See you this Thursday?
Leap Day LIVE with Kristen 💻💬
Once upon a time (ahem, January 15, 2024) I said:
When I considered which message/theme we might need to sit with as we settle into 2024, navigate change, and wait for seasons to change, this one wouldn’t let me go. It released nearly a decade ago, but I have a feeling it’s for someone exactly right now. Maybe many someones. Because the truths tucked within sentences, the encouragement and the hope? They still apply. They still resonate, still hold true, and are still so very needed.
And then your emails and DMs arrived, several of you saying “Me. I’m the someone. This is exactly what I need to read right now.”
I get it. I need these words, too.
Isn’t God kind? No detail is too small, no date too random . . . even down to a book selected at a particular time.
She said it, right there on page 83: God pays attention. He knows what’s up ahead, promises to walk with us into tomorrow and whatever it may bring, and provides what we need to face the day. He’ll take care of us in a thousand ways . . . and it sounds like, for several of us in All The Things, one of those ways is through right-on-time encouragement on the page.
And now we get to move from the page to a conversation with Kristen. :) Hopefully you saved the date from the book announcement email and will be joining for the live Author Chat? (Zoom info below.) I can’t wait to discuss together!
There are dozens of lines marked with squiggles and highlights, stars scribbled in the margins. I took multiple pictures, debating which one to share on our private Instagram yesterday because, options. (See: dozens.) This one, though—I want to repeat it so many times that I never lose it . . . like a lyric that randomly comes to mind days after you heard the song on the radio.
A few other favorites from Girl Meets Change:
If God is sending you to a new place, he’s sending you with a promise
Lonely is not an unfamiliar place for Jesus
The entire prayer from the ‘Don’t Just Get Over It’ chapter (right?!)
Loving-kindness → a memory and a monument → strengthens the story of the future
Waiting leaves room for the wonder
Thanksgiving always precedes the miracle
We’ll find him on the way, not in the way (pg 146/Romans 9:33)
When I feel fearful, may I rest hopeful
The definition of thrive → “to grow well”
P.s. This wasn’t planned at all (going right back to He’s a God of the details), but as I re-read, I realized that once again the thread between books continues to weave itself along . . . It’s happened each time, all of them unplanned, so I honestly shouldn’t be surprised at this point. But it does delight me on the re-read. :) Remember that line we talked about from our October book, about how Orchard House is “where Louisa sat for a decade as her grief steeped into something she could swallow”? (pg 23) Yeah, I definitely smiled when Kristen talked about steeping in sunlight, not shadows, while waiting at the hospital during a major surgery. And then in chapter 4 when Holley’s wisdom and research shows up? I could keep going, but you probably noticed the thread(s) too so I’ll spare us an abundance of words and simply say: God’s kindness in details this small, over several months, sure is an encouragement in the midst of change, you know?
P.s. If you’ve finished GMC and need a little extra encouragement between now and Leap Day, go back to the paid-subscriber August emails and look for the video + words from Holley! These two books, in particular, go together beautifully.
These pictures are from 2019, the only time we were all 3 in the same place. Hopefully that changes soon, but you and I—we’re 100% guaranteed hope and encouragement and joy and honesty on Zoom this Thursday. Here’s all the info:
🗒 Thoughts and questions:
I’ve absolutely marked up my copy and will have a few questions prepared, but there will be plenty of time and space for you to share/ask away! If you can’t make it live but have a question for Kristen, leave it in a comment below or send me a DM on our private All The Things Instagram account.