I haven’t shared a poem on the blog in…a very long time. Let’s change that today, shall we?I’ve come to find that I love referencing seasons and months in my poetry, and this poem reflects that. I hope it can be an encouragement to you.🫶🏼
One of my dear friends started a book club, and we’re reading through this one! I’ve really been enjoying this reread…Nicole Deese has such a lovely way of wording things.
This is a short story, and Caitlin doesn’t waste a single word. This was a beautifully written and powerful read…plus it’s free for her newsletter subscribers!
The secret of joy is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.
Elisabeth Elliot
From the journal…
I think of how I have come to recognize the voices of singers…by repeated listening. May I repeatedly listen to and choose Your song, O Lord!
Don’t let me despise the small, weighty quietness of this season.
Deepen my trust in and remembrance of Your goodness and mercy, for they do pursue me each and every day of my life. I have exchanged vows with You that extend infinitely beyond the veil of death, and have covenanted with the God-Man whose Word has never returned void.
My deepest vocation is to be a witness to the glimpses of God I have been allowed to catch.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commission…at no extra cost to you.:)
Beauty Even Here records a weariness familiar to many: one of aching restlessness on a stretch of unwanted road. But often it is that road, running through the depths of our grief and near despair, that can lead us to catch clearer glimpses of God’s goodness in our waiting, His steadfast love in the midst of our suffering, and the glimmers of hope He tucks in the cracks of our shattered dreams and expectations.
Laced with nature imagery and alternating between cadenced pieces and freestyle poetry, this cathartic collection is for the weary Christian, and seeks to offer a fresh yet deeply honest way of seeing our seasons of prolonged pain for what they are: an opportunity to long deeper still for another world, and to see more clearly the heart and love of Christ.
✨Coming August 26th, 2025✨
I can’t wait to share this collection with you!! Preorders will be opening soon, so stay tuned.🫶🏼
Release day for my upcoming poetry collection is less than two and a half months away,and I’m looking for a group of people who…
love finding beauty in the tiniest corners of life
want to see my poetry make its way a little farther in the world
can commit to helping me spread the word online about my upcoming poetry release
could go for a good bookish freebie or two (but hey, isn’t that all of us??)
If that describes you, you may be interested in joining my street team! I’ve linked the application below, and there you can find some more details about what being a street team member would entail.
That’s it for today, friends! Regardless of whether or not you’re able to commit to joining the street team, I am so grateful for your readership and your support. Thank you for being here!🫶🏼
A few weeks ago I was FaceTiming a friend, very messily eating my noodle soup and rambling about how much I missed blogs and blogging.
Blogs were such a joy for my teenage self, both as a creative outlet and as a means by which I could be encouraged and inspired by other women I would never have been able to “know” otherwise. I was by no means a perfect teenager (HA!), but the intentionality and convictions I did possess were fueled and shaped in part by the blogs I read. I’m so grateful for them.
In my corner of the writing world, however, blogging isn’t a huge deal anymore. So much of it now is all about building a thriving IG community, creating digital resources, and putting out consistent newsletters.
I miss the days of rambling blog posts, of not trying to sum up a complicated thought process in a way that will capture a short attention span, of posts that read more like a letter from a friend than a best-foot-forward scramble for likes and engagement.
(Don’t get me wrong…social media has so many perks, but lately I’ve been seeing more of its detrimental effects, both on my attention span, my time management, and even the way I want to spend my time. I don’t like it at all, and I’m trying to figure out what my use of it should look like going forward.
Anyway.)
I so miss blogging…so what if I tried doing it again? The way I used to, but, you know, hopefully better? Much better??
“You should do it,”my friend said, without batting an eye. “If you’ve thought about it this much, you should just do it.”
I knew she was right, but then the second-guessing came in.
But I’m a mess!
I’m not qualified.
I don’t know what I’m doing…I really don’t know what I’m doing.
But Ikind of feel like I should start blogging again.
I got to chat with a friend on a hike the other day, and in talking about something completely unrelated to my hesitations about blogging, she shared about part of the exchange between Moses and God at the burning bush…
But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? So He [God] said, “I will certainly be with you.”
exodus 3:11-12a
Moses’ qualifications for the way in which God wanted him to walk did not lie within himself, but in God’s presence and calling.
I will forever, on this side of eternity, be a mess.
I will forever be unqualified in some way.
I will forever be still learning the ropes of my current season.
