I Choose Today...

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 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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I Choose Today to See the Story of Relationship

Podcast Episode 16 Recently, during my quiet time, the Holy Spirit gave me an ah-ha moment that I couldn’t shake. It was simple but profound: the entire Bible—from beginning to end—is a story of relationship. Not just truth. Not just rules. But a love story. A pursuit. A God who wants to walk with us. If you’ve studied storytelling, you know every good story has an arc. There’s intention, conflict, a turning point, and a resolution. And the Bible follows that arc perfectly: God created us for relationship. Sin broke it. God pursued us through covenant. He sent Jesus to restore what was lost. And one day, we’ll walk with Him again—face to face. God says it so clearly in Exodus 6:7: “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.” This has always been His heart. But somewhere along the way, that message gets buried. Instead of intimacy, many hear: “Follow the rules.” “Serve more.” “Believe harder.” “Do better.” And all of that can drown out God’s invitation to simply be with Him. This truth stirred something deep in me. I feel like I’m carrying a message that could shift how we see God,

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I Choose Today to Slow Down and Catch Up with God

After a whirlwind of travel and a full calendar, I’m reminded again of the quiet invitation to slow down—and how that slowing down isn’t falling behind. It’s often the very way we catch up with God. There’s a saying I’ve heard before, one that always nudges something in my spirit: “We need to slow down to catch up with God.” At first, it sounds backward. Isn’t God always ahead of us? Isn’t He leading the charge, the One we’re trying to keep up with? But when I sit with it, I realize it’s not about movement—it’s about presence. It’s about posture. It’s about relationship. God isn’t in a rush. He’s not pacing with anxiety or scrambling with impatience. He moves with purpose. With peace. With perfect timing. And sometimes, in order to truly walk with Him—we have to slow down, breathe deep, and let Him lead. We don’t talk much about the waiting years of Jesus. We celebrate His birth, jump to His miracles, and rest in His resurrection. But tucked in between the manger and the ministry was a long, quiet stretch of obscurity. Thirty years of waiting. Thirty years of being fully God, yet living in a humble

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