Tag: safe spaces

  • Preparing Our Hearts for Hope

    Advent invites us into a season of waiting, listening, and watching for the God who comes near. Hope is not a fragile wish or a thin optimism about the future. Hope is the confident assurance that God is who He says He is and that He will do what He has promised. For many of…

  • Surrendered Seasons, Eternal Seeds

    There is a moment in the sunflower’s life when it stops turning its face toward the sun. Its petals fade, its bright crown softens, and its head begins to bow low to the earth. This is the stage known as senescence, the final phase of the sunflower’s life cycle. It begins only after the seeds…

  • Beholding the Light, Becoming the Light

    There is a moment in the life of a sunflower when all the quiet, hidden work beneath the surface begins to reveal itself. After months of rooting, stretching, strengthening, and turning toward the sun, the flower enters a phase called anthesis. It is the season when the sunflower fully blooms. Its face is open. Its…

  • When the Soul Forgets to Turn

    Every sunflower begins its life by learning to turn toward the sun. In its young and tender stages, it follows the light faithfully from east to west, letting the warmth guide its growth and strengthen its stem. But there are times when a sunflower becomes weighed down by weather, wind, or the sheer heaviness of…

  • Following the Son

    There is something quietly beautiful about a sunflower’s daily rhythm. At dawn it lifts its face toward the light, and then, without hurry or strain, it follows the sun as it moves across the sky. Scientists call this heliotropism, but the spiritual parallel is what captures me because underneath that gentle turning is a truth…

  • Preparing the Soil

    (Matthew 13:3–9, 18–23) While preparing to lead a women’s retreat up in New Hampshire – a gathering themed around sunflowers – I’ve found that God has just as much to show me about my own heart as He does about the beautiful plants we’re learning from. Sunflowers may be known for their bright faces and…

  • Safe Spaces and Sacred Moments

    Bible open and coffee fresh, I take a deep breath, letting the crisp mountain air fill my lungs. Buena Vista, Colorado, is one of my favorite places in the world—no picture could ever capture its full beauty. As the sun rises, lighting up the snow-capped peaks, I sit in awe of the glory and majesty…

  • Investing In Safety

    How amazing it is to be able to meet young mamas. They are all abustle about their children at whatever stage they are at. Life feels so FRESH to them… hard at times but also exciting. It has been a gift to be invited to speak into their season, encouraging them with what we “older”…