This past year has been very exciting, and I have a lot of exciting things in my life.  While 2023 was a year of a lot of change from moving to getting a new job, 2024 was the year of new experiences.  There were many things I hadn’t gotten to do before, and I am very grateful I have had these opportunities. 

One of the big things of this year, of course, was getting to meet Cole, my now fiancé.   I got to meet him in the spring, after a while of talking and texting on the phone.  It has been very good to learn more and more about him and seeing our relationship grow.  I am glad I was patient and waited for God to put a man in my life who really loves me and wants to grow in his relationship with God. 

Another big thing of this year was getting to do something I have dreamed about for years.  I got to finally complete a week of RAGBRAI.  This is the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa.  I loved the opportunity to bike across the whole state of Iowa. It was so much fun to go up and down the hills and to spend time camping with my team from Des Moines for the whole week.  

I also had another great year getting to fulfill one whole year at the Job Foundation.  This was really good, and I think I have definitely grown stronger in my job, through learning more about financial literacy to then teach the kids, and through doing a better job of staying up to date on all lessons students need to finish.  I have gotten better about reaching out and working with families.  I have fallen more in love with the job, and I want to find ways to continue to get better. 

There were a few pieces of sadness that happened this past year.  No one year can be perfect, so it is important to realize any hardships one has gone through in the year, and how there are many people who have grown from these experiences.  One such sadness for my family is the loss of Doug, my parent’s neighbor and family friend.  This was very sad to experience.  Doug had been such a big light in our life and he was always so encouraging and helpful to my parents and myself.  He was gracious and funny, and he will truly be missed.  

I do have a few goals for this next year.  I really want to be better about learning more about nonprofits and the different parts of the job at the Job Foundation, so I can be better at helping those in the place where I currently work.  I want to make sure I can be a very versatile employee at the Job Foundation, and this way I can learn more about the business of nonprofits if I do ever have the opportunity to be the executive director at one.  

This next year, I also want to make sure to grow on my patience.  I am going to be getting married, and I am incredibly excited and full of anticipation for this next stage in my life.  However, I want to make sure I don’t lose any patience in preparation or in outside opinions.  I want to make sure I am respectful and kind to everyone who I am working with, even when something is not going exactly as I originally planned.  I also hope that I can do everything to be really good about preparing to be a good and loving wife to my future husband. 

Lastly, I want to make sure I spend time worshiping God.  I am not always as good about spending time in worship.  I spend my daily time with God, and I make sure to pray in the morning.  However, then I can very much be done for the rest of the day.  I then spend the rest of the day more focused on what is going on in my life and doing work related things.  I spend time listening to podcasts that are not Christ centered and I spend time listening to music, not Christ centered.  

One verse I really want to follow next year is John 4:24, which says, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”  This is a good reminder to have the Holy Spirit with us all the time, and to have God’s truth in our hearts consistently.  This way I can better worship God daily and throughout the whole day.  

My challenge for you this week is to spend some time in reflection.  It is important to be able to evaluate the year and see the positives of what one was able to fulfill and complete in that year, with the Lord’s help.  There is still time in this year of 2024available to complete this challenge.  At the beginning of the year can also be a great time to be reflective.  This can help each person feel better about where they are in their personal life. 

I was recently at work, and I did not have a good start to my work day.  I walked in and two of my coworkers were really upset.  From conversations, they believed our boss was upset with them and was letting them know in a mass email to all the employees.  Throughout this, they started to break down an email we had received and what they interpreted out of it.  I heard stories about the one crying the night prior because she had believed it was all about her, while the other was convinced it was all about her.  Then I read the email, and I just thought she was disappointed and angry at all of us.  

This was not a situation where we calmed each other down.  This was purely making each other upset and angrier at the situation.  Eventually another staff member came, and he tried to make sure we didn’t read too much into it.  However, we were just way too overly concerned about it all to be fully talked down at the moment.  

