Happy New Year and Happy Scripture Memory Team day! When I received this month’s Dwell Differently memory verse, it was like receiving a beautifully wrapped present from my own personal shopper. Now, I don’t have a personal shopper; but I just want to let you know it’s how personally and tenderly Jesus met me with a timely word to tuck in my heart. 
I had been discouraged.
At the end of the year when leaving my doctor’s office, I asked her what I could do to expedite my healing journey. To sum it up she said I was doing great and to keep doing what I was doing. My drive-through mentality did not want that answer. I wanted to order feeling like I felt before the virus at the menu board then pick up my healed self at the next window and be on my way.
I told the Salesman I walked out of the doctor’s office to my car and stood there and cried in the late December chill. I cried because it had been so long since I felt like the butterfly the Salesman had always used to describe me. When I shared with him how discouraged I was, he was a cheerleader – much like my doctor – and encouraged me in the progress that I’ve made.
The healing path that the Lord has me on has been way longer than I would desire for it to be.
Anyone else?
Maybe you’re on a health journey too, or maybe it’s relationship struggles, family issues, grief, work, or finances.
I’m so thankful we have the gift of the truth of Deuteronomy 31:8 – God is always ahead of us. He’s always with us. God will never leave nor forsake us. Glory! He is so good!
So when fear or discouragement knock – and they will – we can remind them of the Truth. I don’t feel shame in being totally honest with the Lord and crying it out in an open parking lot with Him. He already knew how I felt anyway. He created my emotions. He allows me to process them and draws me back into alignment with the Truth. Hallelujah!
I am so thankful to be memorizing Deuteronomy 31:8 this new year. It feels very personal to me.