I’m writing by candlelight while walking but I can’t stop. Here, another name. There, two more. I’m chasing the God I’m finding as I read.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here.

2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

3. I’m taking Mary Demuth’s 90-Day Bible Reading challenge (and you can too!). Sign up HERE.

4. Ann Voskamp’s Sacred Prayer journal is the one I’m using, and her questions gives space to record who God is, where we are in relation to God, and more. I find it dovetails beautifully with Mary’s challenge.

You know that dismantling way a verse in Scripture can seem like it’s just for you? How you feel seen through in an instant by the kind gaze of Jesus?

That was me on day three of a 90-Day Bible Reading Challenge—overcome by “the God who answers me whenever I am in distress and who is with me wherever I go” (Gen. 35:3, The Voice).

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here.

2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

3. Psalm 63 by Justin Rizzo. Watch on YouTube HERE.

4. Get the Song I Play on Repeat playlist from the resource library HERE.

5. I’m taking Mary Demuth’s 90-Day Bible Reading challenge (and you can too!). Sign up HERE.

6. Ann Voskamp’s Sacred Prayer journal is the one I’m using, and her questions gives space to record who God is, where we are in relation to God, and more. I find it dovetails beautifully with Mary’s challenge.

Maybe New Year’s Eve feels like a celebration of endings. We get to bury what didn’t do well or go right and start over. Plant fresh seeds and forget the ones that never grew.

I get it. It’s wearying caring for seeds that haven’t sprouted yet. And your heart just needs a break, your lungs a moment to breathe.

But here, on the cusp of all a fresh new year has to offer, I want to share what I’m clinging to for my own unsprouted seeds.

Links mentioned:

1. Get 200 Word of the Year ideas PLUS monthly reflection sheets to amplify your growth HERE.

2. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here.

3. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

In the midst of tinsel and torn paper tomorrow, may we remember the greatest gift ever wrapped is a baby in swaddling clothes. May our hearts thump with the excitement of a child when we behold Him, fully God even as a babe.

Links mentioned:

1. Get 200 Word of the Year ideas PLUS monthly reflection sheets to amplify your growth HERE.

2. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here.

3. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

Sometimes you go looking for a word of the year, and sometimes it finds you–like a cat who adopts you first or a word nestled into Ann Voskamp’s Sacred Prayer journal that stills your heart. And you know, without scouring word lists or weighing options or praying long for clarity, that the Hebrew word korban is your one word for 2025.

Links mentioned:

1. Get 200 Word of the Year ideas PLUS monthly reflection sheets to amplify your growth HERE.

2. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here.

3. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

Sometimes you go looking for a word of the year, and sometimes it finds you–like a cat who adopts you first or a word nestled into Ann Voskamp’s Sacred Prayer journal that stills your heart. And you know, without scouring word lists or weighing options or praying long for clarity, that the Hebrew word korban is your one word for 2025.

Links mentioned:

1. Mary Demuth’s 90-day Bible reading challenge.

2. The five songs I played most in 2024:

1. Savior
2. Worthy of It All
3. At The Altar
4. I Breathe You In God
5. What A Miracle

3. Get the Songs I Play on Repeat Playlist from my resource library.

4. Subscribe to Tuesdays with Twyla.

5. Get 200 Word of the Year ideas PLUS monthly reflection sheets to amplify your growth HERE.

6. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here.

7. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

How’s this for a trade? Your never-named aloud fears, your residual shame, your tucked-deep message of unworth, the lists you haven’t completed, the names you’ve called yourself inside your head, the band-aids over old scars–for the deepest inhale of grace that makes you feel light and lovely from your nose to your toes.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here.

2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

Maybe you’re just not feeling it this year, but you’re wearing the smile anyways. You wish it could feel authentic.

I see you holding so much extra. Extra and also less, for there’s loss and disappointment and deeply-set worry scrunching lines in your brow. It’s a lot under the weight of amplified expectations and hold-your-breath prayers and silent wishes that everyone could at least pretend to be happy.

Joy seems like a novel idea. If only it could be produced with decor and Thanksgiving fixings. If only it didn’t feel fair-weathered and immensely fragile.

Links mentioned:

1. It’s not too late to join the #ReflectJesus challenge! Grab the challenge prompts HERE and I’ll pop into your inbox the rest of the month with daily prayers to help you and I reflect Jesus like a mirror.

2. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here.

3. Read the written version of this episode HERE.