Do Something Different

Cheers to new beginnings with God.

Do you need one?

Recently I sat on my porch and toasted cheers to God.

I was listening to a new song He brought into my music stream.

Love Note, by UpperRoom.

Jesus is my One thing.

This song expresses that so beautifully.

What is your One thing?

Invite God into it.

Thank Him for it.

Thanking Him Blesses Him.

He’s given me so many blessings.

I’m documenting them more.

Keeping a Book of Remembrance. Malachi 3:16

I love using the DayOne App to digitally keep a record of God’s goodness.

What’s your favorite way to remember God’s goodness?

Let’s Bless Him more today! :)

You Always Have God Inside

Never believe the thought, “I’m not creative enough.”

You always have God inside you.

The Greatest Creator.

So that thought is Never true.

Not and God don’t go together.

He is the Great I AM.

There is nothing lacking in Him.

Are you believing the lie,

“I’m not creative enough.

Good enough.

Smart enough?”

Me too.

Until I’m done with that.

Today, I am.

Because the Great I AM

Is showing me how.

Himself.

Living in me.

Not and God don’t go together.

He is the Great I AM.

Nothing is ever lacking in Him.

Since He lives in me,

I am always enough in Him.

Creative enough.

Good enough.

Smart enough.

And so are you.

Because He makes us that way.

What have you wanted to create?

Take the Not out of your believing.

Keep focus on Him.

Thoughts that don’t support us come & go.

Jesus is our forever.

He loves us the most!

Being With God

Thinking how we want to think is such a gift.

Thank You God That you allow us to think how we want to think.

And we can want what we want.

What if God didn’t want us to do anything.

He just wanted us to be with Him.

Isn’t that what our parents want?

They don’t want us to do something for them.

They want us to be with them.

They want to spend time with us.

What if you look at your relationship with God like spending time in an important relationship.

Like your Mom,

Like your spouse,

Like your sister.

What if God never wanted us to do anything for Him.

He only wanted us to be with Him.

I know He loves us the most.

Simply be with Him.

That’s what Thankful Keeping is all about.

Thankful Keeping

Thankful Keeping is not hard.

There aren’t a lot of steps.

Step 1 is pray.

Prayer is like breathing.

Essential.

Prayer is talking to God.

Telling Him your heart.

What’s on your heart?

He already knows.

He wants you to share it with Him.

He’s always listening.

He’s always available for you.

He’s always with you.

When you’re not with Him, you know why.

It’s your turn.

Move closer to Him. James 4:8

Tell Him you love Him.

Tell Him thank you.

Tell Him help me.

He will.

He loves you the most.

Grace Covers Mess Ups

What are you enjoying today?

Have you enjoyed God in it?

That’s what I’m doing.

Practicing His Presence.

Taking something I’ve done for years and focusing on Him in it.

In a new way.

His grace covers my mess ups.

His love holds space for me to explore new ways of enjoyment.

I’m smiling as I write.

God gives what we love amazingness.

He’s the giver of enjoyment.

He Himself is what fuels that enjoyment.

I’m in Naples, Florida with my Dad.

I love this place so much.

I’m so thankful to be here with my sisters.

God’s grace saved his place during the last hurricane here.

God’s grace is such a gift.

Have you opened it today?

He’s set it aside for you.

He loves you the most.

Happy Valentines Day!

I’m making God my Valentine.

He promises to never leave me or forsake me.

I’m opening His gift today.

The gift of Himself.

I love you.

He loves you the most.

God Graciously Waits

Each day is like an empty scrapbook.

Ready to fill with the best memories possible.

For me, that starts with God.

Enjoying Him through writing.

Writing Notes to Him.

Asking Him for ideas.

Asking Him to guide me and my life.

Starting each day in His word is also what I’m doing on purpose.

I love His word, but I’m not always in it.

When I think of all the other things I look at in my life,

I know this is the best One.

I’m asking God to help me read it more.

Look at it more.

Learn from it & live it out in my life.

I’m always writing to Him about my goals.

He’s always answering me.

I’m the problem.

I’m the lack of action taker.

I keep writing to Him hoping that will change.

