Alright so in my last post I mentioned a few changes in my life. I also promised I would share what I learned during my break from writing. I learned a lot, but above all I learned two things. One: when things get hard lean on God. We hear this very often. Our friends tell us this all the time when things aren’t at its best. But no matter how often we hear this, it’s hard to follow through. However, I found it’s super important to study the Bible and talk to God even when it doesn’t all work out. Especially then! Second, I learned to stay organized. Now I’m sure this is different depending on what you do or what stage in your life you’re in. You might be a high school student, a housewife, a working mom. Maybe evening a husband who drives to work every day with a boss who has the day planned out for him. If that’s the case, then staying organized is probably not what you need. But for me, as an aspiring artist and a working teen it was exactly what I needed. Yet sadly, I didn’t find this out as soon as I would have liked.

At the beginning of the year I was on track and feeling in control about everything. Nothing was too crowded, I had plenty of time to promote my book, work with my blog and on the farm. But when summer came it got busy and stayed busy. Now I grew up on a farm, so a busy summer was nothing new to me, but then the wedding planning came. And the blogging began to stay behind, my writing became a chore, and because of that my farm work became a burden. I became stressed and overwhelmed. I wasn’t myself because of all things I knew I had to do, but I couldn’t do it all. And when you notice others are suffering because of your workload, that knocks you down even further. So, while we’re trying to carry our workload we now also have guilt to carry.

My family helped a lot, but I didn’t like them having to do my work for me. It was my wedding, my blog, my writing, my job, my book to promote, my responsibility. So, I carried this for a while and I was okay. Obviously, this happens to everyone, I told myself. So, I went ahead with the wedding planning, yet slowly everything began to fail. It felt like absolutely nothing worked out for us. First our wedding date didn’t want to work; then we couldn’t find an officiant; then people started canceling our agreements; then we couldn’t find a venue, we thought of so many ways, but we couldn’t schedule the correct time so it would work for everyone. Then the invitations didn’t come out right–like that, one thing after the other wouldn’t go right. When everything kept piling up further and further my family stepped in and saved the day.

However, I still had an inside battle to win. During my stressful year my relationship with the Lord began to tilt. While I needed help to carry all of this, I constantly told myself that I could do it alone. I told myself it’s no big deal, it’s just work that needs to be done. It’s too simple to talk to God about it. But I knew that God helps us with everything. But then I said, “Well I don’t know how He would help with this anyway.” I thought this was too simple and small that God couldn’t help me with it. That this was just something I needed to do on my own. But no matter how simple or small it may have been, I needed help with it. And I didn’t realize that God was right there, wanting to help. Because He does care about every area in our lives and if we give our troubles to Him He will help. But, like me, sometimes we must accept that nothing is too small or too big for God and give it all to Him.

After I fought my feelings for so long, I was exhausted. Something had to change. I knew from the pass that the Lord had always helped me with everything; I didn’t know how, but I knew He would help me again. So, I prayed. I finally realized that He and only He could truly help relieve my stress. And even though nothing extraordinary happened, my vision became clearer. And because of that I was able to make the decision on what would be best for me. So, I decided to put my blogging and writing on hold and focus on the important things. My wedding and the family farm. I only focused on my career to market my book. Then after months of not writing I began to have new ideas–my creativity came back. That break was just what I needed. The Lord helped me out in so many ways that I didn’t think would work. And it turned out that that was just what I needed for every part in my life.

Now, this is where my new projects come in. Denying God’s help also made me stray away from studying the Bible. It truly is true what people always say, too much work will lead you away from the Lord. But it’s those times that we really need Him and need to know what His word says. Sometimes we can’t figure out where to read and after we’ve read it it’s easy to forget what we’ve read. I know this happens to me more often than what I’d like. So, I’ve designed a helping hand to those who want it. Once a week I’ll upload four Bible Journaling worksheets. Starting this Thursday. They will be downloadable on my blog, available to print out or edit on your device. Each sheet will have four sections to write on, with one set of verses to study. As you collect the pages, you can keep them in a binder or recycle them, whichever you prefer. Or if you don’t wish to collect worksheets, download the sheet and follow the guidelines, writing down your thoughts in your journal.

Earlier I also mentioned how important it is to stay organized. With the work I had to do all at once, it would have helped a lot if I had systems in place with schedules made daily. That way I knew what to do so it would all work out and I would still have time to relax in the evening without stressing about tomorrow. So, checklist and budgeting worksheets will also be available. (Don’t forget to keep a beautiful planner on hand!) Along with this you’ll see occasional post with tips on Bible Journaling and organizing. You can also expect occasional short stories as well.

So, with my story and knew blogging schedule shared, I wish you all the best on your jouranling and organizing journey. I hope this will be helpful to you in some way or will inspire you to stay on track with what’s going on in your life.

Y’all have a good day and we’ll talk to you next time!