the path before me gets a little rocky, when the storms start swelling around me.

Uncertainty, Unrest, and Fear

It seems like everywhere you turn right now, there is unrest, uncertainty, and fear. What do we to combat that? The best way to combat our fear and uncertainty is to double down on our faith. How can we do that? How can we grow our faith?

Well, for our church, that means doing a spiritual growth campaign that is a 40-day booster for our faith. I invite you to join us.

What Is It?

It’s a forty-day study on faith that our church is leading. There are three parts to it.

The Sermon Series. Matt will be preaching every Sunday morning at 11:00 EST a series entitled, Growing Faith that’s Stronger than Your Struggle. You can catch those sermons on our Greater Philly Church Facebook Page. You can watch them live or watch the replay.
Weekly Small Group Study. We will meet in our small groups during the week and work through the accompanying 40 Days of Faith Study Guide. If you are interested, you can snag a copy of the study guide from Amazon and use it to start your own group. There are QR codes inside the study guide for links to the corresponding videos for this series that are free on YouTube.
Daily Devotional Study. For the final element our our forty days of faith, we will be working through our Faith for the Impossible 30-Day Devotional.

We all could use something positive to focus on right now. If we can do that and grow in our walk with God at the same time, then that’s a win in my book. I’m looking forward to this study to be able to do just that.

If you want to join in, use the links above to snag a devotional and a study guide, and be sure to check out our Facebook page on Sunday mornings.

If you aren’t really interested in joining us but still want the benefits of the study, I encourage you to grab a devotional and work through it by yourself at home. It will help you grow in your faith these next thirty days and take your focus off of yourself and your circumstances and put your focus back on God.

For More Encouragement

If this hits home with you, especially with the crisis in Ukraine, read my post, Finding Peace in Non-peaceful Times.

Finding Peace in Non-peaceful Times

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The Lack of Peace

The lack of peace in our world right now can be terrifying. My kids saw my husband and I watching the news on Ukraine last night and had hundreds of questions before bed. My little girls wanted to know if Colorado was close to Russia, because that’s where their grandparents live. I reassured them that it wasn’t. Matt and I told our kids when we finished talking that our goal was not to scare them but to help them to have a heart to pray for the people in Ukraine.

Our Response

It’s hard to know what to do in times like these when peace feels so far out of reach. It feels wrong to continue with normal life—to go see a movie or to go to bed when the other side of the world is in turmoil. It feels wrong to go about our lives when so much destruction is happening. Yet, we have to get up tomorrow and go to work and deal with all the things that we have to deal with. We sort of want to put a pause on life, yet life keeps moving forward.

Then, there’s the fear. We lie in bed at night and wonder what’s going to happen next. We fear for our safety, for the safety of our country. Thoughts of war run through our heads, and we can’t shut it down and sleep.

How do we respond? How do we find peace in the midst of turmoil? Here’s a few things that I thought of in response to what’s happening in Ukraine.

1. Pray

Pray for peace and for the people of Ukraine. I believe God gives us a heart of empathy that doesn’t let us turn away and just go about our normal day-to-day affairs after hearing and seeing what is going on in another part of the world. I think he does that, so those images will impress upon our hearts the burden to pray. There is evil in this world. Satan is still alive and well and wreaking havoc in this world, and he took a third of heaven’s angels with him when he fell. It would be foolish to think that they are not at work. The Bible tells us there are principalities and powers of darkness in this world. We have the power in our hands to be able to overcome the dark, and that power is through prayer.

We can teach our kids the same thing. The best response is to spend time together as a family and pray.

2. Give

If you want to actively get involved, Saddleback Church in California has a Ukraine Relief Fund and is actively working with pastors in Ukraine to get them the help they need. If God has blessed you with the means to be able to give, this is a great way to help.

