katie rose writes

This morning, I got moving early. I'm not normally an early bird, especially not this year, but my alarm went blaring off at 7 AM. To many of you, that's probably not all that early, but for someone who has had almost 365 days of blissful, tranquil mornings undisturbed by everything except the sun, it was loud and it was early. And I was dreaming (which never happens), so it was a very much like a freight train going off instead of my phone. I digress. But I laid awake for a few minutes, my dog totally confused as to why this was happening (she jumped right along with me when said alarm resounded in the dark), thanking God for some good sleep. Then I got moving. And when I get moving, I get moving. I got ready and got the dog ready to go to the groom. So I took her there, grabbed some coffee at dunkin dounuts, filled up the car with gas, went by the bank which, it turns out, doesn't open until 9, so I left and came back home. I sat down with my coffee, Bible, and Esther ...

A few weeks ago, I watched a video devo from Beth Moore on Jeremiah 17:9-10. If you would like to take a quick 20 minutes to listen to it, you can check it out here . It really goes by quickly, but it taught me a lot and has a lot to do why I'm writing these words now. I watched this video and God began to do a work in my heart, through my Esther study just a few days after praying with Beth Moore in this video that I would "lean in" to hear God's voice in how my heart is being deceived. I'm going to take a few moments to summarize what she brought out of the text in Jeremiah. So if you don't have time to watch the video, no worries, I'm gonna hit the high points. First, the text: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? "I the LORD search the heart and test the mind..." This is one of those verses that is often quoted, but not fully understood, especially in the light of Christ. We are so...

As 2011 came to a close last December, I felt so lost. The joyous high of returning to my favorite place on earth for a week escaped me as I became increasing weakened by sickness. It was as if a dividing wall stood between myself and "my plans." In fact, I could barely think about anything with constant headaches and dizzy spells. But oh how I tried to keep on planning. As I sustained myself with milkshakes and fries, I looked at countless reading plans for the next year. I tried to figure out what I was going to study in the Word. But I couldn't. Chances are I blogged about this frustrating thing of "not knowing." It has been a huge theme this year, and it all began with not being able to figure out what this year was going to look like. Little did I know that God was killing all my plans, brain cell by brain cell, with a weakness that was never- never -explained medically. Not even as I laid in a hospital bed for 2 weeks with a high fever. Not even as I cont...