But I feel convicted to start blogging again…to write through and about what I’m navigating in this gloriously wild chapter of life. That includes but is not limited to:
Living singleness well, undistracted and wholly for Jesus
Stewarding my time well
Cooking for one (or for a mob; there is rarely an in-between)
Knowing and loving more deeply the heart of my precious Savior
Being a better friend
Reading across a few different genres…okay, a lot
Doing my work well – whether as an employee or as a writer
Carpe-ing the diem
Hear me clearly: I really don’t know what I’m doing, and I think I may be more aware of that than ever. I am young and inexperienced in so many ways, but if I can bring a bit of encouragement, hope, a feeling of being understood, or even just a good laugh to someone in this corner of the internet, I will be happy.
I’ll be writing primarily with an audience of women my own age or younger in mind, but I hope that my posts can be a blessing in some way to any woman who stumbles across this blog.
So.✨
Let me know in the comments if there’s a certain topic (or two or three) that I listed above that most interests you, and I just may let the feedback determine the next post!
Let your care and wish be to glorify God by your life here as long as He pleases, even though it be in the midst of toil, and conflict, and suffering, and leave Him to say when “it is enough”.
charles spurgeon
Things worth remembering…
finding rue anemone in the woods
a small road trip with my mom
COUSIN TIME!!!
guacamole
blossoms on the tree in the front yard
Reading Poppletonand Alfie with the aforementioned cousin
a random child at the lake sitting down next to me while I was reading
printing off a copy of Beauty Even Here for edits (!!!)
experiencing the temporary tattoo parlor that popped up around the dining room table one night
finding a solution for my lack of bookshelves problem…three cheers for double decker coffee tables!
watching Mrs. Miniver with Grandma and finding that it’s a new favorite
This was the final book in the If I Run Christian mystery and suspense trilogy. I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the first two…it got into the mind of one of the villains while he was doing his bad things and that’s something I personally don’t care for. I was grateful for resolution at last, though!!😅
Disclaimer: due to thematic elements, I personally will not recommend this series to anyone younger than 18.
I got a hundred pages in (it’s ginormous!!) and it just wasn’t clicking with me yet so I set it down. I definitely want to come back to this one of these days because I’ve enjoyed the previous two books in The Chronicles of Elira, but I guess that day is not today!
Ahhh!!! I’m so glad I’m finally into this book. It’s a YA thriller, and a sequel to a book I really enjoyed. The banter is so. much. fun.
The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.
Proverbs 21:1
From the journal…
My life is not my own. It rests in the hands of my omniscient, omnipotent Father, who loves me so deeply, more deeply than I can be loved by anyone else. Therefore I don’t have to wonder if there is meaning or intention in where He has me now. I don’t need to fear that I’ve somehow missed an exit or an on ramp. I am not overlooked or crowded out by other items on His to-do list.
May I pursue You as You pursue me, day after day after day, filled with Your goodness, lost in Your love.
I thank You that Your goodness and Your mercy are truly running after me every day of my life…even on the ones when I feel that I’ve botched it.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commission…at no extra cost to you.:)
Our own humour and appetite must not determine our practice, but the honour of God and the good and edification of the church. We should not so much consult our own pleasure and interest as the advancement of the kingdom of God among men.
I listened to this one in two days during work. XD I hadn’t read a thriller/suspense novel in a while, and this was a fun one to get me back into that genre. You can read my full review here!
Disclaimer: due to thematic elements, I personally will not recommend this series to anyone younger than 18.
I’ve come back to reading this one and am almost done!! It’s gotten me so interested in rowing that I’ve looked up videos of Olympic regattas on YouTube. XD
One of my dear friends released an Easter-y poetry collection this April!! I’ve been enjoying reading through it…I love both her imagery and her heart for Jesus!
and the waiting will be remembered as a very little while.
Lord…You know what must be done, and You are never short on time.
I was struck yesterday by the poetry in John’s gospel of Jesus drinking sour wine before declaring “It is finished.” He drank to the dregs the cup from which He had begged to be delivered. Thank You, thank You, my precious Jesus. “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
Oh, Father! May it be enough for me to be held in Your hand, smack-dab in the middle of Your will.
…the demand and the gift of Christ.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Stay the course!
❤ Laurel
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commission…at no extra cost to you.:)
Happy Monday, friends! And happy last day of March! It’s hard for me to believe that we’re already one-fourth of the way into 2025…I think my concept of time needs some help. XD
Anyway! Here’s a recap of this month. I always love putting these together and remembering the random wonderful (and wild!) moments that may have slipped my mind. I hope you can enjoy it a bit, too!