3. Love

During times like these, we are reminded of what really matters. For the dear people in Ukraine, it doesn’t matter what kind of house they have, what kind of car they drive, what possessions they have accumulated. What matters to them now is the safety of their loved ones. These times remind us to love on our family. Make right relationships that need to be made right. Spend time loving on your kids; check in with extended family members and neighbors. These are times that people are more open, so capitalize on it and spread love.

4. Hope

Find hope in the only One who can bring hope. Pick a verse or two below to dwell on. When you can’t sleep at night because of the fear in your heart, repeat the verse to God in prayer.

5. Encourage

When we feel helpless, scared, fearful, uncertain, one of the best things we can do is choose to bring hope to someone else. Instead of focusing on me and my fears, find somebody that I can focus on instead.

Take cookies to your neighbor, invite a family over for dinner, send flowers to somebody, check in with your loved ones, call a friend, wave at the crossing guard, smile. Do what you can to encourage somebody else today.

We all can play a small part in making our world a better place today, tomorrow, and the next day. Choose to do something today to work towards that goal and let God’s peace fill you when you do.

More Encouragement

For more encouragement, check out my post When God Finds Us. Here’s a song to bring peace to your heart today, as well. Weary Traveler by Jordan St. Cyr.

How Knowing the Names of God Can Help Me Today

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The Power of a Name

Names are so incredibly powerful. I didn’t really understand that concept until I began writing fiction books. It’s amazing the difference a name can make. I spend a lot of time thinking of names for my characters, because I have in mind everything about the character and I have to find the perfect name to suite them.

For instance, if I want a strong, male protector sort of a character in a fantasy world with swords and castles and horses, the name Bob is just not going to work in this context. There’s nothing wrong with the name Bob; it just isn’t going to work. The name Braenin works so much better in this instance. (I may or may not be working on my next fiction book; which is where I got this name.)

There is incredible power behind a name, especially the names of God. One of the goals Matt and I have is to create a devotional of the names of God. There is something about studying the names of God, especially in their original Hebrew language, that helps us to better understand God and his relationship with us.

The Names of God

I was reading in II Samuel a few weeks ago and read a few of God’s names with descriptions. I love it when God’s word defines itself.

The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior ;my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety.
He is my refuge, my savior, the one who saves me from violence. I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and he saved me from my enemies.
II Samuel 22:2-4

When we get overwhelmed or feel alone, we need to remember that God is everything we need. His names represent that. In these verses, he is our protection, place of safety, and our promise of good to come.

A great practice to do as a part of your morning time routine is to do a study on the names of God and focus on one for each day. Here’s a list of the names of God to start with.

For More Encouragement

If this resonates with you and you would like to dig deeper, My father-in-law told us about 52 Hebrew Words Every Christian Ought to Know. He’s really enjoying it, and I think it would be great for further study. If you are weary today and need encouragement, read my post Encouragement for the Weary Soul.

God Uses Broken People

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Kintsugi Art

Kintsugi is a popular way of fixing cracked or broken pottery. Kintsugi finds its root in Japanese culture. When a piece of pottery cracks or even breaks, they use gold lacquer to fill in the cracks. The piece becomes usable once again, and the piece ends up being more beautiful than it was in its original form. Not only that, but it creates a unique, one-of-a-kind piece of art.

This type of art reflects how the Japanese feel about life and humanity. The Japanese use Kintsugi as a metaphor for life. They see people as beautiful even if flawed.

A Metaphor for Life

Kintsugi is such a great metaphor for the Christian life. We often feel like we can’t be used by God because we are too broken, yet broken is exactly the kinds of people God uses. God not only can use broken people, he actually chooses broken people to use.

Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you.Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.
I Corinthians 1:26-29 NLT

God Uses Broken People

God doesn’t choose to use those who have it all together. He doesn’t choose the wealthy, the successful, the strong, the smart…No, he chooses broken people who simply know that they need him more than anything.