He’s never going to take the action for me.

Yet He graciously waits for me.

He keeps writing through me with what I need everyday.

He keeps letting me come close to Him. James 4:8

I’m so thankful for my writing to Him.

It’s the “how” to closeness to God,

At least one way.

There are so many others.

What are you doing to stay close to Him?

What actions make you happy?

Have you invited Him into those?

Maybe today is the day.

I love you.

He loves you the most.

Listen & Learn

Listen & learn from your feelings.

They always have something to teach you.

Notice them.

Feel them.

Letting the tears fall. Psalm 56:8

Letting the cuss words fly.

Don’t suppress.

Let them out to God.

So you can move on.

Have a new space to feel in.

You’ve let the feelings go.

You’ve worked through them by talking to God about them.

That’s what I’m doing.

I did something really dumb.

It felt really bad.

I cried.

Cried some more.

Always talking to God because I know He’s not mad at me.

I’m mad at myself.

He says in my heart,

Listen and Learn.

Listen to your feelings.

They are telling you something,

Need to be noticed,

processed, worked through.

Ask Me to help you.

Learn what you need to learn.

Move on.

Let it go.

New space for peace now available.

New space to do something different now available.

You, better, because you worked it out with God.

Merry Christmas!

He loves you the most!

God, Our Master Life Coach

God is teaching me daily.

Today He showed me how to detach from “things.”

Using an egg and an egg separator to do it.

We are the yoke.

Our stuff is like an egg white.

Letting our “stuff” go can feel hard sometimes.

When we see it’s not the “thing” but our thoughts about the “thing” making it feel hard,

We can pick up the egg separator more often.

I’ve been decluttering this weekend.

An attic remodel has caused my dining & living room to be my attic for 2 years.

Saturday, my decluttering coach helped me restore these rooms to peace.

I cried during the process.

It felt too hard.

My coach promised to stay with me & not leave me until we’d finished.

God is our Master Life Coach.

He promises to never leave us.

I’m thankful God always keeps a list of my tears. Psalm 56:8

My tears are never wasted.

Neither are yours.

He loves you the most.

Fasting

Are you fasting from God’s word?

Why?

Not sure you know how to understand it.

Think it doesn’t apply today.

Maybe you want to, but haven’t made it a priority.

I can help.

I’m focusing on God’s word in a new way.

A way of play.

A way of meeting God that’s fun & doable.

Meeting Him face to face in His word.

Thinking about His word differently.

So I can incorporate it in my life differently.

Not making it a chore.

Seeing it as a pleasure.

I already see my time with God that way.

His word is no different.

Meant to be a pleasure for us.

What if you made this Thanksgiving a little different?

You started it in His word.

You met God in Thankfulness in His word.

That’s what I’m doing.

Thought it might spark a desire in you too.

God put a desire for Himself in all of us.

How we respond changes everything.

I love you.

He loves you the most.

God's Comfort

I’ve been suffering a lot the last seven days.

My sweet, little dog, Bella got very sick very fast.

She went to her Heavenly body on Tuesday November 7, 2023.

God’s comfort held me together.

What He taught me in the last few days.

1. Things can go bad fast.

2. Suffering is very much a part of this life.

3. Fight back against the enemy of suffering.

4. Good things can happen fast too.

God comforts my suffering. 2 Corinthians 1:3

He’s been using His Presence & word to comfort me.

Doable closeness to God is always the answer to suffering.

Thankful Keeping is the practice I use for doable closeness to Him.

I’m still crying a lot.

On purpose I’m remembering God loves me the most.

He loves you the most too.

Come & See

Come & see a man who wouldn’t let anything else fill me.

Things I loved.

Things I wanted to do.

Nothing but Him.

It’s Jesus.

His Presence fills me.

Fully like nothing else.

My circumstances hurt.

He still fills me.

I cry a lot.

He still fills me.

He wants to fill you too.

Come & see Jesus.

Be in His Presence.

Read His word.

Walk with Him.

Talk with Him.

Make with Him.

Think about Him.

Thank Him.

Write to Him.

I’ve been doing it for years.

He never fails me.

He’s always available for me.

Come & See Him.

