What I Was Really Writing About This Week

At first, this week’s devotionals seemed to be about five different things.

On Sunday, I was writing about oversharing and the uncomfortable moment when I realized I have told someone more than I intended.

On Monday, I was thinking about how easy it is to rush through ordinary days while waiting for an important one to arrive.

Tuesday brought me to love, not simply the beautiful promises spoken at a wedding, but the love we keep choosing afterward.

By Wednesday, I was thinking about how difficult it can sometimes be to simply receive something good.

And yesterday, with Christopher and Sarah’s wedding getting very close, I found myself thinking about celebration and how I don’t want to become so practiced at surviving that I forget how to enjoy what is good.

Five different subjects.

But when I looked back over the week, I realized they had all been circling the same question:

What am I giving access to my heart and attention right now?

Maybe that is what God has been asking me to notice this week.

Not whether I can perfectly balance everything.

Not whether I can finally become organized enough, disciplined enough, calm enough, or spiritually focused enough to manage every part of life equally well.

But whether I am paying attention to what deserves access to me in this particular moment.

Sunday: Not Everyone Needs Access to Every Part of Me

Sunday’s reflection began with something very familiar to me: realizing after a conversation that I had shared more than I meant to.

When I Share More Than I Meant To →

I wrote about Proverbs 4:23:

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”

Proverbs 4:23, NRSVUE

The verse is not specifically about oversharing, and I don’t want to make it say something it doesn’t.

But it does remind me that my inner life deserves care.

I can be honest without telling everyone everything.

I can be openhearted without making every vulnerable part of my story available to every person.

That was the first lesson of the week:

Presence sometimes requires a boundary.

Before I can be fully present somewhere, I may need to recognize where parts of me do not belong.

Monday: The Days Before the Important Day Are Still My Life

Monday came with a very different realization.

Christopher’s wedding was seven days away.

I could easily have treated everything between Monday and the wedding as preparation time as days to get through before the day that really mattered.

Except I was away helping my daughter with the children.

My days looked ordinary.

Meals. Toys. Little voices. Helping. Being Mom. Being Grammy.

And suddenly the ordinary did not feel unimportant at all.

When the Ordinary Days Are Part of the Blessing →

Psalm 90:12 became the prayer underneath that reflection:

“So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.”

Psalm 90:12, NRSVUE

I cannot keep treating today’s life as the hallway I walk through to reach tomorrow’s life.

The wedding matters deeply to me.

But so did Monday.

So did the little conversations.

So did being needed.

So did the ordinary moments that nobody photographed or planned months in advance.

That became the second lesson:

Presence means refusing to dismiss today simply because something important is coming tomorrow.

Tuesday: Love Is What Happens After the Beautiful Moment

By Tuesday, my thoughts had moved toward the wedding itself.

I will have the privilege of standing in front of my son and Sarah while they make promises to one another.

That is a beautiful thing.

But after more than three decades of marriage myself, I know the wedding is not the part that asks the most of love.

The ordinary days afterward are.

When Love Becomes a Promise →

Colossians 3 took me beyond romantic ideas about love and back to the way Christ calls us to live with one another:

Compassion.

Kindness.

Humility.

Patience.

Forgiveness.

Love.

Those words were written to a Christian community, not specifically to married couples.

And perhaps that is why they matter so much.

The people closest to us do not only need our love during beautiful moments.

They need it when we are tired.

When we misunderstand each other.

When someone’s needs interrupt our plans.

When forgiveness costs something.

When patience would be easier to talk about than practice.

Tuesday reminded me:

Presence is one of the ways love becomes visible.

It is difficult to love the person in front of me when all of my attention is somewhere else.

Wednesday: Sometimes I Need to Stop Bracing

Then Wednesday brought a quieter realization.

I know how to prepare for difficulty.

Sometimes I am much better at that than I am at receiving something good.

When God Gives You Something Beautiful, Let Yourself Receive It →

James 1:17 reminded me that goodness does not need to be distrusted simply because life has also contained disappointment.

I do not mean that Christians should expect everything to work out exactly as we want.

Scripture does not promise that.

I mean something simpler.

When something is good, I can thank God for it.

I can enjoy it without immediately searching for the problem.

I can receive love without wondering what I did to earn it.

