through fire

When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.
- Isaiah 43:2 (NLT)
 
How many times have we prayed for God to just take something away?
Take away the pain.
Take away the fear.
Take away the uncertainty.
Take away the diagnosis, the grief, the heartbreak, the struggle.
If we’re honest, most of us don’t pray to go through hard things — we pray to avoid them altogether.
Even Jesus did this in the Garden of Gethsemane before the cross, He said, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” (Luke 22:42)
There’s something comforting about knowing Jesus understood that human longing for relief. He understood anguish. He understood asking the Father for another way. Yet even in that moment, He still trusted God’s will.
When someone is dealing with unexplained pain, chronic illness, anxiety, or just one hard thing after another, it’s natural to ask God to make it stop. Sometimes we grow weary from carrying things that nobody else can fully see or understand. We pray, “Lord, please let this be over.”
But what if some things are not meant to destroy us — what if they are refining us?
Gold is purified in fire. Strength is built under pressure. Faith often grows deepest in the places where we have no choice but to depend completely on God.
That doesn’t mean suffering is easy. It doesn’t mean we have to pretend everything is fine. But it does mean the fire is not proof that God has abandoned us. Sometimes it is proof that He is still working.
Isaiah doesn’t say if we walk through the fire. It says when. The promise was never that life would be pain-free. The promise is that God will be with us in the middle of it.
And maybe — just maybe — some of the hardest roads we walk are the very roads that lead us closer to where God wants us to be.
 
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Daily Inspiration from the Bible

take off

You will also declare a thing, and it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways.
- Job 22:28 (NKJV)
 
A friend of mine retired a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been so excited watching her step into a brand-new season of life. It also got me thinking — which is usually a dangerous thing. 😊
I started working like a lot of teenagers do: fast food, waitressing, cashiering, line cooking, prep cooking. After high school I landed a factory job, and eventually I somehow worked my way into corporate America, where I still am today.
But the workforce has changed a lot over the years. Job security feels more uncertain than ever. The first Fortune 500 company I worked for downsized multiple times. Between the two of us, Randy and I have been “reorganized” — which is a very polished corporate way of saying our jobs were eliminated — three different times. Even after moving to a larger company, we’ve still experienced being “displaced.”
It teaches you pretty quickly that sometimes the ground beneath your feet is not nearly as solid as you thought it was.
So we decided to do what a lot of people do when uncertainty creeps in — we started building something of our own. Randy earned his FAA drone license, and together we launched our little hobby-business, Surface 2 Sky Productions LLC. He records events, creates “then and now” photography, captures drone footage for events and real estate, and now we’ve even invested in a 360 photo booth for fun event videos.
And honestly? It’s exciting… but also scary.
Starting something before you know whether it will succeed feels a little like riding a motorcycle at night. Your headlight only shows part of the road ahead. You can’t see every turn, every bump, or exactly where you’ll end up. But you keep moving forward anyway, trusting the light you’ve been given for this moment.
That’s what faith often looks like.
Job 22:28 reminds us that there is power in stepping forward in faith and declaring what God has placed in our hearts. Not arrogance. Not pretending we control the future. But trusting that God can guide the path ahead even when we cannot fully see it yet.
We don’t know exactly where this journey with Surface 2 Sky will lead. Maybe it grows into something big. Maybe it simply becomes a blessing in smaller ways we can’t yet imagine. But sometimes faith means trying anyway. Planting anyway. Dreaming anyway. Moving forward anyway.
And trusting God to shine light on the road ahead one step at a time.
 
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Daily Inspiration from the Bible

seen differently

You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me.
- John 8:15-16
 
Last week, I shared a very personal part of my story on social media — my lifelong battle with weight. It was vulnerable and honestly a little scary to put out there, because people can be cruel, even when they don’t realize the lasting impact of their words.
I’ve struggled with my weight since before I was even a teenager. I know what it feels like to be judged by appearance before people ever know your heart. I remember wearing an outfit my freshman year of high school that I thought was cute — soft lavender, something that made me feel confident for once. Instead, I got mocked and called “grape ape” by other students.
Those kinds of moments stick with you.
I also became very familiar with backhanded compliments like, “You have such a pretty face,” or “You’re beautiful inside.” Even when people didn’t mean harm, it reinforced the feeling that I was being measured by human standards and found lacking.
The truth is, people are often quick to judge what they can see on the outside. Jesus understood that better than anyone. In today’s verse, He reminds us that human judgment is flawed, shallow, and incomplete. God sees differently. He sees the heart. He sees worth where others see imperfections. He sees beloved children where the world sees labels.
And friend, that doesn’t apply only to weight. People judge jobs, appearances, mistakes, past failures, finances, families, personalities — all kinds of things. But God’s love has never been based on whether we fit someone else’s standards.
I think one of the hardest things to learn is that our value was never meant to come from the opinions of others. It comes from the One who created us.
So if words from your past still echo in your mind sometimes, remember this: people may define you by what they see, but God defines you by who you are to Him. And His voice matters most.
 