When our boss came, we asked if we could have a staff meeting, so we could talk about a few things to start.  We could talk over all of our questions and concerns, and we could talk about what her full meaning of the email meant.  She was upset because we had been so upset.  She did feel a bit slighted since we had jumped to the conclusion that she was really angry with us and wanted us to change a lot of what we were doing.  She genuinely just wanted to have something in writing for the handbook and she wanted us to be aware of the addition.  It was already the actions we were currently following.  

There are definitely a few things I can take away from this.  First, I shouldn’t just listen to other people and their experiences.  The first thing that happened was I walked into work, and I heard the thoughts from my co-workers about the email and their general reactions to it.  I am not saying that my coworkers are malicious, but it is just that they didn’t have all the information, and they were anxious about the email as well.  Then their misinformation or anxiety affected me and my thought process.

Then the second thing was I got really angry from my anxious thoughts without even getting the chance to hear my boss’s side of the story or her opinions.  It turns out we had all read the email wrong.  She wasn’t upset with us, and she didn’t believe we had done a bad job.  She didn’t think we were bad employees.  She was just adding the practices we were already doing in regard to lunch, our flexibility in our hours, etc. into the handbook officially.  She wanted to make sure this information was in writing as opposed to just being passed down verbally from one person to the next, if we ever have new employees.    

A verse I want to highlight is Proverbs 18: 15 which says, “The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge,for the ears of the wise seek it out.”  This is a reminder that when a heart really wants to make sure to make wise decisions, they will make sure to get all the knowledge available to them.  This can be getting all the perspectives from the world, and this can also be getting all the information from God through reading of the Bible and through prayer.  

Sometimes all the answers won’t be available to us.  We may not be able to ask people questions or get to really understand their intentions.  However, we always have the opportunity to seek advice through prayer and through spending time in the Bible and understanding God and His Word.  There are lots of answers found in the Bible and through spending time in prayer.  There are lots of stories of people who made good decisions and then there are others who made very poor choices and needed to learn a new lesson.  There are also many parables told by Jesus to help his followers learn much more. Prayer is also a great way to seek advice because this is an opportunity to talk to God directly. Then once we are with Christ, we have the Holy Spirit to help us better interpret what Jesus is saying through his Word and Prayers.  

I am so glad I was able to learn this lesson for myself, and that I was able to reflect on this experience and can hopefully take this learning opportunity to grow more in the future.  The challenge for this week is to think through an experience when you have jumped to conclusions and gotten angry or sad even when you shouldn’t.   If there is an opportunity to apologize to someone this may have affected, pursue this action.  I was able to apologize to my boss, and I know she really appreciated it.  Otherwise, make a promise for future situations to not jump to this conclusion.  

I have recently finished a book called, “Permission to Dream,” by Christine Caine.  I love Christine Caine, and all the work she has done with A21, an anti-human trafficking organization.  She also empowers women to be the best Christian leaders they can possibly be through her organization, Propel Women.  She is an inspiring woman to follow, and I highly recommend reading one or all of her books. 

I love the idea of permitting ourselves to dream.  It is great to have dreams and to believe God has great plans for us.  I realized I have had many dreams in the past I have given up on after I have been discouraged.  For one example, I had great dreams of being a professional singer. I was going to study music and singing.  However, I never really continued on with following these dreams after I struggled to get into the Iowa All-state choir.  No matter how much I seemed to practice, I started to have more feeling I would never actually be chosen for this prestigious choir.  I still did sing in choir in college and I have also joined a community choir group in the past few years as an adult, so I have kept my passion of singing alive, but it was never to the extent of where I thought it would be.

Some dreams I have learned to fall back in love with and learned to pursue again.  For example, I dreamed of being a published author when I was a very young child.  These last few years, I have really developed more skills when it comes to writing.  I love writing for this blog and getting to better process all the thoughts I have swirling around my head.  I have also written a small devotional book and had it published.  There are still many things I want to accomplish when it comes to writing, and I dream of writing more books and continuing to be a better writer continuously.   

