Are you experiencing a difficult change? These four (free) bonus hidden devotionals are for you.

Chasing Blue Skies

encouragement for every season of life

Kristen
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Happy St. Patrick’s Day, dearhearts! ⁠☘️
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Love, ⁠
Kristen (O’Neill) Strong⁠
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📷Photo taken outside of Bantry, County Cork, Ireland, where I have ancestral roots planted.🇮🇪

Some of us more demonstrative types will light up

Some of us more demonstrative types will light up like a Christmas tree when presented with a bit of bliss.⁠✨
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While at a birthday party recently, my friend, Rachel, said that when I'm offered cake, my face lights up to reveal my "cake face."⁠ ⁠😃
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I will have my cake and eat it, too, thankyaverymuch. ⁠✔️🍰✔️
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Other things that make me light up?⁠
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✨Traveling with David.⁠
✨When a kiddo calls or visits home.⁠
✨Listening to my "Old and New Country" playlist.⁠
✨Talking with girlfriends.⁠
✨Writing stories.⁠
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I'll always belong where someone offers me a slice of cake. (Thanks for the fun party, Rick and Michelle!❤️) ⁠
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Are you a cake person, too? What helps you light up in your belonging these days? ⁠
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#whereIbelongWednesday⁠
#backroadstobelonging

“Sometimes rejection is God’s protection from

“Sometimes rejection is God’s protection from what isn’t in your best interest.” ~Salena Duffy⁠ (@salenaduffy)
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I’m an enneagram 2 who can find herself believing a friendship today is a friendship forever. And really, that’s okay because loyalty is a valuable quality in a friend! But if a friendship turns on a dime or enters a new season and slowly changes, I have to accept that the change and accompanying rejection—albeit never fun—is still in my ultimate best interest. ⁠
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God wants you to have your people. Sometimes, a friendship is the right one for a time, not the right one for forever. Accept what is and then move on to those who value you as the gift you are. ⁠
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#friendshipfriday⁠
#friendshipfridays⁠
#friendshiplove⁠
#friendships

I spent the majority of last week in Dayton, Ohio,

I spent the majority of last week in Dayton, Ohio, where our family lived from 2004-2007. While there, one of the places I visited was our former church, Emmanuel Lutheran. On Wednesday afternoon, I walked inside and introduced myself to the office secretary before asking, "As a former parishioner here, do you mind if I look around for a bit?"⁠
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She smiled and said, "Sure!" before extending her arm towards the hallway.⁠
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Inside the sanctuary, I moved toward our once favorite pew, the one with an open space at the side where my daughter and Sherri's daughters danced during the music. Sitting down in that memory, I could see our little girls twirling like it was 2005. ⁠
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⁠I walked downstairs to where Barb taught our women's Sunday school class. Next to that room, my sons attended preschool while I did Bible studies upstairs on Wednesday mornings, Bible studies written by a dynamic Bible teacher named Beth Moore. The church offered childcare during that time, and Faith was usually the only young'un there. I was the baby of the grownup group—Deb and the other ladies doing those studies with me were at least two or three life stages ahead of me. I considered those gals gushing fountains of wisdom, and I never missed a chance to soak up their smarts. They encouraged me, a young, unsure-of-herself mama, time and again. ⁠
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They showed me the *art* of encouragement, and I don't think I'd be the encourager I am today without them.⁠
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Revisiting places from your past is such an interesting thing to do with eyes savvy to the present. At the time, God indeed revealed things one step at a time for me as He does for us all. But today, I can see those single steps as directionals pointing to where I am today.⁠ ⁠
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I'm thankful for each of those women who long ago spoke into my life so I could do likewise into others.⁠
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I'm thankful to see more of the larger picture, illuminated by God's extravagant faithfulness. ⁠

#whereibelongwednesday
#backroadstobelonging

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