March Downloads
Two prints & lock screens for when seasons shift and the things around us begin to shake.
It’s 12:17am and I can’t sleep, so I’m writing this to you. It’s not lost on me, the irony that the first monthly download of 2023 was created in a hospital room and this one, with a reminder of God’s faithfulness through every season + words about how the foundation holds even when things around us are shaking, will arrive in your inbox while dad is in surgery.
I didn’t mean for it to work out that way.
I planned to send this out on Tuesday but Life Things™️ happened and time kept on ticking.
I was going to only make the monthly print, but then I kept picturing flowers + sunlight + a specific phrase—so I designed both.
Prints and lock screens go to All The Things friends (hi guys!) but I couldn’t shake that these 6 words are for someone.
And so: Hi everyone! If you’re subscribed to All The Things, you’ll see two prints and lock screens below—the regular monthly one + the extra design I couldn’t stop thinking about. If you’re a free subscriber for Good Things (blog posts and Thursday Things), you’ll see the bonus print and lock screen! I suppose I could have held onto it until the next TT email, but, well, the timing doesn’t feel like an accident. I’m sure I’ll need the phrase next week, but I also need it now. And maybe you’ll need to see and print and look at and remember this truth on Friday, too. So, a small spring surprise in the form of an extra print/lock screen for everybody. :)
I said it in the January email and it holds true:
The print and lock screen for this month? Well, you already know from what I shared in our private Instagram Stories late last year . . . I knew exactly what words to sit with and focus on this January, what the design needed to look like, but I didn’t know why. All I could come up with: They weren’t random or “out of no where.” They were given in advance so that they would be right on time.
It’s pretty rare that I feel so deeply in my spirit that a Specific Thing (a caption, story, verse, etc) is for a very Specific Time. And it rarely makes sense from my point of view. Why this? Why now? But every time I’ve chosen to follow that prompting, I’ve received a message saying “I really, really needed this today.”
It’s almost uncanny. It’s certainly mysterious. And it’s absolutely beautiful.
Because while I’m over here shaking my head and second guessing, going back and forth on if I’ve heard something correctly or losing it just a little bit, God is outside of time, setting things in motion, meeting us in the Right Now while preparing what we’ll need in the There and Then.
My prayer is that the words in January’s print do exactly what I wrote in Stories from the hospital room. I hope they meet you in your disappointments and frustrations as well as your grateful moments of thanking God for what is. I hope the simplicity of the design allows the truth to stand out and the handwritten look feels like a personal declaration. I hope the promise of nearness and newness, of goodness finding us in every season, is a comfort in these gray January days.
I pray it meets you right where you are.
It met me in a hospital room.
God knew.
From a hospital room to a living room waiting room thousands of miles away, watching for an update.
From a gray January day to a rainy March afternoon.
In every storm. In every season. In every twist and turn. In every heartbreak and unknown. On every page of the story.
Faithful. Always and in all ways.
P.s. We’re just shy of one year since this round of cancer started. Out of respect and privacy, I held the storyline close until this Christmas week post. I’ll continue to do so in the days to come, as it’s not my story alone to tell, but you just can’t know how impactful it was to read your comments and prayers. It’s a relief to know there are others carrying what weighs you down, a gift to know when you don’t have many words someone else will intercede on your behalf, and we’re truly grateful. Simply, thank you. From me, my parents, and my brothers.
Print:
The PDF file linked below includes an 8x10 and a 5x7 print, each with lines for easy trimming.
Lock screen:
To download the lock screen:
Hold down on an image above until there's an option to “save photo." If you have an iPhone, go to Settings –> Wallpaper –> Choose a New Wallpaper –> All Photos. Select the image and then shrink it (think: the opposite of zooming in). This will allow the full image to show.