Going through the motions doesn’t please you, a flawless performance is nothing to you. I learned God-worship when my pride was shattered. Heart-shattered lives ready for love don’t for a moment escape God’s notice.
Psalm 51:16,17 MSG

If you feel broken today, I have good news for you. God can use you. If you feel shattered, God can put you back together. God is looking for people who want to be used even with imperfections to be a source of light and beauty to the world around them.

For More Encouragement

For more on this topic, check out my post When Broken Leads to Blessed or check out Matthew West’s song, Broken Things and let the words encourage your heart.

Waiting on God to Write Your Story

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choose to wait for the story that's still being written

Copying Someone Else’s Story

Sometimes it seems like life would be easier if we could just write our own story, or copy somebody else’s story for our life. Instead of waiting, if we could just force God’s hand to make things happen, surely that would be better than what we’re stuck with right now.

We know that God writes our story. We know the verses, we know the sayings…but when push comes to shove, life doesn’t always work out the way we want it to. It’s really hard to see how it’s all going to work together for good.

Hard Conversations

I’ve had a few conversations with friends lately that were painful…conversations nobody wants to have. Hard conversations. Things like—what do you do when your spouse withholds his love from you? What do you do when your spouse cheats on you? How do you keep going forward when nothing seems to be working out? How do you trust God when it seems like he keeps failing you?

I used to think I had all the answers; that was before I learned what real life looked like. Real life is dirty and messy and full of questions. It’s not all neat and wrapped up with a bow that has a neatly transcribed verse on the side of the box and a pithy saying like “let go and let God” written on the top. No, life is full of mistakes, regrets, failures, and messes. It doesn’t always work out the way we think it should.

Things Don’t Always Work Out

No matter how much we pray, sometimes we still lose the job, we can’t pay the bill, we don’t have enough money for that present, the breakup still happens, our spouse still hurts us, a friend breaks our heart, the loved one still dies, and on and on the list goes.

I’m sure you could add your own heartbreak. Often, it feels like life would be easier if we could just force our own breakthrough. If we could superimpose God’s will for our will and get things moving, it would really help.

People Who Didn’t Wait

I can’t help but think about the people in the Bible who simply gave up too early. If only they could have waited just a little bit longer.

I think of Saul. He waited and waited for Samuel to show up to offer the sacrifice, but Samuel was late. Saul got impatient and decided to do it himself. The Bible says that as he was offering the sacrifice, Samuel showed up. If Saul would have waited just a few minutes longer, he wouldn’t have missed God’s best. What did it cost him? The kingdom. God was so displeased with Saul’s disobedience that he took the kingship from him and gave it to David.

Another example is Abraham. God told him he would have a son, but he wasn’t content to wait on God. He decided to write his own breakthrough into the story and royally messed up all of history. Because he didn’t wait for God to bless him and Sara with a baby but instead slept with Sara’s servant, Ishmael was born. A few years later, Abraham and Sara had Isaac. Ishmael’s descendants and Isaac’s descendants are still at war today.

Those Who Waited

Conversely, we see God’s hand of blessing on Joseph who waited through years of bad treatment and harsh consequences before God broke through. In the end, God wrote a beautiful story for him.

David waited for nearly fifteen years from the time he was anointed king to when he actually became king of Israel. He stayed faithful to God and didn’t waver from God’s path. In the end, his story played out beautifully.

Wait for God to Write Your Story

We get impatient and want to write our own story, but we can’t. Our story won’t look nearly as beautiful as the one God is writing; it will simply be a copy and pasted version of somebody else’s story.

We have to choose to wait for God to write our story. Wait for him to give us our own. I promise it will be more beautiful than anything we could have written for ourselves.

For More Encouragement

For more on this topic, check out my husband’s book, Breakthrough: Transforming the Death of a Dream to the Birth of a Breakthrough or read my post Choosing Hope: The Best is Yet to Come.

A song that’s really been encouraging my heart lately is Weary Traveler by Jordan St. Cyr. Give it a listen and let it encourage your heart.