My favorite part of reading the first chapter was looking at the good metaphor about running our Christian race.  One quote I loved from this book was:

“As we progress in running our race, we naturally go through times of receiving, releasing, multiplying, and growing.  And the whole time, as the Enemy sees us faithfully and consistently moving through these God-ordained times; he knows his territory is threatened.  Therefore, he plots and schemes to thwart us in our run, to trip us up, to stop us in our tracks. For this reason, we must be alert and throw off any weights that would slow us down or give him a weapon to use against us.” (13-14)

I love the alliteration of running a race related to running in our Christian Walk. I love it because it really does show a lot about our Christian journey and how we can grow closer to God through many ups and downs, with the necessary nutrition and conditions, as well as milestones.  

There are many weights we can tend to carry with us.  Besides the fears and doubts we often carry, we can also carry shame.  We can carry around the bad things people have said to us or the shame of bad decisions we have made in the past.  It is important to learn to grow from past mistakes and decisions.  The shame we have will actually hold us back from learning more and growing closer to Christ.  It is important to ask for forgiveness and then accept that forgiveness and then let the shame stay in the past. 

Other weights we carry could be the thoughts of others or the feeling of comparison.  Sometimes when I am running, I can often compare myself to others.  I can feel insecure when I am slower than others.  When I was a cross-country coach this last season, I would often compare myself to the other woman coach who was faster than me.  I would feel insecure and bad about myself for not being able to run as fast or as well.  I also can compare myself when I do better than others.  I can start to become too confident in my abilities when I do have an excellent race, or I am able to run a lot farther than others.  Either way, this feeling of expectations and comparisons is a weight I am caring around while I am running.  I can do the same thing when I am living my Christian life.  I can often compare myself and my Christian journey to others.  However, this only holds me back in how well I am living my Christian life.  We all know the best way to run is to run forward and to look straight ahead, so it should be the same thing to do when running our Christian race. 

One other verse I wanted to highlight from the Bible that speaks of this is Philippians 4:13 and this says, “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”  This is a very popular verse and for good reason.  However, it is important to remember it is only through God’s plans where we are able to accomplish everything through his strength.  However, at times when we have been given these dreams, we can see God’s plans and advice.   

The challenge for you this week is to spend time reflecting on your dreams for your future.  What are some of the dreams you have given up on?  What are some dreams you still have deep in our hearts that we have been too afraid to go farther in?  What are some of the ways we have stopped pursuing our dreams? Then after reflection, spend some time praying to God for advice on pursuing more dreams in the future.  

I was continuing to read the book, “Permission to Dream,” by Christine Caine.  I have really been enjoying this book and learning about how our dreams can be a part of God’s plan for our lives and how we best reach these dreams. This book goes through the many highs and lows that we can often feel when it comes to unfulfilled or unfinished dreams.  It is easy to want to continue on, but we can eventually get very discouraged.  

One thing Christine reminded me in a recent chapter is how God tends to work little by little.  We can start to follow our dreams and become closer to God little by little.  This is how God works.  One quote I noticed from this chapter was, “Consider just a few other areas of life where we see this principle very clearly.  Little by little, we: Lose weight and gain muscle, get debt-free by discipline and delayed gratification, acquire our education and qualifications, build trust in relationships, and write books.”  (Caine, pg.148). 

I loved thinking about going little by little because I am a person who struggles working little by little.  I have tried to get better about this as I have grown older and wiser, but my tendency is to want to get as much done as quickly as possible.  My grandma would often talk to me about this tendency of mine when she would see me working on projects. I would start a project and seek to accomplish it that day, or possibly the day after.  I didn’t like putting a project away and only worked on it periodically over a stretch of time.  However, as I have gotten older, I have gotten better at working on major projects for a little bit each day, so it could be done with better quality.  