I can experience a peaceful moment without using it to prepare for the next difficult one.

That was Wednesday’s lesson:

Presence sometimes means letting the good moment be good.

Thursday: Christ Is Present in Celebration Too

Yesterday’s reflection brought everything even closer to the wedding.

I found myself smiling over one very simple detail in John 2:

Jesus went to a wedding.

I Don’t Want to Become So Good at Surviving That I Forget to Celebrate →

The wedding at Cana is far more than evidence that Jesus attended a celebration. John’s Gospel presents what happens there as the first sign through which Jesus reveals His glory.

I don’t want to reduce that passage to “Jesus wants us to have fun.”

But it did make me recognize something about my own faith.

I know how to look for Christ when I am hurting.

I know how to pray when I am frightened.

I know how to ask for strength when something feels impossible.

I know how to come to Him when I need help surviving.

But Christ is not absent when there is something worth celebrating.

I can thank Him there too.

Thursday’s lesson became:

I don’t have to wait until something hurts to turn toward God.

And Then I Saw the Thread

Boundaries.

Ordinary moments.

Love.

Receiving.

Celebration.

They looked like separate subjects when I was living them one day at a time.

Looking back, I see how connected they are.

Presence is not merely slowing down.

It is learning what deserves access to my heart.

It is noticing the day I am actually living.

It is giving the person in front of me my attention.

It is receiving goodness without immediately preparing for its disappearance.

And it is remembering that God is worthy of my attention in joy as surely as He is in sorrow.

Perhaps that is why this week’s reflections unfolded the way they did.

I am only days away from a moment our family has been anticipating for months.

There are still things to remember.

There are still details.

There are still responsibilities that genuinely need attention.

But I don’t want every unfinished task to have the same access to me as the people I love.

The people are why the preparations matter in the first place.

That may be the sentence I most need to carry into these final days.

What I Want to Remember Going Into This Weekend

I do not need to share everything.

I do not need to rush through today.

I do not need love to look perfect in order for it to be real.

I do not need to distrust something simply because it is good.

And I do not need a crisis before I recognize Christ’s presence.

There will always be something else I could think about.

Something else I could prepare.

Something else I could improve.

Something else I could worry about forgetting.

But my life is happening while I am thinking about all of those things.

I want to be here for it.

A Few Questions for the End of the Week

What received most of my attention this week?

Did it deserve as much of me as I gave it?

Where did I need a boundary?

What ordinary moment am I glad I did not miss?

Who loved me well this week?

Was there something good I had trouble simply receiving?

What can I thank God for—not because everything is perfect, but because something was genuinely good?

And what do I want to carry differently into next week?

A Prayer at the End of This Week

Jesus,

Thank You for meeting me in more places than I sometimes recognize.

You are present when I need wisdom about my boundaries.

You are present in ordinary days.

You are present in the relationships that ask me to practice patience, compassion, forgiveness, and love.

You are present when something good comes into my life.

And You are present when there is reason to celebrate.

Help me notice where my attention is going.

Give me wisdom about what deserves access to my heart and what does not.

Keep me from rushing past the life I am actually living.

When love is in front of me, help me be present for it.

When goodness comes, help me receive it with gratitude.

And when there is reason for joy, teach me that celebration belongs in a life with You too.

Thank You for this week.

For what was ordinary.

For what was difficult.

For what was beautiful.

And for Your presence through all of it.

Amen.

Continue Walking With Me

If you missed one of this week’s reflections, you can begin wherever your own life feels closest right now:

When I Share More Than I Meant To →
For the person learning that honesty and full access are not the same thing.

When the Ordinary Days Are Part of the Blessing →
For the person who keeps waiting for the next important thing.

When Love Becomes a Promise →
For anyone thinking about what Christlike love looks like after the beautiful moments.

When God Gives You Something Beautiful, Let Yourself Receive It →
For the person who knows how to brace for difficulty but finds goodness harder to trust.

I Don’t Want to Become So Good at Surviving That I Forget to Celebrate →
For the person learning that Christ can be sought in celebration as well as struggle.

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A Resource for Your Own Reflection

If you would like to spend some time looking back over what God has been showing you, the 30 Prayer Journaling Prompts for the Weary Heart can help you slow your thoughts down and bring what you are carrying honestly into prayer.

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