He’s the answer to peace.

He settles the unrest.

He’s for everyone.

Come & See.

He did it for me.

He’ll do it for you too.

He loves you the most.

Blocked

Here’s where I’ve been.

Blocked.

Yet God uses that too.

I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.

Blocked is ok.

I’m not making it mean anything negative about me.

My humanness gets blocked.

I want to please God.

I am pleasing God. Psalm 147:11

It’s time to move on from blogging.

God is doing something new.

I’m following Him.

Maybe I’m blocked for Him.

Maybe He’s using blocked to change my direction.

Look More to Him.

Ok. I am.

Looking more to Him.

Not at the block.

Not at the why, or the how, or the what.

Looking to Him.

Past the how.

Past the what.

Looking to Him.

What are you looking at?

Scrolling like me?

Buying like me?

Consuming like me?

Looking to Him is the better choice.

It takes intention.

I’m ready.

Are you?

Remember, God loves you the most.

He’s always the safest place to look.

To scroll, to keep your attention.

Looking to Him releases our blocks.

I’m ready.

Let’s go. Let’s pray!

I get to decide I’m ready.

So do you.

What are you ready for?

Let’s enjoy God together by thinking about Him more today than we did yesterday.

The Happiness of Life

Jesus is.

We all want more happiness.

We’re all searching for it.

We think it’s found on our outsides.

We look for it in shopping.

We look for it in places.

We look for it in things.

We look for it in people.

But we keep looking for it.

I’m spending a lot of time on my outsides lately.

Getting excited about sales.

Buying stuff at a good price.

Adding pretty things to my closet.

I noticed this is taking a lot of time.

Stuff for my outsides.

What if I spent equal time on my insides.

I like my time spent on closeness to God.

But that’s not the only way to spend time on my insides.

Making & creating something new with Him is also working on my insides.

Have you worked on your insides lately?

What are you enjoying with yourself?

Being you?

Focusing on your dream.

A heart passion.

That’s working on your insides.

It’s a new school year.

New goals.

New classes.

What if you started a class on your insides?

Simply giving equal time to her.

You choose the subjects.

You choose the schedule.

But they’re inside focused.

Invite God into that.

His grace never asks for perfection.

He loves you the most.

Dreams & Sparkle

I saw the Barbie movie this week with my sisters.

There was a lot of pink.

Pink is one of my favorite colors.

It makes me feel pretty wearing it.

What makes you feel pretty?

Have you felt pretty lately?

There is a lot of plastic in the Barbie world.

We have a lot of plastic in our world.

What I liked about the movie-

There were many different Barbies.

All with the same name.

Everyday Barbie would say, “Hi Barbie,” to all the Barbies.

What if we saw each other with all the same name, “Child of God.”

What if we walked around saying “Hi” and thinking,

“There’s another Child of God,” like me.

Maybe we’d feel better.

Not as upset with all the things the people in our lives are doing or not doing.

We just based our connections on the simple truth that we are all children of the Most High God.

I played with Barbie as a little girl.

I made Barbie dream houses with my best friend, Tina.

I liked playing with Barbie.

Today, I’m still playing, but with scrapbook supplies, stamps & pretty papers.

Playing is fun and makes us feel better.

What are you doing to add play to your life?

Invite God into that play.

Remember, He loves you the most!

A Big Challenge

Are you facing a big challenge?

You’re scared.

You’re tired.

You’re crying a lot.

Me too.

When the challenges come,

Don’t forget God is still with you.

Don’t forget He loves you the most.

Don’t forget freedom is yours.

Plead the blood of Jesus.

That’s what I’m doing.

Jesus is my everything.

My source, my strength.

My peace, my joy.

I can still have those things in Him

When the challenge is bearing down on me.

Focus, redirecting your mindset is key.

Remember & meditate on a verse that comforts you.

Mine right now are Jeremiah 29:11 & Romans 8:28.

God is faithful to His faithfulness.

I’m encouraging myself in the Lord

With this thought through my tears. Psalm 56:8

God is true to His word!

He is!

I love you.

He loves you the most.

Whatever challenge you or your loved one is facing is on the way out.