I think we as people can often get discouraged when we are working on things slowly or only little by little. It can be really hard to look at a final project or something we are dreaming about, and it seems far away.  However, there are so many things the Lord has done that do take time, especially when he was working with people.  He didn’t often do a big thing in one day.  For a few examples, there is the falling of the wall of Jericho. The Israelites had to go around, walking, the wall around Jericho for at least a week.  The people were getting up every day and just walking around the wall.  That must have felt monotonous and boring.  It must have been discouraging to just walk around feeling aimless for a few days.  However, just as God promised, the wall came down right after the walking and the blowing of the horn. 

Another good example is the life of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the Savior of the world and the only way we as people can have a relationship with God.  However, if God wanted things to be quick, he could have just sent Jesus down, saved the world, and then sent him back to heaven.  However, God chose to send Jesus down for at least thirty years.  He was in his thirties when he died on the cross.  He had thirty some years of being born, growing up, leading, and ministering.  It was a really long and extended process.  However, he did it that way, so we as people could really learn a lot from his life.  

Galatians 6:9 brings up great wisdom and this says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”  This is a good reminder that sometimes things are going to take time and patience. Some things may even make us weary and drained.  However, when this is a part of God’s Will, then there are going to be good things reaped and harvested.  

The challenge for this week is to remember some of the times you like to rush through to get to your dreams quicker.  What is something you have been very impatient about when it comes to chasing your dreams?  What is something you had hoped to have reached a long time before and just have not yet? Then after you identify where those areas of rushing and impatience in your life is, the best choice is to spend time praying for grace and for patience.  We can pursue our dreams in God’s plan little by little.

I just officially finished the cross country season as a coach.  I love being a cross country coach.  I love getting to help young people be stronger runners and stronger people as a whole.  Being a coach at a Christian high school where I was able to read some devotionals and help the students learn how to be better and stronger Christians was also an inspiring and exciting time for me.  I also love getting the chance to run with the students in a small little community. 

To officially end the season, we had our fall sports banquet to honor our athletes from the season.  We as coaches had the opportunity to pick three awards for both the boys and girls from the team who are awarded in the following categories: Leadership, Most Valuable Player, and Most Improved. The plaques have the students name and they get the chance to be recognized in front of their peers. 

I did have a realization while I was hearing the students be honored.  I think it can be very easy to want to receive the reward of Most Valuable Player.  It can be easy to want to be hailed as the best on the team and the ones the coaches most needed during the season.  Leadership is great too.  It is good to know others are looking to you for guidance or you are leading the team to do good things.  However, I think the award deserving high praise is the most improved player.  The most improved is a great award to win and one that I want to continue to win in my everyday life. 

I love being able to see improvement.  For example, when I am running I strive to see improvement in my race times. I always enjoy when I can improve on my time from every run that I do.  I can often get discouraged and to be quite honest, I can be a bit too hard on myself during the times when I am not improving, the times I don’t have the best time or a time that seems as good as previous ones.  I would feel honored to be the most improved, so I can be acknowledged for making better choices and better strides toward being the best I can be.  

I think it is important to focus on growth in all areas of life.  This obviously does not only apply to running or to athletics.  I think it would be great to be the most improved in the workplace. For my particular work at the Job Foundation, I have really tried to improve on my financial literacy lessons for my students.   I have tried to bring in more speakers for experts and more ways to engage the students with the content, especially as our nonprofit has grown.  

There is also, of course, needs to be growth when it comes to our Christian walk or faith.  There are many verses about growing in the knowledge and the love of Christ.  One example is 1 Timothy 4:15-16 which says, “Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by doing so you will save both yourself and your hearers.”  The verses prior remind Timothy to practice the qualities such as in speech, in love, in faith and in purity.  In order to do this, Paul reminds Timothy to immerse himself in the public reading of Scripture, and to the teaching of those wise people among you.  It is a reminder for us to practice spending time learning from the scriptures.  

I do want to make something very clear though.  We are not going to grow and become more wise through our own work, however.  It is only through Christ that we are ever going to grow with more love, more peace, more faith, etc.  Don’t necessarily think through my challenge of wanting to find something to improve on that you need to do this solely through your own abilities.  It is still good to have desires to improve oneself, but again, this can only be through prayer and through constant dedication to God.

