Monthly Archives: April 2025

What’s Currently In My Morning Time Basket

Probably my most favorite topic to talk about on my blog is a morning time routine. I am so convinced that a morning time routine is the best way to grow in our relationship with God that I have a hard time not talking about it. And of course, if I’m talking morning time routine, I have to talk about my morning time routine basket.

Thirty-to-THRIVE System

Not familiar with a morning time routine? The system Matt and I teach is called 30-to-THRIVE. It’s a thirty-minute routine for reading your Bible, praying, journaling, and reading a book. It looks like this:

First 10 Minutes

The first ten minutes is for reading your Bible or a devotional. I am currently loving the devotionals from Daily Grace Co. Of course, I’m also a fan of the devotionals that we write as well. You can find those at Manney Resources.

Second 10 MInutes

This time is used for journaling for both prayer and application for what you read. For the prayer time, I write down at least three things I’m grateful for. Then I write down things I need to confess. Lastly, I write down my requests. Then I take the time to pray through each of those things.

After that, I write down anything that stood out to me from my Bible reading time. It may be a verse, a thought, or just something that stood out to me that I don’t want to forget.

Third 10 Minutes

The last set of ten minutes is set aside for reading a book. I read something inspirational, spiritual, or a book that I can learn from.

That is the 30-to-THRIVE system in a nutshell. If you want to see this process broken down into greater detail, check out my free Morning Time Routine Course.

My Morning Time Basket

I have found the easiest thing for me to keep all my supplies in one place is to put them all in my morning time basket. That way I’m not spending time each morning trying to find my Bible or a pen or anything else I might need.

So what’s currently in my morning time basket?

1. My Bible.

I currently use this NLT Bible from Amazon. I’m probably close to getting another one sometime soon. This one is pretty marked up and ready to be saved for one of my kids to have one day. So I will start another one soon.

2. My Journal

I use this Faithfully Stepping Journal every single morning. Matt and I created them, so I’m obviously a little biased; but I love these journals. It’s exactly what I need each morning.

Each journal has a section at the top for prayer and includes sections for gratitude, confession, and requests. Next is a section for writing down anything that stood out to me during my Bible reading. Lastly, there’s a section to write down any tasks that come to mind that I don’t want to forget.

3. My Current Read

I am currently reading The Time Saving Mom by Crystal Paine and loving it. It’s so practical and exactly what I need right now. I just finished Mostly What God Does by Savannah Guthrie; that was a really good book as well.

4. My Current Bible Study

I am working on a Bible study that I hope to have out by the end of this year or early next year on the book of Job. So I have a spiral-bound notebook in my basket that I’m using for that study.

5. My Pens

Of course, you can’t have a morning time basket without pens. These Pilot G2 Gel pens are the newest pens in my basket. The other pens I have are all PaperMate gel pens in different styles and colors. I love colored pens for my morning time; it keeps things fresh because I change out the color every single morning.

6. Thank you Cards

I have a pack of thank you cards in my basket. It’s the best place to keep them because if I’m going to write a thank-you note, I usually think about it first thing in the morning with my to-do list for the day. So I get it done right then.

7. My Next Daily Grace Co. Study

I have a bible study in my basket that I’m saving for vacation in a few weeks, so it’s in my basket as well.

8. Bookmarks

I always keep a few bookmarks in my basket. I use them in the books I read as part of my morning time. I also always keep one in my Bible for underlining. I am currently loving the bookmarks from SJWonderlandz. They’re not spiritual, but they’re bookish. So I always have a few of those on hand.

9. Gratitude Journal

We made gratitude journals at the beginning of the year, and I keep mine in my basket. I don’t write in it every day; I do that in my Faithfully Stepping Journal every morning. I save my gratitude journal for bigger things–events, things I want to remember, answers to prayer, etc.

So, that’s it–a peek inside my morning time basket. Do you use a morning time basket. If so, what’s in yours?

Believe Again: Easter Hope for Everyday Faith

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Unbelief

Sometimes, we’re really hard on Thomas. I mean his nickname is “Doubting Thomas,” so it’s kind of warranted. But it’s interesting that it wasn’t just Thomas who doubted. The disciples also doubted.

