A Little Extra Encouragement

01/11/2025

👍🏻 What a great reminder on this second weekend of the new year…

“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

Colossians 3:2, ESV

01/08/2025

🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵

Love this word today…

“The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.”

Habakkuk 3:19, NIV

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01/06/2025

🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨

Remember today…

💕 YOU are God’s beautiful & amazing “masterpiece!”

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
Ephesians 2:10, NLT

❤️

01/04/2025

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“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17, ESV

❤️ 🙏👼💖 ❤️

01/03/2025

📕📗📘📙📖📚📓

I’m reading a new (to me) devotional from Ruth Chou Simons.

It’s called, “GraceLaced.”

It’s beautiful and so meaningful!

💛 Her words yesterday were so encouraging.

I believe these will encourage you too…

“I’m not just a generic face among the masses, but a chosen one whom God knows by name.”
Ruth Chou Simons

🩷 Be reminded today… God knows you! He knows your name and your face.

And He dearly loves you!

12/23/2024

🌺 Merry Christmas! 🌺

Praying that you and your family will have to most wonderful time together this week celebrating the birth of our Savior - Jesus Christ!

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

🎄🎅🎁

12/20/2024

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As we go into the next few days, remember these truths…

🛡️ God is your shield & protector.

🛡️ He is the one who lifts you up and gives you honor.

🛡️ God is the lifter of your head - the one who gives you courage to face all things!

🙏🏻 So look to Him again and again over the next 10-12 days!

I know I will be!

12/18/2024

☕️ COFFEE! ☕️

We are coffee lovers at our house.

In fact, we recently purchased a new espresso machine to go alongside our Keurig coffee maker.

Each morning, I wake up and have a fresh cup of coffee.

I need it fresh (and hot) every single morning.

☕️ Likewise, I love that we can receive God’s fresh mercies every single morning.

We don’t have to depend on yesterday’s mercies.

At the dawn of each new morning, God offers new mercies.

Each sunrise is an opportunity for us to look to God for hope and for help to survive another day with His incredible mercy.

? - Why not ask God to flood you with His new mercies today!!

“The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin a fresh each morning.”Lamentations 3:22-23.

☕️ You can get more devotions like this in our book entitled, “Just Rest.”

It’s linked in the bio in stories today.

12/13/2024

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I always love getting to hang out with this guy!

Been hanging out for close to 35 years!

(This photo was taken at Love’s Lookout in Jacksonville, TX.)

Hope you have a wonderful weekend ☀️

12/11/2024

☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️

GRACE…

It’s one of my favorite words in the Bible.

💛 GRACE implies that we gain something we didn’t work for and don’t really deserve.

It’s a gift.

And scripture tells us that God is more than ready to overwhelm us with every form of grace.

💛 He wants us to have more than enough of everything.

Our sweet Savior desires for us to overflow with abundance in everything that we do.

I pray that He will overwhelm you with every form of His GRACE in your life today!!

☀️ By the way, this devotional came from our book “Just Rest.”

It’s on sale on Amazon right now.

I’ll link it in stories and in my bio!

🙏🙏🙏📖

12/05/2024

🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶

Do you ever get a song or song lyrics stuck in your head?

Sometimes I do!

🎼 Have you ever thought about the fact that God is our “SONG?”

God breathes music, lyrics, words of hope, life, joy, & singing into our lives.

🎧You and I don’t have to be anxious, sad, discouraged, or afraid because…

🎵God is our STRENGTH,
🎵God is our SONG, &
🎶 God is our SALVATION!

🙏🏻 Today, why not pray and invite God to infuse your life with hope as He sings to you and over you? 🎶🎶

12/02/2024

⭐️ Wonderful Thanksgiving trip to East Texas this year!

Got to see so many people we love!

Hope you all had a great week with your family and friends!

11/27/2024

❤️💚🧡🤎❤️💚🧡🤎

The holidays are upon us!

Sometimes our time with friends and family is incredible.

Other times, it is so, so challenging.

🧡 As we head into these days, remember…

Sometimes our deepest wounds & greatest hurts come from those closest to us.

If someone needs to be dealt with, God is incredibly capable of doing the dealing!

🤎 My pastor growing up, Adrian Rogers, used to say, “If someone does you wrong, tell God on them!”

Let’s keep that in mind over the next few days and weeks!

Thankfully, we can talk to God about everything and everyone!💕

11/21/2024

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While we on our anniversary trip, we watched as two women arrived at the beach late in the afternoon.

I would not describe them as particularly young or particularly thin.

But that did not stop them!!

⛱️ For two hours, I watched those grown women go out into the surf, splash, swim, laugh, and have the time of their lives.

It was such an intriguing thing to watch.

⛱️ At that moment, seated under my umbrella comfortably, I had this thought…

Why am I watching everyone else have so much fun, while I just sit here?

I like to get in the water and swim in the surf.

But I’m just sitting here–watching!

🪑The “Sitting Out” Issue 🪑

I think a lot of us have become content with sitting out and watching.

Many of us have stepped away from the fun of life for one reason or another.

We used to run, jump, splash, giggle, surf, swim, and enjoy life. But somewhere along the way, we stopped. We took a time out on life.

It’s almost like we begin living on pause or mute.

🩵 For most of us, including me, it happened over time.

Let’s talk about how to turn up the volume again and get back out there!

I’ve written a new post called, “5 Ways to Live Your Life to the Fullest (Right Now)”

You can link in our bio or stories!

11/15/2024

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While celebrating my birthday yesterday, I came across this quote…

“You are never too old to set a new goal or to dream a new dream.”
C. S. Lewis

🩵 Do you agree?

What new goal are you setting?

What new dream do you have?

What are you looking forward to?

🩷 I would love to hear about one of these!

Happy Friday and Happy Weekend!

💪

11/13/2024

💜💜💜💜💜

So… we joined a new church on Sunday.

We are so excited to be part of a vibrant, growing, friendly, Bible-preaching faith community.

You see… we have been visiting and looking and praying about this decision for over a year.

(So pleased to find our new church home at Fayette Baptist Church in Somerville,TN.)

“CHURCH!”

It’s such an interesting word & concept in 2024.

Online, in person, in homes, in coffee shops, in strip malls, and even in schools.

💜 Are you in a church?

🩵 In person or online or both?

💚 Where do you meet?

💛 Or, have you stopped going? Opted out?

“CHURCH!”

For some of you, the word “church” brings up emotions of great hurt, great pain, and great sadness.

Let’s talk about this today.

💜 I’m sharing a newly refreshed blog post called, “An Apology for Your Church Hurt.”

You can link to the post in our bio or stories!

11/11/2024

Amen!

Just because I crave something doesn't mean it's what God desires for me. I fully realize comfort isn't always my friend. Even though I like to hang out with her for extended periods of time! But it never fails, when I get comfortable for too long, God seems to remind me that comfort isn't the goal in this life, but the courage of follow Him is. God cares more about my character than my comfort. Deep down, I care about that more, too.

Comfort may not always be the best thing for us. It's a perspective shift, but episode 170 of the Encouragement for Real Life Podcast might help you embrace it. Find it wherever you listen to podcasts.

11/11/2024

Yes!

May the Spirit guide you through the week ahead and bless you with God's hard-to-understand peace.