Your challenge for the week is to find one area where you want to grow.  What is one thing you think you could better develop, whether this be more patience, more gentleness, more humility, more dedication to certain Godly disciplines such as reading the Bible or daily time in prayer.  Spend time in prayer over these desires to improve and then wait for God to slowly work in you to improve you for the better. 

I have been continuing reading the book, “Don’t Give the Enemy a Seat at your Table.”  I have really enjoyed this book and the thoughts to ponder that come with it.  There are many times the Devil finds ways to get into our minds and invade and hurt our thinking.  One big tactic the devil tries to use is shame.  Shame is a harmful way of thinking many people, including Christians have.  It can be very debilitating.  We can start to spend time thinking about all the wrongs we have done and will probably do in the future.  

There are many times Christians do need to spend time praying to God and asking for forgiveness of sins.  We need to be willing to give away the sin in deciding to follow God more closely.  However, this guilt or this bringing problems to the Lord is very different from shame.  Louie Giglio describes this greatly by saying, “Shane acknowledges guilt, yet it intertwines the sin with your identity.”  (pg. 140).  A big thing is guilt admits what you do wrong where shame will tell you, you are wrong.  

We, without God’s grace, are filled with sin.  We have sinned and made a lot of mistakes.  There are times, even after we are saved, when we will still make the same mistakes, however, it is not the only defining trait for us anymore.  Later, Giglio has a great quote about how we as people need to be defined.  It says, “God changes your identity.  The enemy wants to define you by your scars.  Jesus wants to define you by His scars.”  (pg. 148).  God has changed you.  God has made you a whole new creation. Therefore, this feeling of sin and shame should not be a part of your new identity. 

This is brought up many times in scripture.  For some examples, there is Galatians 2:20, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 6:15, John 3:6, and 2 Corinthians 5:14-15.  However, the verse I want to highlight in this blog post is  Philippians 1:6 which says, “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”  I love this verse because it is a good reminder that we can be confident in the work he has done for us and the work he continues to do.  

I have a tendency to be filled with shame. I can sometimes really struggle being too hard on myself, especially after I have failed something at work that I was working on.  I want to do everything just right or just perfectly, so I am upset when I make a mistake.  Suddenly I have moments where I am talking bad about myself and I feel as though I am a bad worker.  However, in reality, I made a mistake, and there are many opportunities for me to learn from these mistakes and to grow, therefore not needing to be filled with shame.  I don’t need to hold this over my head for an extended period of time.   

When we are constantly filled with shame, that is not the Lord, Jesus Christ talking to us.  This is the enemy or Satan talking to us and telling us we are bad or not anything God wants us to be.  He is the one who is constantly going into our brains and sitting at our tables trying to tell us we don’t belong with the Lord.  There is no way God would say this to us because we were created in Him and for Him and because we have been saved and made clean by Him.  He wouldn’t take that time if he didn’t want you.  

The challenge for you this week is to spend time identifying anything you have shame in.  What is a time when you tend to feel shame or insecurity?  When are the times you talk bad about yourself for an extended period of time?  What are the things you say or can’t forgive yourself for?  It is important to recognize these moments.  It is important to realize the times we struggle with shame.  It is the only way we can start to fight the enemy on this matter and get Satan away from our table.  

One of my favorite verses I believe people need to hear on a regular basis is Psalm 139: 13-14 which says, “For you created my inner being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” You were created delicately and uniquely by our Father, creator.  Because of this, we need to be reminded God doesn’t want us to talk badly about ourselves.  He wants us to focus on Him and grow in Him, not be filled with shame. Go in peace of mind everyone!

I have been reading the book “I want to Trust You, but I Don’t,” and  I have really been enjoying this book so far.  It has really dove into the things we as people experience making it really hard to trust others.  There are times when we as people are lied to or we can be excluded and hurt by those we trusted.  Lysa, the author, is very honest about her thoughts and feelings as well as her struggles, especially after her divorce from her husband who had many affairs.  