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Daily Inspiration from the Bible

mass destruction

 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
- 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (NIV)
 
Saturday night, my husband and I took the grandkids to the demolition derby for the very first time. We came prepared — fair food plans already mapped out, little “Mickey Mouse” headphones packed to help with the noise, and enough excitement to fill the whole grandstand.
If you’ve ever been to a demolition derby, you know it’s organized chaos. Engines roaring. Metal crunching. Car parts flying. Drivers intentionally smashing into each other until only one vehicle is left moving. Between heats there was amateur wrestling that felt straight out of WWE, and honestly, the whole thing was loud, wild, and hilarious.
My granddaughter and I picked our favorite cars each round and cheered like crazy for them. Of course, our picks didn’t win most of the time (ok, ours did not win at all). By the end of the night, the cars that started shiny and whole were completely wrecked. Bent frames. Blown engines. Crumpled doors. Those cars will never be the same again.
On the drive home, I kept thinking about how life can feel a little like that sometimes. We get hit from all sides — disappointment, stress, grief, bad choices, heartbreak, exhaustion. Sometimes we even participate in our own destruction by carrying things we were never meant to hold onto.
The difference is this: when a demolition derby car is destroyed, it usually ends up in a scrapyard. But when we are broken, God doesn’t throw us away. He restores. He rebuilds. He heals what looks beyond repair.
Maybe today you feel dented up by life. Maybe your spirit feels crushed under the weight of everything happening around you. Friend, God is still in the business of restoration. What feels ruined to you is not ruined to Him.
And unlike those derby cars… through Him, we really can become new again.
 
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Daily Inspiration from the Bible

missing pieces

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.
- Proverbs 16:9
 
I raised three boys, so pigtails and Barbie dolls were never really part of my world. My house was more noise, amphibians showing up on the counter, muddy shoes, video games, and endless amounts of food disappearing from the kitchen.
My husband used to joke that it was probably a good thing we never had girls because we wouldn’t know what to do with them anyway.
And honestly, there were moments over the years when I would see mother-daughter events or walk past tiny dresses, bows, and sparkly little girl things and feel a quiet sadness. Not overwhelming grief, just one of those little missing pieces in life I assumed I would never experience.
But God.
Years ago, when my son took a friend’s daughter to senior prom “just as friends,” her mom invited me to go prom dress shopping with them. And suddenly there I was in the middle of a frilly, laughter-filled day of dresses, shoes, accessories, excitement, and memories I never thought I would get to have.
At the time, I thought maybe God was simply letting me borrow a beautiful moment.
But God wasn’t finished yet.
Now I have this amazing woman and granddaughter in my life, and suddenly I do get to enjoy those things. I get to buy the pink froo-froo stuff. I get to enjoy the sparkles, the little girl moments, the laughter, the sweet memories I once thought would always belong to someone else.
And looking back now, I can see something important:
sometimes God fills the missing pieces in ways we never could have planned for ourselves.
Life does not always unfold according to our expectations. Some prayers are answered differently than we imagined. Some dreams arrive through side doors we never noticed before.
But God sees the quiet places in our hearts too.
He knows the things we never say out loud. The little disappointments. The silent longings. The pieces we think are permanently missing.
And somehow, in His goodness, He has a way of weaving beauty into places we thought would always stay empty.
Maybe not always the way we expected.
But often in ways that become even more meaningful.
 
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Daily Inspiration from the Bible

tiny things

Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.
- Zechariah 4:10a (NLT)
 
Babies are tiny.
Tiny fingers. Tiny toes. Tiny cries in the middle of the night that somehow completely change your entire world forever.
But they don’t stay tiny for long.
Today, I want to give a happy birthday shout out to my youngest son. I hope your day is as blessed as you made mine the day you came into this world. It feels impossible sometimes how quickly the years move. One minute you are rocking a baby to sleep, and the next you are wondering where all that time went.
Life has taught me something important though: the little moments are usually the ones that matter most.
Sometimes we think only the giant milestones count. The promotions. The big celebrations. The dramatic life-changing moments. But most of life is built from small things that quietly shape our hearts over time.
A text message from the right person on a hard day.
A hug that lasts a little longer than expected.
A prayer whispered when someone is hurting.
Someone remembering your name.
Hearing the exact worship song you needed at the exact right moment.
Someone simply sitting beside you while life hurts.
Small things become holy things.
One of my favorite movie quotes comes from Steel Magnolias:
“I would rather have thirty minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special.”
I love that line because life is not measured only in years or accomplishments. Sometimes the most meaningful moments are brief, ordinary, and easy to overlook if we are not paying attention.
Jesus often worked through small things too — loaves and fishes, mustard seeds, simple conversations, gentle touches.
Never underestimate what God can do through one small act of love.
The little things matter more than we realize.
 
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Daily Inspiration from the Bible

quiet

The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
- 1 Kings 19:11-12 (NIV)
 
Life is loud.
Notifications constantly going off. Opinions coming from every direction. Busy schedules. Work stress. Social media scrolling. Television running in the background. People talking. Music playing. News updates. Alerts. Noise everywhere.
Sometimes I don’t think we even realize how mentally exhausted we are until we finally sit in silence.
Saturday mornings used to be one of my favorite times of the week when the kids were younger. I would curl up on the couch with a cup of coffee, a good book, and usually a cat stretched out beside me while my husband and the kids were still asleep. The house would be completely quiet, and honestly, it felt peaceful in a way that’s hard to describe.
One morning, one of the kids wandered out into the living room and asked, “Do you want me to turn on the TV?”
My response may have been a little quicker — and maybe a little sharper — than I intended:
“There doesn’t always have to be noise.”
But honestly? I still think about that moment.
Because somewhere along the way, we started filling every quiet space. We reach for our phones while standing in line. We turn on background noise the second we walk into the house. We scroll while watching television while also carrying on conversations. We are constantly surrounded by input.
Yet in this passage, God was not found in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire.
He came in a gentle whisper.
I wonder how often God is speaking softly while we are too distracted to hear Him.
Not every moment needs to be filled. Not every silence needs to be fixed. Sometimes the most holy thing we can do is sit quietly in the presence of God and simply listen.
Maybe today we all need a little less noise and a little more whisper.
 
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Daily Inspiration from the Bible