I Choose Today...

I Choose Today to Obey, Even When It’s Uncomfortable

As I was reading Acts 10 during a devotional, something caught my attention. It wasn’t just the vision Peter had, it was what came next. Because what God asked Peter to do wasn’t just unusual. It was uncomfortable. Eat With Sinners “The next day as Cornelius’s messengers were nearing the town, Peter went up on the flat roof to pray. It was about noon, and he was hungry. But while a meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.…Then a voice said to him, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.’ ‘No, Lord,’ Peter declared. ‘I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean.’ But the voice spoke again: ‘Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.’” Acts 10:9–15, NLT In the Old Testament, God gave His people specific instructions to remain set apart. Dietary laws and boundaries around marriage with surrounding nations were meant to protect them from idolatry and preserve the lineage through which the Messiah would come. It wasn’t about superiority, it was about protection and purpose. But something radical shifts in Acts 10. Until this point, the gospel had reached Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, just as Jesus

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I Choose Today to Let God’s Blessings Flow Through Me

A couple of years ago, we visited friends out of town and went to church with them. As we walked in, the ushers handed each person a small three-inch piece of PVC pipe with 2 Corinthians 9:11 printed on it: “Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God.” The pastor explained that this verse reminds us of a simple truth: we are blessed to be a blessing. The pipe was a visual, what God pours into our lives is meant to flow through us to others. Our gifts. Our encouragement. Our joy. Our resources. Our compassion. None of it is meant to stop with us. I’ve thought about that little pipe often since that day. It still sits on my bookshelf as a quiet reminder to keep my life open… to let God’s blessings move through me, not just to me. God never intended for us to be containers. He intended us to be conduits, living expressions of His generosity, His kindness, and His heart. What has God entrusted to you that someone else might desperately need today?

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I Choose Today to Train for the Race

Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” When I was raising my daughter, this verse was foundational for me. Like so many parents, I was intentional about training her in the things of God: integrity, respect, love, kindness, honor, and work ethic. But as I think back now, I realize Scripture doesn’t just call us to train our children, it calls us to train ourselves as well. The Bible speaks in more than fifty places about training, discipline, and instruction. Training takes intentionality. It takes work. When I was training to walk half marathons — 13.1 miles — it was sixteen weeks of methodical preparation, starting small and slowly building endurance. To cross that finish line, I logged nearly 300 miles of walking. It took discipline, long and lonely roads, sore muscles, and many moments when I wanted to quit. But every time I crossed that finish line, it was worth it. Lately, I’ve been thinking about my spiritual training the same way. It takes discipline, showing up, studying God’s Word, letting Him teach, correct, and strengthen me. It’s breaking down bad habits

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I Choose Today to Be an Influencer and Imitator

I’ve been reading John Maxwell’s book Developing the Leader Within You, and he talks about how influence leaves a mark on our everyday lives. He shares this quote: “No one can understand that mysterious thing we call influence… yet… every one of us continually exerts influence, either to heal, to bless, to leave marks of beauty; or to wound, to hurt, to poison, to stain other lives.” Influence is powerful. It often works quietly, shaping our actions, decisions, and the way we interact with others—sometimes without us even realizing it. A recent trip to the grocery store reminded me just how real this is. My husband and I went to a specialty grocery store to buy a specific bread for an event. We ended up with ten packages of it in our cart. As we were checking out, the man in front of us stepped away from the register and came back with six packages of the very same bread. He laughed and said, “I saw how many you were buying, and I figured it must be really good!” He didn’t know us. We didn’t say a word to him about the bread. Yet in that moment, our simple action

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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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