Embracing Your Journey: 5 Tips to Help You
“God’s gifts are woven into every journey,” a friend once reminded me. “Embracing your journey happens when you learn to see the gifts, especially the ones hidden beneath challenges.”
I’ve thought of her words dozens of times since that day.
I invite you to join me in a place that often inspires my writing—the tiny cabin where our family escapes for long weekends surrounded by rolling hills, beech trees, and open skies—and we’ll talk about learning to embrace our moments.
Embracing Your Journey
The steady cadence of rain falling on a metal roof is broken by children’s squeals in the distance. A few minutes ago, my husband and sons took a walk up the valley.
For the first time in 24 hours, the little cabin quieted—enough that I could hear a pileated woodpecker calling from the hillside as I listened to the sound of the softly falling rain.
At last, stillness.
Space to sit on the porch and “just be.”
When the boys’ voices broke through my coveted moment of silence, my first reaction was a twinge of frustration.
Even in solitude, a mother of young ones is rarely alone with her thoughts.
Don’t wish this away, a quiet thought seemed to fall from the sky, whispered by some voice of wisdom unlikely to be my own.
As I sat with the thought, I counted the years.
I’ve been the mother of young children for more than 14 years. With our youngest approaching his sixth birthday, it would be wise to recognize that in a small handful of years, this season will end.
Less than 20 years of my life will be spent with little ones.
One day, I’ll look back, and perhaps I’ll miss the energy and noise of these years. It might be wise to embrace this dynamic of love and life without waiting for the days to pass.
5 Tips for Embracing Your Journey
Maybe you need the gentle reminder to keep embracing your journey, too.
Your journey might not involve parenting young children. Maybe your journey revolves around a career, a dream, or a goal you’ve been chasing.
Let’s talk about practical ways to embrace our journeys.
1. Embracing your journey begins by living mindfully and prayerfully.
We embrace our journeys when we slow down enough to be fully present to what is happening around us.
For me, this looks like refusing to rush through the tasks of my day. I try to give myself a margin between commitments so that I don’t need to rush. I aim to complete the daily routines slowly and thoughtfully, giving thanks to God in the process.
A few years ago, I decided to pick one daily task and aim to do it mindfully and prayerfully for 30 days.
I chose folding laundry.
Every evening, I went to the basement and quietly folded laundry while talking to God. Instead of rushing through the task, I gave thanks for each family member as I folded his or her clothing.
Over time, something shifted within me.
My basement laundry-folding time became a sweet time of connecting with God. I stepped back from the noise and activity of the day and enjoyed his presence.
It was a time to breathe deeply, quiet my mind, and give thanks.
Since that time, I’ve learned to find sanctuary through the simple task.
Today, I encourage you to find a simple daily task you could pair with prayer and complete mindfully. This shift can help you find peace to step back and reflect as you aim to embrace your journey.
2. Resist the urge to run from failure.
Cultivating quiet moments is an important part of embracing our journeys. Yet not all moments can be spent hiding in our basements while reflecting on life.
The second way I’ve learned to embrace my journey is by resisting the urge to avoid failure.
I tend to stay away from anything that feels like it might lead me to experience failure. Sadly, this mentality can keep me from following God into endeavors he has prepared for me.
Last spring, I took on a new job.
In the weeks leading up to it, the fear of failure gripped me. What if I did poorly? What if I disappointed someone?
I shared these concerns with a close friend who reminded me that the knot in my stomach was not an indication that God wasn’t in it. More accurately, God was inviting me to step into the unknown, risk failure, and grow with him.
When the job started, I did fail at times. Nevertheless, instead of freezing up, I bounced back. I accepted the fact that failure is a necessary part of growth. Every failure became an opportunity to grow and learn.
Part of embracing your journey is learning to move toward the possibility of failure when you sense God is leading you. When we understand our true identities as God’s deeply loved children, our failures will no longer define or devastate us.
When we understand our true identities as God's deeply loved children, our failures will no longer define or devastate us. #failure #identity Share on X
3. Give thanks often.
Embracing your journey will become easier when you learn to cultivate gratitude.
Gratitude opens our hearts to experience deeper joy and even changes the neuropathways in our brains when practiced regularly.
Here are a few ways to cultivate gratefulness:
Begin your day by thanking God for at least one blessing every morning.
Start a gratitude list or journal.
In stressful moments, step back and mentally imagine you are in a place that fills you with joy and appreciation. This practice can help you return to peace.
End your days by thanking God for every good gift from your day.
As we become more grateful, we learn to give thanks for the good and the hard parts of our lives.
4. Learn to let go of the small stuff.
It’s easy to come unglued when life doesn’t go according to our plans.
One of the greatest secrets to embracing our journeys is learning to let go of the small stuff.
For me, this includes worrying about the messiness of our home, stressing out over interruptions to my schedule, taking offense when loved ones have bad days, and succumbing to self-pity. Resisting these mindsets always leads me to greater peace and joy.
I encourage you to talk to God. Ask him to show you where he is calling you to let go of the “small stuff.”
5. Play hard and laugh often.
Most of our lives could use more space for fun.
Part of embracing your journey includes making space for fun diversions. If you don’t have any hobbies, try some fun activities until you find one you enjoy.
Last summer, our family picked up a new hobby: Tubing down the creek behind our house.
The joy we found through the activity was life-giving and deeply replenishing. By carving out time for fun, we were better able to undertake the parts of life that felt like work.
We needed this space, and you need it too. What activity would bring hilarity and joy to your life? What’s stopping you from pursuing it?
A Free Online Devotional to Help You With Embracing Your Journey
Would you like less stress and deeper peace in life? Check out my online devotional Unrushed: Slow Your Pace and Embrace the Fully-Present Life. This is a powerful journey into a life that is more present and more fully lived. Click here, and I’ll send this free online devotional to your email inbox!
These books are free on Kindle Unlimited or available to purchase in print:
God wants to work in your life to accomplish what you’ve been unable to do through willpower alone. Lean Into Grace: Let God’s Grace Heal Your Heart, Refresh Your Soul, and Set You Free shares practical ways to experience God’s freedom, healing, power, and presence in your life. Find this life-changing book as a free eBook on Kindle Unlimited or for 12.99 in print right here. (If you do not have Kindle Unlimited, you can try it out with a free three-month trial!) This book will transform your life and revitalize your relationship with the Lord!
Calling all moms and daughters!
Additionally, my teen daughter, Bekah, and I are passionate about helping moms and daughters grow closer while connecting with God. We have written two mother-daughter devotionals together. Girl to Girl: 60 Mother-Daughter Devotions for a Closer Relationship and Deeper Faith is written for girls ages 7-12. It includes 60 devotions with Scripture, conversation starters, and a shared journaling section after each devotion.
Heart to Heart: A Mother-Daughter Devotional With 50 Devotions for Teen Girls is for teenage girls ages 13-20. It includes 50 devotions, each with a shared journaling section to help moms and daughters connect through writing. This is a great book for moms who want to communicate about awkward topics—like dating, purity, peer pressure, and more—but don’t know where to start. We will help you!
Multitudes of mothers, daughters, mentors, and younger women are being transformed by these books! You can buy them as paperbacks or get your free Kindle Unlimited eBooks on Amazon right here.
