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The Blog ✨ The Blog ✨T he Blog ✨ The Blog ✨
From Soul Nourishing Resources, to Event Re-Caps, Musings, Teachings, and more, The Blog is an abundant source of inspiration and information for you to explore.
The invitation for 2022
I’ve enjoyed the practice of leaning into a word or theme of the year for the past 7 years. Instead of setting specific goals for the year, I would set more generalized themes for the different areas of my life and then allow that to simmer down into one overarching theme. As time went on, the process changed and I found myself intentionally reflecting on the past year and praying about what the next year would hold while envisioning the kind of person I wanted to be when the calendar would flip once more to another year.
Journey of Light
As I write this post I am seated in our living room on the couch across from our large window where snowflakes are gently falling in steady streams. It's already beginning to darken outside, even though it's only just after four in the afternoon. The Christmas tree is aglow and filled ornaments that have been gifted from friends and family throughout the years. On our bookshelf are DIY porcelain trees with stars shapes illuminated by a strand of mini lights. As it continues to darken more and more, I am drawn to the ways the light of the various trees gives off a warmth, inviting me to linger here a little longer before running off to the next task to bathe in their glow.
Behold Summer
The season of play, of days that feel endless, of sunshine and curiosity are upon us. Summer is a bustling and transformative season. We've watched the trees bud and flower and now the leaves are offering us shaded relief from the sun, the gardens are in the ground and we are tending them to prepare for a harvest, we've watched butterflies emerge and dandelions seed. Transformation is all around us and it feels expansive, inviting us in.
Soul Nourishing Practice: Praying Scripture
A quick Google search of ‘the benefits of praying scripture’ will bring you lists upon lists from people who have engaged in this practice and how found it to be beneficial. One of the ways praying scripture is beneficial is for the portion of Philippians 4:8 that says “...if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart].” When we pray through scripture, we are internalizing the living word of God in our minds and in our hearts.
Soul Nourishing Practice: Lectio Divina
“The first 1,500 years of church history were characterized by the practice of Lectio Divina. Since many people were illiterate and many that could read didn’t have Bibles, Lectio Divina offered a way of attending to Scripture as it was read in church, with an ear to listening for a word from God. A brief and memorable word or phrase became bread for the soul throughout the week. Devotional reading (Lectio Divina) is not an exercise in mentally critiquing or exegeting the text. It exists to further divine companionship. Lectio Divina invites us into God’s presence to listen for His particular, loving word to me at this particular moment in time.” - From the Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun