Dave and I stopped into a favorite old-time soda shop on our trip last week. The kind of place that still makes hand-scooped shakes, malts, and sodas the real way: actual ice cream and a long spoon, because it's so thick you need the spoon.

We indulged. Completely.

And sitting there, I kept thinking: it's these small things. Memories you've made before and choose to make again. The particular joy of being close enough to someone to share something ordinary together.

Connection you can only get one way: by showing up, in person, close enough to sneak a taste.

What’s Been On My Heart

There's a part of you no one sees.

You know which part I mean.

The corner of your heart you've kept quiet and carefully managed. Perhaps for years. Long enough that you started to believe it had been resolved.

This week, God uncovered something in my own inner heart that I thought I'd dealt with long ago. And when he did, I felt genuine sorrow. Not shame. Sorrow. The kind that comes when you realize you've been carrying something you didn't even know was still there.

Here's what I've come to trust about moments like that: God doesn't expose what's hidden to condemn you. He reveals what's hidden in an act of love, because God loves you too much to leave you stuck with it.

Hebrews 4:12–13 in The Message says it this way:

"His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon's scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. Nothing and no one is impervious to God's Word. We can't get away from it — no matter what."

A surgeon's scalpel. Not a weapon. A tool. Used by someone who knows exactly where the damage is and what it will take to heal it.

Dear one, the Holy Spirit's work in your heart is not punishment. It is precision.

Whatever is rising in you right now, the anger you've tried to outpace, the fear tucked under busyness, the question you're afraid to say out loud, God sees it. He has always seen it. And he is not finished with you.

He cares more about your wholeness than your comfort.

Something for You

When something comes up in your inner heart, the question isn't just What is this. It's What do I do with it now?

Early in my own recovery, my counselor gave me a set of journal prompts that changed the way I processed pain. Instead of pushing things back down, I started bringing them into the light, one honest answer at a time. This week, I want to give you those same prompts.

👉 The Crisis Processing Journal​

Let it be a conversation between you and God, not an assignment to complete. Just you, him, and the truth he already knows.

🙏🏻 A Prayer for You

Dear God, thank you for always seeking Reader's good. You love Reader so much that Jesus died for them. Use Reader's current struggles to build their trust in you, God. Show them how to say what hurts and then bring it to the foot of the cross where it belongs. You promise to heal these wounds, God. Thank you for being the one who knows and heals. Amen.