After his resurrection, Jesus appears first to Mary Magdalene.

After Jesus rose from the dead early on Sunday morning, the first person who saw him was Mary Magdalene, the woman from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went to the disciples, who were grieving and weeping, and told them what had happened. But when she told them that Jesus was alive and she had seen him, they didn’t believe her.

Mark 16:9-11 NLT

Mary Magdalene told the disciples that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, but they didn’t believe her. Next, Jesus appears to two of his followers as they travel. He walks with them and talks with them. They hurry to tell the others, but they don’t believe them.

Afterward he appeared in a different form to two of his followers who were walking from Jerusalem into the country. They rushed back to tell the others, but no one believed them.

Mark 16:12,13 NLT

Stubborn Unbelief

Jesus told them exactly what would happen, and they had eye witness accounts of his resurrection. Yet, they chose not to believe. When Jesus finally shows himself to the disciples, he rebukes them for their unbelief. Not only does He call it unbelief, He calls it stubborn unbelief.

Still later he appeared to the eleven disciples as they were eating together. He rebuked them for their stubborn unbelief because they refused to believe those who had seen him after he had been raised from the dead.

Mark 16:14 NLT

Failing to Believe

How did the people who got to actually see Jesus and hear his teaching and know Him personally doubt in the end? If their faith wasn’t strong enough; there’s no hope for my faith.

So much in the Gospels comes back to belief. Jesus healed or didn’t heal based on people’s belief. All of his healing and his teaching kept coming back to belief.

It’s not so different in our lives all these years later. God wants to work in our lives, but He still does that work according to our belief or unbelief. I wonder if far too often, God doesn’t do something in our lives simply because we fail in this area of believing.

Choose to Believe

As we celebrate Good Friday today and Easter on Sunday, it’s a good time to reflect on what Jesus did for us. But let’s take it further than that. Let’s choose not to be like the disciples who missed what was in front of them. Let’s not let the struggles and difficulties of life make us doubt God’s goodness and love. The same Jesus who died on the cross and rose for us is the same Jesus who is still walking beside us today. Let’s believe in his goodness and trust that the same God who rose from the dead is the same God who will take care of me today.

More Encouragement

For more encouragement, check out my post, When Everything Changed for Mary, and She Could Hope Again or check out Matt’s book, Six Days to Sunday, an Easter devotional.

Flowers and the Father’s Love

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Making Flower Arrangements

On Sunday, my family and I showed up at our local produce store and spent about ten minutes picking out several dozen flowers for our ladies’ event. After church, we put all the flowers out on a table, along with vases and decorations from the dollar store. After lunch, we all gathered around the tables and picked which flowers we wanted and went to work decorating vases and filling them with flowers.

It was really fun. In fact, I had such a great time, I did the same thing on Thursday with my kids as a part of school. We went back to our produce store and bought more flowers, and then went back to Dollar Tree for vases and ribbon. They each got to make a vase of flowers and then had to do a nature study sheet with a sketch and label for each flower they chose.

So Uniquely Different

There are now several vases of flowers scattered around our house, and I have to say I love it more than I thought I would. There’s something about choosing which flowers you love and creating your own arrangement of them that’s just so fun. Each of my kids created their own set of flowers that are similar (because we all pulled from the same flowers) and yet so completely different. And each of them is highly satisfied with their arrangement.

Every time I see one of the vases of flowers we created, it brings a smile to my face; and it fills my heart with praise and gratitude. It’s such a small thing, but it makes my heart happy.

God’s View of Us

It makes me think of how God must feel when He looks at each of us, His perfect creations. Each one of us is similar in that we are all made of flesh and blood and in God’s image, and yet, we are all so incredibly different as well.

When He made you, He didn’t make any mistakes. He made you exactly how He wanted you to be, and that brings Him incredible joy.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

Psalm 139:14 NLT

Grab Some Flowers

So this is my encouragement to you today. First, go grab some flowers from a produce store (for cheap) and gather a few friends, family members, neighbors, ladies from church, and make your own arrangements. It’s so fun! You won’t regret it.

