What You Need to Know About Writing The Word – 5 Minutes A Day – Go To A Softer Place

It snowed here this week.

As a Mom in Maryland during the Winter, you never quite now if investing in new snow boots, and all the gear for your kiddos is going to be a waste of money or a life saver during a snowstorm.

Turns out…this year?

Life-saver.

Last year, buying all the things, including a sled, would have been a total waste of pennies as we barely received an inch of snow here in our small town.

This Winter however?

Mother nature is making up for neglecting us and blessing us with her soft white blanket of beautiful.

And during these home-school days with three young daughters watching the magic fall outside our window…we most certainly go outside to play in the powder.

We were walking under the quiet of these trees when we heard the creaking.

The sound of branches above, adjusting to support the new weight of the freshly settled scarf of soft snow upon it’s back.

The branches above didn’t break…but oh they made it known to us below that they were carrying a heavier load than what they were accustomed to.

How often in life do our own bodily limbs and trunks begin to creak and crack under the pressure of the newly added weight of what the world is depositing on top of us?

So much heavy has been dropped on top of us these last few months.

Like the Winter snow…these days that we open our eyes to every morning are so unpredictable.

It’s understandable why trusting God in a broken world seems sort of fantasy.

When our bodies, hearts and minds are met with such hard, shocking, disappointing, depressing frustrating situations and problems, we need solutions now, not tomorrow in real life mending ways.

I get it.

We love our free will and we love to exercise it. When life is good, the daily check ins with God don’t seem quite so necessary.

When problems hit, our branches, brains and bodies weaken under the blanket of stress. It’s not the beautiful kind mother nature births from the sky.

It is dark, heavy and threatens to swallow us whole.

Here is what I know friend.

When I focus on the problem, the mountain, the deadline, the thing that is weighing me down…it keeps me down.

When I shift my eyes to Him…to the light?

My burden is made light.

“Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.”

Psalm 119:105 NLT

Having walked with the One who moves the mountains for awhile now, you have the gift of a treasure chest of historical personal past tucked inside that reminds you of all the times you were lost in the wilderness.

A wilderness where, pathways blurred, next steps hidden, eyes clouded, no visible pathway through the problem…and yet?

He made a way.

Your past steps?

Your personal historical footprints of all the times your trunk and branches creaked under the weight of this broken world, bent under the pressure of the problem…but did not break?

That friend…is His personal love letter to you.

Perhaps we keep overlooking His signature.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV

His signature?

It sharpens us in a way that softens us and gently re-awakens a choice on the table.

A choice to acknowledge Him and make room for Him to move in our lives…or?

Do it our own way.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:9 NIV

There have been many times I have chosen the later.

But here’s the thing.

When I do it my way?

I wind up circling the drain.

Wound up in worry, isolating myself from any type of real life-giving solutions.

The crazy cycle of attempting to carry it all on my weighed down branches always begins to buckle me.

But?

When I focus and fix my eyes, heart and mind on Him and not my problems or worries?

My problems and worries do not disappear.

No they do not.

But?

In His higher ways…He leads me through them, not back to them.

My personal choice I make every day?

I would rather live on breadcrumb by breadcrumb of small steps awakened in me with God towards a life giving solution and path, than continue the defeating dance of circling the drain around the same problems, wrung out in worry and absorbed in anxiety…alone.

Spending time with God and asking Him to help you with your problems is not living in a fantasy world.

It means when you go to God with your problem, you open the opportunity for Him to equip you with Godly wisdom and discernment, leading you through (not TO) that same problem, sharpened and softened with a life giving solution. 

Friend, I do not know all that you have weighing on your branches, your brain, your body, your heart.

But, I do know that somehow in God’s amazing ways…He has you…and your troubles. He wants to spend time with you to help you through whatever it is that has you spinning.

When I fix my eyes on Him, the trials of today do not go away but somehow when I revisit them my steps are softer because He has made my burden lighter.

The problems do not look or feel the same way as they did when I brought them to Him.

Because when you go to Him?

It changes everything.

One thing I have been doing for the past month or so is joining my daughters in their daily scripture writing and journaling. I purchased a new blank journal for myself at Christmas and have been loving filling the pages with bible verses and my own sketches.

Taking the time to write one scripture a day in my new journal has been serving as a “rest-cue” moment for me.

Five minutes of life-giving focus.

(If you missed the blog post on “REST-cue” you can read it here. All about listening to and accepting the small cues in your day and resting into those soft cues versus fighting them.)

A few quick recommendations to help you get started:

You can use you the scripture verse from your devotional reading to prompt your scripture verse journaling every day.

(These are good high-lighters to use for hi-lighting scriptures in your Bible.)

I am currently reading this Devotional by Bob Goff. LOVE HIM.

I have also read and loved this Devotional by Lysa TerKeurst. LOVE HER.

We all love this Devotional for kids.

It is quick to read and easy for children to relate to. We take turns reading paragraphs and then spend five minutes copying the scripture verse of the day into our individual journals.

I find that many mornings, the message in the devotional speaks just as much to me as it does to our daughters.

Simply writing the Word is an act of worship friend. God sees you, He desires to lead you through whatever you are facing.

When we allow ourselves to be sharpened by the scriptures in His word, He softens the way ahead.

“For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.”

Hebrews 4:12 NLT

In Phil Wickham’s words…

“We fight the battle from our knees.”

If you are in the midst of a battle, your limbs are creaking and your trunk is on the brink of buckling…listen to this song.

Such encouragement to fight the battle from your knees.

Yes, it may be scary, it may go slow…a breadcrumb by breadcrumb path.

But?

I have found picking up His breadcrumbs is a better way through, than choking on a circle of saw dust kicked up by building my own way out.

Sharpening leads to softening friend.

Dear God,

Thank you for reminding me that the battle belongs to you. I know that there is nothing impossible for you.

There is nothing that can stand against your power. I praise you for your perfect plan, even when I do not understand it.

My trust is in you alone.

Amen.

Living on a prayer,

Heather

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