God is wise in heart and mighty in strength.
job 9:4a
Things worth remembering…
random FaceTime messages from my brothers
tapping season and time in the woods with siblings
quite literally spilling the tea with a dear friend
working on poetry things behind the scenes
the magic of fresh flowers in bringing homeyness to a new space
culinary adventures, in which chicken cooks faster than anticipated…numerous times
reading Bonhoeffer while babysitting the boiling sap
late night ice cream and chats with sisters
watching the grass begin to green up
setting a reading goal for myself at last and meeting it
sharing one of my favorite poems from Clarion Hope in video form
community.🫶🏼
spaghetti and a steer chases with sisters
sitting on the floor with my journal and a guitar
Lord, I would not be a citizen where Jesus was an alien.
I read this book last summer, but reread it this month, marking it up with colored pencils to gift to a sister. It was so much fun to read it again, not just to enjoy the story but to savor the beauty of the prose and the nuances of the characters’ personalities. I highly recommend…again!
I listened to the audiobook, and shocked myself by giving it five stars. XD (If you’ve been around for a bit, you know I don’t usually enjoy romances.) I appreciated the historical richness of this book and the glimpse of the moral difficulties that were faced by German Christians during WWII, and the courage with which the Bonhoeffers met them. And Dietrich’s intolerance of misunderstanding?? It delighted my soul.
I’ve started crocheting and listening to audiobooks most evenings, and I’m working through the Little House series. It was such a delight to revisit this book! It’s interesting to listen to it now, being closer to Ma and Pa’s ages, and seeing it with new (or older? Ha!) eyes. It really makes me remember just how much the ordinary moments and rhythms of life mean to young children.
I know whate’er befall me Jesus doeth all things well.
fanny Crosby
From the journal…
Jesus, I leave regrets in the Hands that work outside of time…
Nothing is too hard for the Lord…if He wants something mended or fulfilled in this moment, He will make it happen. But there has never been a circumstance in my life in which He can only sigh and say, “That’s really too bad.”
Awaken in the hearts of Your people a remembrance of the glory of Who You are. Break us out of the ruts of our self-importance…
Open eyes! Heal breaking hearts. Show us a way out of this brokenness, and show us You in the midst of it.
Is not God enough for thy need, or is His all-sufficiency too narrow for thy wants? Dost thou want another eye beside that of Him who sees every secret thing? Is His heart faint? Is His arm weary? If so, seek another God; but if He be infinite, omnipotent, faithful, true, and all-wise, why gaddest thou abroad so much to seek another confidence?
charles spurgeon
Stay the course!
❤ Laurel
P.S. If you’re newer here, here’s a reminder to sign up for my weekly newsletter! That’s where I share the majority of what I used to share on the blog…plus this week’s newsletter *may* have an announcement…👀 You can join the newsletter gang here! (You get a free short story, too.🤭)
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commission…at no extra cost to you.:)
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.
c.s. lewis
Things worth remembering…
fake snake shenanigans
having an all-sisters outing to a favorite coffee shop
finding that the instant camera I dug out of a thrift store actually works (!!!)
I enjoyed the mystery aspect of this story, but I was really disappointed with how the issue of divorce was handled so flippantly by a Christian couple. The “do I love him, do I not, should I divorce him, should I not,” was littered with Scripture references, and that really saddened me. I know that approach isn’t unrealistic in the least, but I would have appreciated a wiser character being able to bring some clarity to the situation and to the reader. Please and thank you.
(I did get invested in Hez’s story, though, and the epilogue got me, so I may give the sequel a listen when it comes out…)
He satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness.
psalm 107:9
From the journal…
The Fall came because Eve was not satisfied with the abundance God had allowed her. Oh, Jesus, let me not fall into the same trap of believing that my ways are better!
It is a gift to suffer and long deeply on this earth, for in doing so we are given a clearer picture of the brokenness of this world and our sinful nature, and our desire for our Redeemer and Savior is strengthened in a way that those who know little trial can only dream of. Thank You for this opportunity, Lord, to know just how deep Your love for me runs.
Let me expect my daily sustenance from You and You alone so that I may be able to love deeply and truly with no conditions.
What’s the best that could happen?
Many people, I’m sure, but one of my dearest friends in Particular 🙂
Ah, February…the month in which joy and struggle love to coexist.:) What thoughts/memories are you taking away from this past month?
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commission…at no extra cost to you.:)
Laurel Luehmann 