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Lord, I come before You this morning, asking for Your strength, love, and peace to cover Your people. You know what battles we face, Lord. Strengthen us with power through Your Spirit in our inner being. Help us to face this day with the confidence that You are with us, in us, and for us, that in You we find refuge, no matter the storm.

Lord, Help us to be mindful of the fact that we are rooted and grounded in love—Your love, Christ’s love, the love of the Holy Spirit who dwells in is. Overwhelm us with Your love and peace today. Wrap it around us, help it flow through our veins with every beat of our hearts.

Lord, Thank You for this day and for the reminder of Your love, which provides us roots and Your Spirit, which suffuses us with strength. Walk with us through this day and grant us Your peace. Draw us closer. Amen.

Have a blessed day.

We are a society driven by wants and desires. Even a 30 minute tv show, especially at this time of year, will include countless commercials for products you can’t live without, products that will provide just the thing you’ve been missing in your life. Internet pop-up ads are full of these miracle products, too. Snake-oil salesmen are everywhere and satisfaction is guaranteed.

My theory is that the part of ourselves that buys into that hype—the hype that this toy, this product, this contraption will fill the hole in my life—that’s the part of us that desperately needs to be filled by our Savior. That’s the part of ourselves that recognizes that this world is not our home and can never fully satisfy.

Lord, Thank You for this day and for this scripture. Thank You for loving us completely and fiercely, even as we struggle to fully love and accept ourselves and each other. Thank You for abundantly blessing us, daily, with so many good things. Help us to understand that every good and perfect gift comes from You, that You are all we need. Draw us closer. Amen.

Have a blessed day.

As I typed this verse yesterday, it resonated with both the teacher and the student in me. As a teacher, I construct assignments to scaffold previous knowledge and new learning for my students. I try to craft assignments that will reinforce both the objectives of my curriculum and the real world skills that they need.

As a student, I enjoy being academic, studying, learning. I find satisfaction in completing the work assigned to me to the best of my ability. I had never really thought of my service to my Savior in those terms before, but I see much merit in it, especially when viewing myself as His student. He has work He’s assigned me to do. He has objectives He needs me to learn, and His tasks also have me practicing real world skills that are needed for His service. And while the task doesn’t always seem as well defined to me as “Read these pages and write an essay,” I know I need to keep checking with my Teacher to fully understand what I am to do.

Lord, Thank You for this day and for this scripture and its message. Thank You for the analogy of Teacher and student, one I understand so well. You have work assigned for me, Lord. Help me to keep looking to You as I try to understand and walk Your path. Help me to stay strong and focused as I tell others Your Good News. Draw me closer. Amen.

Have a blessed day.

In any given venture, we usually know what success looks like in human terms. It seems much more difficult, looking through this glass darkly (1 Cor 13:12), to posit what God would consider a success in a given situation. One thing I feel very confident in saying is that His definition of success has nothing to do with the things of this world and everything to do with eternity.

Lord, It is so easy to be swayed by this world, to define myself as a success or failure based on trappings of this world, but I am not of this world. I am Your deeply loved child. You have called me to a purpose higher than this world can conceive. Help me to always remember that You have a plan for me, that You can use all things for my good and Your glory. When I am tempted to brand myself a failure, help me to define myself only through You.

Lord, Thank You for this day and for the reminder that as I walk through this life, I have a divine purpose, sharing the Good News of Your amazing grace. When the world tries to define me, remind me of Your power and Your purpose in my life. Use all that I am, all that I have, and all that I do to point others to You. Draw me closer. Amen.

Have a blessed day.

Throughout my life, I’ve been prone to bouts of what I always called “the blue funk,” times when everything just felt wrong, off, bad. Always during those times, the antidote was to count my blessings. I would start with the basics—breath in my lungs, a roof over my head—and keep counting until I was in a better mental space. In that space especially, desperately trying to cling to the good in my life, I can see His abundant blessings everywhere.

God makes no secret about the fact that we are His deeply loved children. And it is absolutely His right to bless us simply because He wishes. But His purpose is larger and more eternal than just blessing us in this life. He blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others, so that we can shine His light, sing His praises, be His hands and feet, point others to Him.

Lord, Thank You for this day and for Your abundant blessings in my life. Help me, even on my darkest days, not to lose sight of all Your blessings in my life, and help me, daily, to strive to be a blessing to others, to shine Your light, to sing Your praises, to be Your hands and feet, to point others to You. Draw me closer. Amen.

Have a blessed day.

In many ways, humans seem predisposed to judgment and prejudice. Before a person utters a word, we’ve usually formed at least a cursory opinion based on the way the person is dressed, carries himself, etc. I wonder what a different world this might be if we were only able to perceive a person through his voice and words, if the snap judgment of sight were removed. Would we be more apt to listen to a person’s heart?

