Let's talk about the word DEVOTION

     Okay. I love words. I eat them up. And I've noticed how God will pursue my love of language when I read the bible. This time was no exception. I was reading Colossians and came across the word DEVOTE and I decided to Google the definition of the term DEVOTION. This is what it said: Devotion to God implies ardent affection for Him-a yielding of the heart to Him with reverence, faith, and piety in every act, especially in prayer and mediation. 
    Once I found that out, I Googled what ARDENT means (because I never heard of it before) and it means something along the lines of "a warm feeling; passionate; enthusiastic; burning, glowing." And having an ARDENT DESIRE means having "earnest, enthusiastic, to seek or desire earnestly, to have ardent love." God wants us to have a burning desire for Him and His way of life (think of a volcano here).  
    Next, I searched for what PIETY means. "To give to God reverence and worship that emanates from a holy life; it includes the sense of being dedicated, concentrated, earnest, faithful, and loyal with an implication of intensity and intrinsic sancity."
    After that, I simply googled the word DEVOTED to see if it was any different from its noun form. To be devoted means, "to cling to Jesus and to steadfastly persevere with Him." Then I searched up what steadfastly meant and it means "to be firmly fixed and not subject to change, to be firm in belief and dedication, and to be loyal and faithful."

All of this is so beautiful to me because it shows me, through words that God wrote himself, how much God loves and how much he wants to be loved by us.❤ 

Strawberries and Jesus

 Jesus is so cute. I'm making vanilla muffins right now. The recipe doesn't call for strawberries but I added them anyway because it sounded delicious and I felt Jesus say, "I like strawberries 😊" The Jesus who took my place and died on a cross and endured so much pain, mockery and suffering by the hands of his own people, the Jesus who casted out demonic lies from my body and mind and completely changed my life just told me that he liked strawberries?? 
I love him so much. 🥹🍓

He's the sweetest Dad

 I've always loved birds. I don't know if it's because of Luke 12:23-24 or maybe because I hear God's beauty when they sing. Regardless- I love birds. Last night, I was reading Psalm 23 and writing some notes down. Since I was outside, I was enjoying the birds and the late night sky. It had been a good day. Muffins were made. I had just  finished listening to a podcast episode I had been saving for that night (Psalm 23 with Stasi Eldredge). I heard a noise that caused me to turn to the opposite side of the swing. And there was a bird on the armrest of the swing. It was the cutest bird. God cares about the little things! That's so sweet of him! He didn't have to show me that bird, but He did! He's the sweetest Dad!❤

Muffins and Jesus

 Last night I was making muffins and as I was sitting on the kitchen floor (periodically balancing on my tiptoes as well), the kitchen was loud and full of after-dinner-clean-up. The dishwasher was getting loaded, condiments were being put in the fridge. Music was also playing so we were having fun listening to 80s/90s artists. As I was sitting on the floor and resting against the island, I got this picture of Jesus just being with us. Like he was sitting on the island top, swinging his legs, just listening to us and smiling with some much joy, love, and warmth. His face was glowing. And as I dwelt on this image, I got so happy and started smiling like crazy to myself because Jesus was just hanging out in our messy, crowded, music-filled, muffin-making kitchen and just vibing with us. (The muffins turned out beautiful, by the way)

A reminder to myself

I constantly think that I'm going too fast- that I should slow down and not skip around the bible too much. That I should stop highlighting or at least tone it down. I thought my bible was too worn out, too used and then God showed me that a bible is meant to be lived in. Now I don't bully myself when I make a mistake with my highlighters (and that took a while to learn). A few days ago, I typed this out before I dove into the book of Daniel:  

Don't give up on Jesus. Don't give up on God. Just because you think you're going too fast and your bible's too colorful doesn't mean that it's too much. Doesn't mean you can't rediscover verses. You can still dig and dive into Scripture that you've already seen. Don't give up. Keep going.