Everything must bow to Him.

Get Your Joy Back

Are you believing God for something?

So am I.

How long have you been waiting?

It may seem like forever.

It’s not.

It’s never forever.

God is always right on time.

His time is different than ours.

His time is always perfect.

We are not.

I’m not trying to be anymore.

God taught me to let go of perfection.

It steals joy and fun.

Makes me procrastinate.

I want to do good works.

Bring God glory.

He’s in charge of that.

Not me.

Not the time I think.

Not necessarily the way I think either.

He’s the way.

The only way.

I’m staying on His path.

In Him.

It takes intention.

Focus.

Energy to stay close to Him.

It is the best place to be.

Are you there?

Close to Him.

Right now.

If not, change it.

Move your thoughts to Him.

Move your heart to Him.

He’s ready.

He’s always ready.

He’s my ready.

What’s your ready?

Let go of perfection.

It’s a trap.

Keeps you stuck.

Steals your joy.

Get yours back.

Jesus died for you to have it. John 10:10

I love you.

He loves you the most.

Always.

Thanks for reading.

Not Comparing

What if your main “do” in life was to be you!

What would that look like?

Do you know?

That’s what God put on my heart this morning.

Being me.

Not comparing me to anyone else.

Not comparing my work to anyone else.

Comparison is outward focused.

Being you is inward focused.

God said He was my CEO.

He’s the head of my work.

Whose the head of your work?

What if you did daily check in’s with Him?

That’s what I’m doing.

My work is about Him.

He wrote my work on my heart.

He’s the giver of my ideas.

It’s a relief to know He’s in charge.

He always is whether I acknowledge it or not.

His sovereignty is.

He is the Great I Am.

I’m thankful when I ask God, am I doing what You want me to do,

He responds in my heart.

What do you need to bring to Him today?

He will answer.

He loves you the most.

I love you too.

Thanks for reading.

Your Heart Is Safe With Him

What does your heart love?

Trust it with Him.

That’s it.

Ultimately if you can’t trust Him, who can you trust?

No One.

He’s most trustworthy.

He’s never failed me before.

He’s always been who I can count on.

He won’t let me down.

He’s always good.

No matter what I’m feeling.

My hard circumstances never change His goodness.

They aren’t connected.

His gift to me-

Being able to choose my perspective.

My mindset is what changes everything.

I’m keeping my mindset thankful.

I call it thankful keeping.

It keeps me close to Him.

Where I always want to be.

What keeps you close to Him?

It’s always the best place to be.

He loves you the most.

Your heart is safe with Him.

My Voice Is Different

What are you doing differently

Since Easter has passed?

Jesus is Risen!

I’m going deeper with God.

I went to a Brandon Lake Concert on Thursday night.

It was amazing.

His song “Gratitude” lit me up.

As I was singing with my hands raised, beside my sisters,

I felt His Presence pulse through my body.

Like I hadn’t experienced before.

I looked around Cornerstone Chapel that was filled with people like me.

People who were there to worship the Lord.

To use music, Brandon Lake’s music, to help draw closer to the Lord.

That’s exactly what I did.

I left different than I came.

I left with a miracle.

A miracle in my heart.

His song, “Gratitude,” the lyrics,

“So Come on my soul, oh don’t you get shy on me, lift up your song, cause you’ve got a lion inside

of those lungs, get up and praise the Lord.”

My voice is different than Brandon’s, and that’s what’s amazing, and so is yours.

I’m lifting my voice to praise the Lord today with my writing.

Thank you for reading.

What are you using to praise the Lord?

I love you.

He loves you the most!

Having It All Together

It’s funny where there are periods in our life where we think we have it all together.

We think we don’t need what God offers.

We always need what God offers.

No matter what season of life we are in.

He makes all seasons better.

The happy and the hard.

It’s His Presence that makes the seasons better.

It’s enjoying Him in the seasons that make life it’s best.

How are you feeling today?

Enjoying God’s Presence gives you the best feelings available.

I love you.

He loves you the most.

I’ve started a new Instagram page to help you think about and get closer to God.

It’s @thankfulkeeping.

I hope you’ll follow me there.