One chapter I really enjoyed was about resiliency.  Lysa discussed being on vacation, when the ice machine broke down leading to her breaking down emotionally.  She describes her temper tantrum and emotional outbursts she had after this ice machine broke.  Was it monumental?… no.  The reason she had this emotional breakdown was because of every problem she had in the recent past with her divorce and the loss of other friendships occurring after the divorce was finalized.  The ice machine was just one little other broken thing in her life.  However, after having her tantrum, she decided she was going to fix the ice machine.  She watched the Youtube videos and got the instructions of how the ice machine works, and she got it to work once again.  

This chapter in particular had some great quotes including, “…but don’t miss an opportunity to overcome an ‘I can’t or I don’t’ today.”  Lysa took a moment to be in an “I can’t,” or “I don’t,” or “I won’t,” state to then overcome it and eventually say, “I can,” and “I will.”  She realized at this moment she needed to find ways to be resilient on a regular basis.  It can be hard and it can take courage and strength, but it is something that will help anyone through any sort of trust issues or hurt issues. 

One other quote I loved from this chapter was something she learned from her therapist. This says, “Trauma isn’t an event that happens. It’s how you process the event.”  I want to be sensitive about this.  I am very aware I haven’t had huge amounts of trauma in my life, especially compared to other people in the world.  However, this is something to realize that trauma needs to be processed in a good way. 

When trauma doesn’t mend properly, then it creates a lot of issues for the rest of your life.  It will come out in ways one didn’t expect later in life.  Later in the book, Lysa even says this with the quote, “Unresolved hurt inside us will be multiplied out by us unless we make the conscious choice to stop it.”   Lysa talks about a particular organization that has hurt her in the past, and I realized many of us have experienced this.  We have maybe been hurt by family, a workplace, a friend group, and even maybe in some situations, a church or a Bible group.  

I have been very hurt by a particular friend group, and I have realized over these past few years I have struggled with trust issues.  I have talked about this before, but this particular friend group just decided to stop regularly inviting me to things.  I will say it wasn’t everything, but there was enough that there was consistent hurt.  When I brought up these concerns with them, I often felt as though I was made to be the bad guy.  I was making them feel bad when they didn’t intentionally try to hurt me.  Then once I moved away, I felt as though I had to do all the reaching out and the connecting if I wanted this friend group to stay friends with me.  I won’t say this whole friend group is rotten or bad, but maybe they were not the friend group I needed. 

I sometimes don’t know if there are people who really love me or who will just decide one day they don’t want me around.  It is something important for me to realize I can continue to trust in God, and his love for me.  I can trust in him and his discrepancy for the relationships I choose to have with people in the world.   They aren’t going to be perfect, but I can always be with God for the times when I am hurt or left broken. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “”Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him” 

The challenge for this week is to do some personal reflection.  Are there times when you personally really struggle with trust?  What do those situations look like?  When do they become the most noticeable?  Then after some time in reflection, pray to God to deliver you from this lack of trust you have with others and maybe even with God.  We can really only be resilient in our trust issues through our prayers to God. 

I recently finished my Nehemiah Bible Study.  This book has really been very influential in my Bible life.  I had never spent a lot of time focusing on this book of the Bible, but I do really think it is a book of the Bible that should be read and focused on more.  It really highlights a lot of good characteristics every Christian should focus on. 

Chapter 13 highlights a sad moment though.  Chapter 13 takes place after a great celebration and rededication to the Lord.  However, the people had decided to turn away from God and start living their own life again.  They decided to move away from following the Sabbath rules and who they were getting married to, etc. This was really disheartening because the people had really started to dedicate themselves to learning the Lord’s teaching and worshiping Him in music and prayer. 

 One thing that really caught my attention in the devotional reading was the pointing out of people bringing their sin into the temple.  They did this through having those who were not close to God, in fact those who were widely against the faith in the temple.  The Bible Study devotional pointed out the people of Israel brought their sin closer to the place where they needed to be holy as opposed to bringing their best to God. 

