(in)courage - find yourself among friends
2,330 FOLLOWERS
Daily devotional for women. Find yourself among friends. A place where you're always welcome, just the way you are. This is a space in the middle of the everyday chaos. A space to breathe. A space to connect. A space to listen. And a space to hear from the God who names us His daughters. Thousands of women gather here daily.
(in)courage - find yourself among friends
1d ago
I’m scrolling through social media and I find myself repeating one phrase, “Look what she did!”
I say this as I see women doing good things — leading, creating, connecting, accomplishing, achieving dreams. It doesn’t take long until another phrase follows, “I should be doing that too!”
I slip into comparison like a too-tight pair of jeans that squeezes in all the wrong places. I feel the pinch of inadequacy, the tug of guilt, the familiar sensation that I am not enough. I don’t feel good in this state of mind. It doesn’t fit me. It doesn’t bring out the best in who God created me to be. But I ..read more
(in)courage - find yourself among friends
3d ago
Every week my mom serpentined through Chicago traffic during rush hour to get me to piano lessons on time. I could not be late. Dr. Whang was strict, but with good intentions. She desired for her students to be the best they could be. With her subtle but firm tone, she taught us that precision and practice were paramount for progressing pianists.
In the early years of piano, I was required to practice 30 minutes a day. I stumbled through scales and struggled to follow the metronome that helped me keep time. Competence was born out of repetition. But through the years, I began to look for ..read more
(in)courage - find yourself among friends
4d ago
Last month, I celebrated a birthday. I always anticipate my birthday far enough in advance that when it arrives, it doesn’t feel like such a big deal. Turning thirty wrecked me, but forty and fifty, not so much. I’m discovering age is not what it seems from a distance and what you see in the mirror may not reflect what you feel inside (cue George Strait singing “Troubadour”).
Because the births of our eight children spread across nineteen years, we still have children at home, whereas my mother had been an empty nester for at least fifteen years at my age. This is a sobering age… my mothe ..read more
(in)courage - find yourself among friends
5d ago
You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.
He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.
Genesis 50:20 NLT
As I dumped the puzzle pieces on the table, I challenged our pre-teen daughter to sort and assemble the 100-piece puzzle without the box top picture.
With purpose stirred, she started, then stopped. Started, then stopped. What should have been an easy task, resulted in mounted frustration due to her lack of clarity.
“Mom, I can’t begin to put this puzzle together. It’s way too hard, and I need some kind of a guide.”
I let those words stew a bit b ..read more
(in)courage - find yourself among friends
6d ago
The Mediterranean Sea and the horizon blend in a blurry line, as if God took his finger and smudged the paint across the width of the paper. The moon is still visible from the beach this morning, full and round. The air is cool and the water is calm.
The night before, I dreamed I was lost at sea. The sky and water were both black, and the rumblings of an ominous storm brewed above. Drenched, cold, and left alone, I waited and waited, my feet frantically treading in the deep, dark water. I wondered how I had gotten there and if I’d ever be rescued.
The moon is slowly fading into the sky now as ..read more
(in)courage - find yourself among friends
1w ago
Maybe the fourth time would be a charm. I sure hoped so. Even though I was determined, I wasn’t sure I could take another disappointment. Was this the God-given “desire of my heart” spoken of in Psalm 37, or simply me pursuing something I wanted in my own strength?
I had been feeling a tug to return to a traditional nine-to-five job for a while. Now that my children were grown, my world had become too quiet. I craved more structure, interaction, and variety than weekly Bible study, volunteering, and church could provide. I also felt called to move beyond my comfortable Christian bubble.
It all ..read more
(in)courage - find yourself among friends
1w ago
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
Psalm 139:14 ESV
Let’s pray together: Lord, thank You so much for my children. They were fearfully and wonderfully made. Thank You for creating them to be unique, just as You planned. Thank You for giving me the wonderful honor to be their mother. Help me to raise them to live out their God-given purpose and follow You as their Lord and Savior. Amen.
It wasn’t until my middle daughter started to talk that I saw how unique and different she was from my son. My first son is shyer and rese ..read more
(in)courage - find yourself among friends
1w ago
It didn’t matter how happy that YouTube exercise influencer sounded, I wasn’t motivated to do that workout. I looked down the hallway at my bed and wondered if it was still warm under my bedcovers. Still, I laced up my shoes and waited for the music to begin. Like a robot, I mechanically swung my arms as directed. My feet shuffled to the beat. My thoughts, however, continued to march to a completely different drummer. A steady mental cadence tapped demotivating thoughts. Quit-Now. Warm-bed. No-one-will-ever-know. The pull to quit was so strong. But, I knew that I would feel better when I ..read more
(in)courage - find yourself among friends
1w ago
I was sitting across the table from my daughter as we had pizza with my brother and his family. She is the oldest of the cousins and the only girl. I noticed at one point that both my nephews, who were sitting on either side of her, started to punch my daughter. They are 3 and 5 years of age, so they were just play-fighting with her. But something inside of me became annoyed and a little angry. I spoke up and told the boys to treat their cousin with kindness and to keep their hands to themselves. They listened and obeyed.
On our way home from that lunch, my daughter and I had a long conversati ..read more
(in)courage - find yourself among friends
1w ago
I held her hand in mine. The sounds of the hospital hummed all around us, just outside the door of her room. I could hear the nurses and other patients, background noise that didn’t provide any additional peace.
She had texted me early that morning asking me to come to the hospital. We had become friends more than a year earlier when she had been diagnosed with cancer. I was still new to pastoring and even though I knew I didn’t have all the answers, I knew I could show up for her.
She had been moved into palliative care a few weeks earlier, and the doctors weren’t sure how many da ..read more