I Choose Today...

I Choose Today to Shine My Light

The other night, I got up in the middle of the night and noticed how dark the house felt. Everything was still, shadowed, and quiet. Yet I didn’t have to turn on a single light. Why? Because the soft glow of the moon through my bathroom window was enough to guide me. Just a sliver of light—barely there—was all I needed to navigate the darkness without stumbling. I couldn’t help but think about how God did the very same thing in creation. Genesis tells us that in the beginning, there was a dark, lifeless void—until God said, “Let there be light.” That moment changed everything. And even after He separated day from night, He didn’t leave the darkness completely dark. He gave us the moon and the stars—small, flickering lights that pierce the night sky. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life” (John 8:12 NLT). Sometimes, this world feels like that dark room. News headlines, heartbreak, and the heaviness of life can make it feel like the shadows are winning. But if we belong to Him, His

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I Choose Today to Worship with Thanksgiving – Towdah

Have you ever found yourself in a season where gratitude felt like a choice, not a reflex? Where your heart was heavy, and yet you knew God was still worthy of praise? That is the heart of Towdah—worship with thanksgiving, even before the answer comes. Towdah is a Hebrew word that expresses a specific kind of worship: praising God with uplifted hands, often in sacrifice or surrender, thanking Him in advance for what He will do—even when we haven’t seen it yet. It is the faith-filled choice to say, “Lord, I trust You, and I thank You anyway.” A Personal Reflection I’ve had moments where thanksgiving wasn’t easy. Maybe you’ve had them too—the kind of days where the weight of life feels like too much, and gratitude seems out of reach. But when I step into Towdah, something shifts. One morning, I sat with my coffee, still feeling the sting of disappointment. Nothing in my circumstances had changed, but I whispered, “God, I thank You because You are good. I thank You because You have never failed me. I thank You because I belong to You.” In that quiet moment, my heart lifted—not because the situation resolved, but because I

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I Choose Today to See Through the Lens of the Cross

Sometimes it’s hard to see beyond what’s broken. We look around at the world—or at our own lives—and all we see is what’s been lost, what’s gone wrong, or what hasn’t changed. But the Cross invites us to see differently. Not just to believe that Jesus died for us, but to begin seeing everything—people, pain, purpose—through what He already finished. This isn’t just about how God sees us. It’s about how we’re called to see the world: through the lens of redemption, not ruin. Through resurrection, not regret. Through the lens of the Cross. We often speak of Jesus’ death and resurrection as a personal victory—and it is. But it’s also more. When Jesus gave His life and took it back up again, He redefined reality. He ushered in a new way of seeing everything: a way where mercy triumphs over judgment, where sin doesn’t get the last word, and where hope rises from the most unexpected places. When we speak and live from that truth—from what Jesus has already accomplished—our words begin to carry the fragrance of resurrection. We stop echoing people’s pain and start calling out their purpose. We stop fixating on the past and start pointing to

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I Choose Today to Worship—Even Here

(from Episode 18 of the I Choose Today podcast) I’ve had Isaiah 43:1–2 highlighted in my Bible for years. You’ve probably seen them before too—verses that speak to God’s presence in the hard places. “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.” They’re the kind of verses you cling to when life gets hard. But recently, it wasn’t the verses I had highlighted that stopped me. It was verse 4. “Others were given in exchange for you. I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you.” I had to just sit with that. This isn’t surface-level love. This is sacrificial love. Personal love. The kind of love that says, “I see you. I choose you. I gave everything for you.” There have been seasons where I couldn’t grasp that kind of love. Seasons when shame clouded my vision,

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I Choose Today to Set Priorities

My husband and I have some longtime friends who opened up about a struggle they were having in their marriage. The root of their tension was simple but significant—they weren’t prioritizing time together. Each had their own agenda of what needed to be done, but more often than not, those plans didn’t include the other person. Eventually, feelings of neglect surfaced, and with them came tension, misunderstanding, and blame. We shared with them what has helped us stay connected through the busyness of life: intentional touchpoints. Every morning, we “meet” in my husband’s office for coffee, conversation, a short devotional, and prayer. We call it our touchpoint. It typically lasts between 15–30 minutes, depending on the day. Then on Fridays after work, we unwind on the back porch—just the two of us. No agenda. Just connection. These two intentional moments have done wonders for our relationship. We’ve learned more about each other, had lively conversations, laughed together, cried together, asked for forgiveness, and extended it freely. But there’s another relationship that deserves this same kind of intentionality—our relationship with our Heavenly Father. When I set aside time to be with God, everything shifts. Our relationship deepens, strengthens, and flourishes. I

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