Category: Porch Reflections

Even if your earthly father is absent or gone, you are deeply loved by your Father in heaven. Yes, there’s cake too.

There’s something sacred about a father’s love. For some, it brings comfort and strength. For others, it brings pain, absence, or longing.

Maybe you grew up with a steady, loving father. Maybe you lost yours too soon. Or maybe you never really knew him at all. No matter your story, I want you to know this:

You have a Father who has always loved you.

He is a very present and personal God. He is not a distant figure in the clouds. He is a gentle, faithful, and full of mercy Father.
A Father who doesn’t forget you and who never walks away.

“I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,” says the Lord Almighty.
—2 Corinthians 6:18

I hope this reminder meets you exactly where you are. If you’re walking through grief or gratitude, you are seen. You are cherished. You are held.

And just because comfort often comes with something sweet, I’m sharing one of my favorite recipes with you. It’s a Chocolate zucchini cake I baked for my son’s birthday. A reminder that we are all being made new, day by day, grace by grace ✝️

Something sweet ♥ Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cake

We live in a world that constantly pulls at our attention with promises of success, comfort, beauty, and approval. It’s easy to get swept up in the tide of more. There is always more to do, more to own, more to prove. But 1 John 2:15 gently reminds us: “Do not love the world or the things in the world.”

This isn’t a call to rejection or isolation, but an invitation to remain. To abide. To root ourselves in something far more lasting, the love of God, which doesn’t fade with time or trends.

The world offers quick fixes for joy. But God offers Himself – a steady source of life and fullness that no fleeting pleasure can match. When we delight in Him, truly enjoy Him, something shifts. Our lives begin to expand, not in stuff or status, but in peace, purpose, and love.

Remaining in Christ anchors us in what is real. And from that place of belonging, we are free to live generously. To love others well. To walk lightly in a world that tempts us to cling too tightly.

Let’s be people who are not consumed by what fades but who find joy in what lasts.

Where do I feel my heart holding onto the world too tightly? How can I shift to abiding in Christ?

But whatever I am now, it is because God poured out his special favor on me and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace.
1 Corinthians 15:10

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.
Ephesians 2:8

When we embrace the grace that comes only from Jesus, it changes everything In that surrender we stop trying to earn God’s love and instead respond to His grace with a life of worship. It is then that we see His grace cover our entire lives. No matter what we are facing, what we are walking in, what is hard around us, God’s grace covers it! It’s simply up to us to surrender to Him and receive His grace!
Think about the times God grace has shown up in your life.
Thank God for the unmerited favor He has shown you.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do now walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:1-2

But let all those rejoice who put their trust in you;
Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them;
Let those also who love Your name
Be joyful in You.
For you, O Lord, will bless the righteous;
With favor You will surround him as with a shield.
Romans 8:26-28

When you think about your life, the challenges, the pain, the times when you felt emotional turmoil and maybe even spiritually lost, God was always with you. He has been with you the whole time. In worship, a lens shift happens. A beautiful shift, where the focus moves from our own insecurities and problems in the moment to His presence. The moment you enter worship, you start to see things more clearly through the highs and lows of life.
When you choose joy, you experience true worship.
When you choose worship, you experience true joy.

Sometimes the deepest kind of faith is found not in doing, but in being still. In choosing not to rush ahead, not to figure it all out, not to grasp for what isn’t yet clear.

Resting doesn’t mean giving up. It means surrendering the timeline to the One who sees the full picture.
When we pause, breathe, and allow ourselves to simply be, we make space to remember: God is still working, even when we are waiting.

So if your heart feels weary or uncertain today, may you know this: you are not falling behind. You are simply being held. Trusting God’s plan doesn’t require striving—it often begins in stillness.

What would it look like for you to rest in God’s timing today?
Is there something you’re carrying that He may be inviting you to set down for now?

In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.
Isaiah 30:15