I think there are many times when we are too close to our sins.  We can grow so comfortable we almost forget they are sins.  I know I can be this way with my impatient thoughts or attitudes.  I can start to become so comfortable with them that I have those thoughts anywhere and everywhere, even at church when I am in the most holy of holy places.  

One little caveat I do want to make.  Chapter 13 discusses the people of God bringing in outsiders to the temple, completely disrespecting and dishonoring God as their main sin problem.  Those were different times.  The people didn’t have Jesus who died for their sins yet, so they were still making sacrifices in the temple in order to be justified with God.  This is why it was very important to make sure to keep the temple as holy as possible.  I believe it is important that we as Christians, and people of God, do bring outsiders to church.  We should have a heart to serve the whole population and bringing others to the love and acceptance of Christ is one guaranteed way to do this.  

There are a lot of verses from the Bible that speak of the importance of avoiding sin and temptations.  One set of verses is James 1:14-15 says, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”  This seems a bit morbid, yes, but it is also very true.  If we have certain temptations we don’t keep in check, then we fall into sin, and with this particular sin growing more and more prominent or present in our lives, then it would suddenly lead to spiritual death.  This is why we need to constantly be checking on the sins and the temptations we currently have.  

The challenge for you this week is to really identify what the main sins in your life are.  What are the main things that make you seem to keep falling back into sin?  What is the big temptation you seem to focus on, even when you are in a place where you are supposed to be filled with praise and worship.  I definitely could list off a few things that I would put on this list besides my impatient thoughts I mentioned earlier. I want to make sure you don’t let those pieces of sin or temptation lead you down a life filled with spiritual death.  I want your life to feel fulfilling and be spirit filled. 

The one encouragement I can give you is we do have the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the entity we have to guide us through these times of fighting temptations and through fighting of sin and keeping sin farther away from the Holy Places.  It is so much more important to have the Holy Spirit’s help and love when we go to seek fighting away from these sins. 

I was just proposed to on Sunday! I love Cole Thomas, my new fiancé and future husband.  I have a lot of excited energy and anticipation for the next few months that are coming before the wedding and the new future takes place.  I believe it is important to pray all the time and over everything.  However, I am a big believer in praying over the big life alternating moments.  When approaching these life changes, it can be easy to let fear override all other emotions, so that is why prayer is so vital.  

Because I have some readers who may be curious and because I want to write about it, I will talk about how Cole asked me to marry him.  He brought me to visit UNI, which is the college where I graduated, after homecoming weekend.  We went up to the campanile which is the bell tower in the center of campus.  Even though I was a student for four years, I never got to go inside.  It was beautiful in the campanile.  It was awesome to see through the windows, to see the whole campus from around the campanile, and it was really awesome to see the organ-like instrument where the music is played once a week.  Then Cole and I went down the steps on our own while the instrumentalist stayed upstairs to “tidy up.”  At the bottom of the campanile, he proposed while his dad taped the whole thing.  Then at the top of the campanile, the song “Yellow” by Coldplay played, which is my favorite song.  It was the most perfect and beautiful day, and I am so blessed Cole did that for me.  

I wanted to take this time to pray over our upcoming future.  I know not everyone reading is going to be in the same life situation when it comes to these romantic relationships.  I have some readers who have been married for a long time, those who are single, and maybe even some who are going through a divorce.  However, I know each and every one of us are going to be approaching major milestones in the future, even if we do not know when.  This could be graduating from school, starting a new job, starting a family, losing a family member, etc.  This could be any new change in the very real future. 

Dear Lord, 

I praise you for your perfect love and holiness.  You are completely perfect and never sin, yet continue to love your people when we sin and when we choose to turn away from you.  I appreciate the grace and mercy you have given your people.  You have a perfect plan for your people’s futures.  We don’t always know your plans.  We don’t always know your next steps, but we can be confident in your love and sovereignty.  

Thank you for the individual blessings you have given me.  Thank you for the years of growing and learning I was able to have amidst my singleness.  Thank you for the love I have learned to grow for others through the various forms of relationships.  Thank you we have encouragement from those around us who love us and care about us.  