If that doesn’t work for you, snag a bouquet of flowers from the store. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Put them out somewhere where you can see them throughout the day and be reminded of the fact that God loves you so very much. He created you uniquely different from anybody else in the world. He made you, you. And He is really proud of His creation.

More Encouragement

For more encouragement, check out my post, Finding Freedom from Comparing Ourselves or check out David Jeremiah’s book, God Loves You: He Always Has, He Always Will.

It’s Not How You Start, It’s How You Finish

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We spent a few hours yesterday at a track meet for one of the girls from our church. We had a great time cheering her and her teammates on. There were competitors from four different schools. Some of them would fly around the track; others would struggle and fall a lap or two behind. But they all had one thing in common. They all finished the race. Not a single competitor didn’t cross the finish line.

Finish the Race

No matter what position they came in, no matter how far behind they were, they always finished. Sometimes it would be a sole competitor running an entire lap by themself because everybody else had already crossed the finish line. And yet, when those stragglers came into view, every person–whether in the stands or runners on the field–would start cheering for them as if they were going to win the race. It was pretty amazing. Teammates and opposing teams alike would stand on the sidelines and clap and cheer them on to the finish line.

Why? Why would they do that? Even when they were dead last? Because they finished. Each runner out there and every parent in the stands knows how much hard work goes into training and then running out there and giving it your all. So when each player simply finished the race, it was like they received a standing ovation.

It’s How You Finish that Counts

There’s a powerful lesson to be learned here. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish or that you finish at all. It’s the same in the Christian race; it’s not how you start, it’s not the stumbles and falls you had along the way, it’s how you finish the race that counts.

Paul understood this principle. He often spoke of the Christian life as a race, and he was proud of the way he had run his race. He stayed faithful and finished his race, and he would receive the rewards for that.

As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near.I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.

II Timothy 4:6-8

Handicaps for Racing

There was another thing I noticed sitting there yesterday. Some runners seemed to have an unfair advantage. They were tall with lean bodies and long legs that ate up the track. Then there were others that were much shorter and had to work even harder to run as fast. They seemed to take two strides for every one stride the taller athletes took. And yet, they weren’t given any special help or conditions. They had to run just like everybody else, and they had to finish. Some of them even beat out the taller, longer legged runners.

Sometimes, we are given handicaps along our race; handicaps that make it harder for us to run. Those around us may be running just fine, but our handicap is slowing us down. Those handicaps may come in the form of financial struggles, health problems, chronic pain, addictions, mental health struggles, infertility, single-hood, divorce, loss of a loved one…the list goes on and on. And yet, in spite of those handicaps, we still have a race to run; we have to still finish.

Running with Endurance

Paul tells us what we have to do. We have to get rid of the weights that slow us down and the sins that trip us up and then run with endurance, no matter what handicaps we have.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

Hebrews 12:1

It seems like an impossible task–running this race of life with handicaps and still expected to finish. How do we do it? How do we find that endurance when life is so hard at times? Paul didn’t leave us without an answer. It comes in the next verse.

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.

Hebrews 12:2

Focusing on Jesus

We run with endurance, handicaps and all, by keeping our focus on Jesus and remembering that He gave everything, so that we could have eternal life. As we run, we focus on the fact that one day, we will see him face to face.

We also run with endurance by remembering the cloud of witnesses in heaven, looking down on us. They are those who have run their race ahead of ours and have finished. Now they watch us run ours, and are cheering from the grand stands of Heaven.

Finish Your Race

You may feel tired today; you may feel like your handicaps have cost you the race. Or maybe sin and its destruction has kept you from even running. It’s not too late. Paul gives us these encouraging words.

So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees.^.Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.

Hebrews 12:12,13

It’s time to get back in the race today. If you’re already in the race, this is your encouragement to keep going. Keep running towards Jesus; keep your eyes on the prize. Stay faithful. Remember that it’s not how you start the race, it’s how you finish.

One day, we will finish our race. We will stand before God and give account of our lives. Will we face God with regret? Or with joy, knowing we ran the race He gave us and we didn’t give up. We finished.

More Encouragement

For more encouragement, check out my post, The One Guarantee if You Quit.