Such musings always put me in mind of Frankenstein’s creature when it was learning surreptitiously from the De Lacey family. The blind father could not see the creature’s hideous appearance and treated him with kindness based on the kindness he perceived from the creature. When not immediately attacked because of his appearance, the creature showed himself capable of caring for others in his words and actions. I’ve always felt that was tremendously significant.

Lord, Thank You for this day and this reminder that even though the world approves of snap judgment based on appearance, You care more about what’s in a person’s heart. Help us to see others through Your eyes. Help us to reach out with Your hands and to encourage with Your heart. Draw us closer to You and closer together as Your children. Amen.

Have a blessed day.

I mentioned yesterday that I’m a huge fan of routine. My morning routine includes an hour of quiet time before my family stirs. During this time I read, pray, reflect, and write the daily devotional reflection. There is no rushing or stress as my hour buffer ensures I have plenty of time to talk to my precious Savior before I start my day.

This morning, however, I overslept by more than half an hour. When I realized how late it was, I fairly jumped out of bed, thinking,”What in the world am I going to write my reflection on today? I’ve got to hurry!!!” God is so good, my friends. He almost immediately put Psalm 127 in my path. I could almost hear Him whisper, “Precious child, you know that I am an integral part of your daily reflections. You cannot write them without My guidance. In your haste to meet the world’s deadline, your writing will be in vain because I won’t be in it. Breathe. Trust. Choose Me over this world.”

Lord, Thank You for this day and for so effectively pumping the breaks on my morning mania to meet the world’s deadline. Thank You for putting scripture in my path to remind me that anything I do without You in it is in vain. Thank You for loving me so deeply that You patiently wait for me to seek You and for always being there, reminding me to choose You over this world. Lead me. Guide me. Draw me closer. Amen.

Have a blessed day.

I am a strong realist with the heart of an idealist. I see the possibilities, but I am constrained by the limitations of what I can conceive as doable. This morning has me wondering if I am inadvertently limiting how God is able to use me to further His Kingdom. Does my inability to fathom how He might use me keep me from acting on ways that He might be calling me? Jesus, Help me!

I am the first to admit that I love the comfort of routine. It is difficult for me to be excited about starting something if I can’t conceive of how it might end, how it should end. But this morning, I feel God calling me to examine these tendencies to see if they are in line with His calling for my life.

Lord, Thank You for this day and for calling me to examine myself and my actions in light of Your callings. I don’t want my short-sightedness to limit Your ability to work in my life. If You are calling me outside of my comfort zone, help me to see it, understand it, and answer wholeheartedly, “Here I am, Lord. Send me.” I know that nothing is too difficult for You, not even my own perceived limitations. Give me strength and courage to understand and trust Your call, even when I can’t perceive the way, and draw me closer to You. Amen.

Have a blessed day.

Powerless, weary, heavy burdened. So many carry so much weight on their shoulders daily. That’s not what God wants for us, though. The God of all creation loved us so much that even though we can do nothing but love Him, He sent His Son for us. The Prince of Peace loved us so much that He laid down His life for us. We were not ransomed just so we could trudge around daily, carrying the weight of our worries on our backs. Jesus, Help us.

It feels like it ought to be easier to hand over our concerns, to lay them at His feet and wrap ourselves in His peace. Perhaps, just like choosing joy is an intentional act, perhaps choosing to lay down the burdens I’m carrying, to hand them over to Him, takes just as much intentionality. Perhaps I have to willfully choose to drop these burdens and defiantly choose His joy and His peace over the chaos of this world. Jesus, Help me.

Lord, Thank You for this day and for daily meeting me here. Thank You for always finding me when I earnestly seek You. Lord, This world wants me to feel weak, weary, and powerless. This world wants me worn down by burdens You never intended for me to shoulder. Pry my fingers loose, Lord. Help me lay all of it at Your feet. Wrap me in Your peace and joy. Draw me closer. Amen.

Have a blessed day.

Even as I typed this verse yesterday, I knew I would come back to it today. The truth of it resonates deeply. As a mother and a teacher, I know when someone is just going through the motions, when their acquiescence and obedience are superficial and not heartfelt. Not only does God know the same in my obedience to Him, He also knows when I profess to have turned my cares over to Him but my heart is secretly clinging to worries, fears, or desires I can’t let go. Those things, which I stubbornly and at times unintentionally cling to, present a barrier to my communion with God.

Just as I know when my children are struggling with something that they are holding close, God knows my heart. As much as it hurts my heart to watch these children I love struggle, to want to help and not be able to because they won’t open up, I wonder if God feels the same as He watches me struggle with those things that I hold in the quiet of my own heart, those things I don’t want to share with anyone, though He knows because He knows me completely.

Lord, Thank You for this day and for guiding me along this path today. I want more than anything to know You intimately, to hold nothing back from You. You love me and those I love more than I am even capable of loving, Lord. Help me to seek You, every moment of every day, with my whole heart and a willing mind. Help me to hold nothing back from You. Draw me closer. Amen.

Have a blessed day.