It’s been nearly a full year since I last posted here. Sure, there are drafts that are piled up a whole lot like the January snow that is piling up outside of my window, but it just wasn’t the time to share them. Much of last year was spent with my head down, sowing my field of writing dreams. The result of that intentional time of saving my words instead of sharing them? A few things. First:

The 2022 edition of Dear Monday: a Devotional Planner for Scripture-Diggers, features 52 brand new devotionals and an entire year’s worth of daily quotes, insights, and explanatory notes surrounding the weekly verse (plus the monthly calendar, daily to-do list with built-in Bible reading plan, and a dozen new quiet time tips)!

If you had the 2020 planner, you remember that the theme for it was Isaiah 43:19 and God’s promise to do a new thing. An unprecedented thing. An entirely unheard-of thing. (Wild theme for such an unprecedented year, right?! 🤯)

And this new theme? It’s rooted in Psalm 33:3 and singing a new song. It’s the kind of spontaneous singing you do when God performs His new-thing miracle and the kind you have to force when you’re still in the stretched-out wait for it. And it’s the kind of daily, deliberate decision to change your worn-out tune, shift your perspective, and allow His strength to become your song.

I was just joking with my husband the other day that I’m not even sure what’s on these pages, as I’ve written it in 45 and 90-minute spurts between early mornings and nap-times and raising three miracle-babes four years and younge. But God kept popping up word patterns in references and lexicons, so I kept following the trails and stitching the words. And He pulled it all together in that miracle-way that He has about Him.

I sure love it when He does that. Want to give it a test drive?

And the next field over? It’s the e-course I’ve spent over a year writing.

(Hint: be the first to know when enrollment opens by signing up here!)

And my last sowing-field for 2021? It was the Quiet Time Binder that is about to hit Kickstarter in one week! But I’ll tell you all about that project in a couple of days.

First? A story. If you’ve read my book, Mercy Like Morning, this is a familiar one for you:

I stood in Shawna’s kitchen, looking at photographs on the refrigerator as she expertly pulled shots from the espresso machine in the corner. The motor hummed and the caramel-colored liquid trickled out. She poured it into a cup of ice before topping it off with a swirl of canned whipped cream and a quick finish of sprinkled cinnamon.

Handing the glass to me and keeping one for herself, she led me into the living room and we took our perch on the well-worn, deep purple couch. Kaleb was stirring in his crib upstairs, not yet asleep. And Shawna began asking the kind of questions you ask someone in the throes of a brand-new discipleship-based friendship.

Where are you from?

Do you have any siblings?

What is your major?

Tell me your life story.

This happened once a week—this sharing of learned life lessons. Week by week, we sat there swallowed up in her couch, reading different parts of the Bible alongside commentaries for explanation and insight and application. Shawna knew well that she didn’t have to be a Bible teacher in order to disciple-teach.

Natural conversation followed. The simplest ones that always lead to the deeper ones. The ones that have grit and meaning.

The ones that stick to your bones.

“Dig your well,” Shawna said one day. I had been lamenting my struggle through singleness when the pastor’s wife taught me her most important life lesson.

It was a reference from Psalm 84:6 and the people who pilgrim-pass  through the Valley of Baca and make it a spring—or, as it can also be translated, a well. The pilgrims traveling through drew water from that spring-well before continuing on their way. 

“Dig your well for yourself,” she said, “and also for the people who follow along after you. And do it now, while you are single and can dig a little bit deeper and linger a little bit longer.” She had a point. I really had nothing else to do but pass the hours drinking coffee, studying for exams, working my part-time job, and dreaming of how the rest of my life would shape up.

 Shawna had been digging her own well for years with regular quiet times, letting God fill it with the water of His Word. And on those afternoons, I sipped her handmade iced coffee and drank from her dug-out-well wisdom.

Of all the things she taught me, that was what stuck. To dig down—and dig deep. Every day, coming to God’s presence whether or not I wanted to, whether or not I had the time or the inclination. In the good days and the ones full of tears. Dig in and dig down and dig deep into His Word. So that when life got busy, and there was marriage and a mortgage and little ones at my morning-feet, I could draw from my dug-out-daily well.

And when I walked through the desert, I could drink from it.

Those words became a life-song for me since the moment Shawna spoke them 21 years ago. I’ve taught thousands of women to sing the same song. And today? I’m thrilled to say that it has officially become an extension of my brand and an integral part of my ministry.

Dig Your Well is officially trademarked! 🤩 🎉 I have created an entirely new website for the brand that’s dedicated to all of my books, studies, and quiet time tools and will be making it live in just a couple of days!

Make sure to follow along on Instagram for the countdown to the Kickstarter launch! In the meantime, Happy New Year!