Over the next seven days I’m inviting you to join me for a simple 7-Day Joy Challenge—a few moments each day to notice God’s goodness and rediscover the quiet strength of joy. Notice Gratitude Joy often begins not with dramatic change but with noticing what is already present. Gratitude turns the heart toward God’s faithfulness….
Tag: life
From the Scottish Highlands
I’ve traveled across Scotland several times, and there is no place like it if you are an artist or poet or writer! It awakens ethereal wonder, worship, and rivers of joy. It is filled with mystery and meaning, and the veil between heaven and earth hangs gossamer and fragrant of Christ. This is one of…
Surrender to Joy
Obedience and surrender have shaped my life more deeply than success ever could. As my husband, daughter, and I traveled across continents—sometimes three in one week—I discovered quickly that joy is born from surrender. Not the reluctant kind, but the kind that releases your grip on your own plans so you can take hold of…
Every Pathway Led to Joy
“Through her masterful grasp of language, Bonnie imparts unique wisdom that can be learned only through trials, victories, and a life lived with steadfast faith.” —Nic Lesmeister, Executive Pastor, Gateway Church Every page of this book carries both joy and struggle. I didn’t write from ideology but from living, learning, and trusting God through it…
2026–Not Just a Pause
The clean slate and lift of a new year gives an added boost of courage to begin again–especially on lifestyle changes or embedded habits where the bitter taste of failure lingers. The brand new feeling of hope is on offer in 2026 with shining first, second, or third chances for successful life changes and achievements….
Winter Moon
I love a full, silvery winter moon against an icy-cold, inky-blue, clear sky. Its radiance sparkling upon freshly falling snow makes me want to stop–urgently–to “watch the meadow fill” just like my old friend, Robert Frost… and to gaze upon the moonlight sparkle-play upon the “downy frost.” There is dancing when the nighttime skylight shines…
Choices
Even the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow can’t buy contentment. It is illusive. Culture is abstract yet often dictates our lives in concrete measures. Choice is concrete yet seems abstract as we begin choosing how to live. The secrets of contentment, which transcend the content of our culture, is rooted in…
Language
Lofty thoughts, which become ideals and hopefully–actions like forgiveness, freedom, liberty, holiness, purity, redemption, atonement, justice, retribution, love, kindness, patience, or equality begin as seeds planted in the souls of mankind by the Spirit of God hovering upon the treasure of the universe. As we mature to grapple–chew and swallow these, they break through concrete barriers with rapid force and power like…
Across the Kitchen Table
I turn 75 tomorrow. I don’t feel old or irrelevant, although my culture may tell me otherwise. Older, more savvy friends and pastoral mentors shared with Wayne and me in our early 40’s that life doesn’t even get really fun and rich until your fifties. That was a bit of experiential advice that I put…
Bonnie Saul Wilks 