“Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.” Ecclesiastes 4:6 NIV The stars shined bright against the black sky as I stood in the shadows on my back porch, listening to the creek run through the valley like a soothing lullaby. The owls and frogs took the lead

“She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.” Proverbs 31:27 There are days when the laundry piles up, the dishes sit longer than they should, and the house doesn’t look the way we hoped it would. In those moments, it’s easy to feel like we’ve fallen

“In this you rejoice greatly, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, which is much more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested and purified by fire, may be found to result in [your] praise and glory

“What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open.” Revelation 3:7 NIV There have been moments in my life where I stood in front of a closed door, confused and disappointed. I prayed. I tried. I believed it would work out—and it didn’t. At the time, it felt like

“Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.” 1 Peter 2:2 ESV The other day I looked over at the peace lily I’ve had for nearly a decade. It has been with me through many seasons of life. As I studied the plant, I realized

“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” John 6:37 ESV One of the things I love most about Jesus is that He does not wait for us to have our lives together before welcoming us. He does not ask us to clean

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” Isaiah 40:8 ESV Today I took my dogs for a walk. The wind whispered softly across the hay fields just beginning to wake with green. Daffodils peeked out, golden as the sun itself, nodding gently in the wind as if