Hey friends!

Have you ever felt like time just slips out of your fingers? Maybe you feel like you have set goals and desired outcomes, but before you know it, life seems to have passed you by.

As we finish out January, I have been reminded again and again of the importance of balance and intention in our schedules.

After the busyness of the holidays, I was ready for a break. What I didn't realize was that all of January would turn into a kind of quarantine - with a few weeks of sickness, then a week of freezing cold weather, then a week of torrential rain.

This past Monday, I was finally able to head back outside with the kids to let them play and enjoy the sunshine for the first time in about a month.

As we walked around the house, I started to see the first signs of Spring, with green shoots popping up out of the ground and bright yellow flowers starting to open up. Nestled among the leaves, the Jonquils - more commonly known as Daffodils - have popped up and are starting to 'show out.'

Jonquils hold a special place in my heart. Around the family land my parents now live on, my great-grandmother planted a few bulbs. They have spread into a whole field of flowers that herald the return of spring in the midst of late Winter. Every year, we have a tradition of going out to pick flowers, collecting them, and putting them in a vase. I was even engaged in the flower field.

These bright yellow flowers are like the hope, joy, and gratitude we have. Even in the dark of winter - when it seems like the sun hasn't come out for days, we know that Spring will come. When God established the Sun, Moon, and Stars, he established the seasons. And these seasons - as well as the night and day - represent a covenant with us. They remind us of God's promise to redeem us and the world in his coming kingdom.

I am so thankful for the signs of God's faithfulness - like these Jonquil flowers - that he has placed in our world.

If you feel like you need some hope in these dark days, one of the best habits you can do is to practice gratitude regularly.

Here are some ways to practice gratitude every day:

• Transform your "have to's" into "get to's" - Look at each task that you might complain about or chafe against and think about what that task means. For example, "I have to make dinner" means that you "get to feed your family nutritious food you can afford and have time to cook."
• Keep a Gratitude Log of Thankful Moments
• Use your gratitude log in your prayers, praising God for what he's given you and for his answers to prayers.

What are you thankful for today? What are some signs of God's faithfulness in your world?

Here's something just for you!

In case you missed it:

How to Reorient Your Year Around God: Celebrating the Church Calendar We all orient our schedules around something. Often, it is the academic calendar or the New Year. It could be our work schedules or even football season. By orienting our lives around the church calendar, we can add in reminders to refocus our year on God. View Post

Need a Reading Challenge? Here are 10 Reading Challenges to Jumpstart Your Reading Looking for some new books to read in 2024? Do a reading challenge! This will help motivate you to read deeply and widely this year. In this post, we talk about General and Christian reading challenges. And, you can get the new AMBL Collective Reading Challenge. View Post

How to Create an Anchor-Based Ideal Schedule ​S1E24 - In this podcast, we're getting super practical by giving you three steps to create an anchor-based schedule. This will help you to live out the biblical points we discussed in S1E23 of the podcast. ​ Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts While you're there, would you leave a 1-2 sentence rating and review for the podcast? This helps others find the show! I would be so grateful!

On YouTube

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This week on our mini-series on getting things done from a godly perspective, we're reviewing how to create a Theme of the Year. Head on over to YouTube and comment what your Theme of the Year is for this year!

My Theme of the Year is "working to make my habits and tasks spontaneous so that I can be more spontaneous this year." I've been working on (re)establishing my routines through the month of January. The biggest game changer to actually doing the habits I want and need to do is waking up early and doing my morning routine!

On the Web

I was a guest writer on the SeekGrowLove Devotional Website this past week. If you are looking for a daily devotional site that helps you read through the Bible, check out my devotions and sign up for their email here. ​

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