Thank you for bringing Cole into my life.  Thank you for helping me trust a man.  Because for a long time I was really very fearful and anxious to really trust someone to come into my life and love me like he has shown.  I didn’t think I would ever find anyone who could love and cherish me.  Then after some time in prayer and through talking through feelings of insecurity with my therapist, I discovered I can have the ability to trust someone else into my life. 

Please Lord help Cole and I in this next stage of our lives.  Please help us to continue to grow in our love for you and our love for our church community we have found.  I pray we continue to individually prepare our hearts and minds to now become one unit. I pray we are both individually and as a couple receiving regular advice for how to best approach situations in our marriage. 

In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

My challenge for you this week is to spend time in prayer for any new things or new steps you are going to be taking in the very recent future.  Again, it is very important to spend a great deal of time in prayer for anything, but whenever you spend time in prayer over the future big events, it can help your overall anxiety.  Remember what is said in 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

I was continuing to read more of Nehemiah for my morning devotional.  This book has continued to be an eye-opening book for me to learn more about Nehemiah and his importance to the word of God.  One thing I really enjoyed was reading through chapter 8 of Nehemiah and the insight that gives me to the character of Nehemiah and all those in Israel.  

 This chapter starts to describe a big feast and a celebration the people of Jerusalem were having. They were having this feast because they had just completed alterations and the rebuilding of the wall.  Originally, one of the goals of Nehemiah was to go to Jerusalem and to help rebuild the wall after many people had decided to destroy it, therefore leaving Jerusalem and the temple open to many more attacks from other countries.  Nehemiah and his men of workers were victims of a lot of evil people trying to discourage and to hurt them through this process, but through God’s strength, they were able to persevere.  

The people were enjoying the food and the camaraderie of others.  However, the big piece of this party or feast was the reading of God’s Word.  The people sat around and listened.  However, as we later find out, we find people listen for the majority of the whole day, and not only that, but they came back for more each and every day.  They did this for roughly 7 days straight to listen to the word of God.  These people were loving every moment of the community and the praise they were receiving from being with Christ.  

I think this can be a very important thing to note.  Sometimes, we as people can only care about hearing God’s Word for a short period of time.  For example, to be honest, sometimes we can only care about church being one hour long.  Maybe we can handle an hour and a half, but how many of us would be frustrated if church ended up being three hours long.  I know I have been frustrated when church has gone on longer than I anticipated .  I have been especially bad on the days when I feel as though I have a lot to do, and I start to get overwhelmed in the middle of church.  I can constantly be checking the time to make sure I will get out with enough time to do all the things I had originally planned.  

We as a society do struggle with this because of our constant distractions in our life.  We have a lot of things that now distract our minds.  This can be our phones, the activities we are all involved in, work priorities, and even our church duties or volunteering opportunities.  There are a lot of things each person is doing constantly.   

This actually does bring to mind my mentee’s church.  I have gone to church with her a few times to watch her perform in the church choir.  One thing I did notice about her church was people did not care how long the church was.  They were there to worship and to sing solos, say what God has been doing in their life.  Her church service was at least 2 ½ to 3 hours long.  The people had the greatest amount of joy amidst the church walls.  Then they often would convent together afterwards for a meal.   

One verse I wanted to highlight was John 4:23-24 which says, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”  This verse is a good reminder that God does appreciate those who are worshiping him.  God wants us to worship him in both spirits in truth, which I would say means he wants us to both worship him in regard to the Bible and His words as well as worshiping him in the Holy Spirit.  

There are a few different options for a challenge this week.  The first one is to put away your phones during church.  I know, I use my phone for my Bible app like a lot of other people do.  However, if you find you are also very distracted by the time and thinking about when church will be getting out, then I think this will be a good challenge for you.  I know I will be participating at least once or twice.  If bringing a phone to church is not something you really struggle with, then it is important to maybe spend a good couple of hours, or don’t even care about the time frame, in worshiping the Lord.