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"My journey into faith and with faith and through faith is primarily to do with seeking a direct connection and communication with the Divine," Tim Gee explains—and for a long time, that led (as it has for many Friends) to Scripture taking a back seat. "As I've experienced a number of things, though, I've found great companionship with different people in the Bible—wonderful empathy as I observe them seeking a direct relationship with the Divine, trying to understand what it is God wants them to do."

Hey dads !! And moms too !! Check this out 🔥🔥🔥Today God took Kelly and I to Proverbs 20 during our morning communion and He said, "Yesterday was Father's Day. Look at verse 7 and tell Me what that that means to you in light of being a parent." So, we read it out loud- Proverbs 20:7, 'The righteous man walks in his integrity; his children are blessed after him’- and we realized we had heard it many times and it seemed fairly self-explanatory. So we said, "Lord, it seems pretty straightforward. What do you want us to know today in this verse that we don't already know?" He said, "Glad you asked! I want you to know and I want you to tell people that a dad who is righteous in My eyes is one that points their children to My son, Jesus Christ, and teaches his family and models himself in MY ways." In the spirit of giving due honor, Kelly and I want to say thank you to the dads who are passionate about pursuing Jesus and have made Him the priority of their lives. They embrace their position as spiritual head of their home and earnestly seek the will of their heavenly Father. Thank you to the dads who realize that honoring their wives, second only to the Lord, is the best gift that they can give their children. They work diligently to provide for their families and intentionally create a safe space where their wives and children are liberated to become who God created them to be. Thank you to the dads who are present and positive participants in their children’s lives. They train their children to love and obey Jesus, take them to church, and speak blessings into their futures. They chase down fly balls, dress up for daddy-daughter dances, and tell corny jokes. Great dads can be found roughhousing in the backyard, cheering from the bleachers, tutoring at the kitchen table, helping a neighbor change a tire, holding his wife while she cries, raising his hands in praise and worship on sunday morning at church but also at home, he prays with his wife and his kids frequently, and a thousand other ways he brings honor to God in his life. To these dads, we want to say you are true heroes. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you and give you His peace. May the Lord give you the desires of your heart and make all your plans succeed as you walk in the power of His might. Amen and amen PD

God’s love is boring. It’s consistent, dependable, and full. He loved us first—deeply, completely, and abundantly—before we love him. But many of us have been conditioned to crave something else. We chase after love that is inconsistent, unreliable, and partial. When we receive the love we worked so hard for in any relational dynamic, whether it is family, friend, or romantic, while trying to prove that we are worthy of love, we feel a deep satisfaction—for a moment—until we are chasing after that sense of love all over again. The highs of chasing that kind of love feels amazing—but it always comes with lows just as far from the center. Each push for love heightens the sense of reward in our minds, only to deepen the crash when the love runs out. God’s love does not produce the immense highs—but it never crushes us into the deep lows, either. Instead, it carries us steadily and securely. This is where it gets uncomfortable. To truly internalize this love is to realize you have absolutely nothing to offer to make his love more or less. When chasing after the broken love from someone else, we “own” the reward of gaining their love, even if it is just for a moment before the cycle starts all over again. We feel “good enough” when we receive their attention by behaving a certain way. It gives us the illusion of control. But in reality we can become powerless when the love vanishes as the other person decides to stop loving. If we aren’t grounded, we will chase, and the chase becomes more about validation than true connection and intimacy. But with God’s love, you come into his presence as you are. You cannot make him love you any more or any less. This can be unsettling for us, though. We are so used to working for love and/or expecting abandonment once we are deeply connected, we don’t know how to just sit in the presence of a love that is ever present. We find out we don’t feel safe in our own bodies. The presence of true love feels… unnatural, and all of our love survival strategies rise up, begging us to start chasing for broken love again to feel safe. Until something in us changes, we will continue to take advantage of his fully given, ever present, ever consistent love by abandoning it and trading it in for a dysfunctional poor excuse of what we may consider to be love over and over again, only to soon find out we are chasing a longing inside of us no one or nothing else can truly fill. Thankfully, what we will discover is that the love given by God is always there even if we abandon it—and he never guilts or shames us for leaving. Accepting this love will challenge how you look at yourself and how you respond to connection. If love is ever present, you no longer need to feel the need to control the situation to protect yourself. You no longer need to be alert of every subtle clue that suggests, “Perhaps today is the day love is over.” You no longer have to feel like you need to warp yourself in order to fit the expected image someone has of you. You no longer depend on them to turn their affection back to you to finally feel okay. You just… accept his love. This can draw you to a safe place where your nervous system can feel calm, if you let it. But it is understandable if this “calm” can feel scary if you believe the only way you can feel safe is if you chase the shadow of unattainable love while remaining in a state of perpetual longing. You have to train your mind to recognize that the stillness and the longevity of consistent and ever present love is good and safe, not a threat to your emotional security. You are no longer in control. Chasing love is just a form of feeling like you’re in control, which, deep down, is fear. And perfect love casts out all fear. After sitting in this presence of love for a while, the next important stage is your response. It is easy to engage with God with acts of love with a wrong heart because we are trying to, consciously or unconsciously, manipulate him or control the future. We can engage with the Church, read scripture, avoid doing wrong, control our thoughts, serve, be generous and kind, all in hopes that God responds with blessings or provides us with what we want. This turns our pious actions into dust—not because the actions are wrong, but because the heart behind them is driven by fear or manipulation. We can love only as much as we are able to accept love. It may be foreign for us to respond to healthy love with healthy love. Not only does true love provide a resting place for us to dwell in peace, it also encourages us to transform and become the better version of ourselves. Not because we are trying to become worthy of love but because: we feel safe, we are moved and choose to respond in thankfulness for the love we receive, and we are filled with a confidence knowing that no matter what, we are seen, accepted, pursued, and valued. If we fall short in our love for God, it is okay, because his love is not determined by our ability to carry out a consistent performance. We aren’t expected to be grateful or even respond to his love like how we might conditionally expect others to be grateful and respond to us when we give out our love. But we know his love has deeply impacted us when we see our lives as an opportunity to show our gratefulness and to respond to him with our behavior out of genuine love for him. This is when you get to discover how you can express the greatest commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength. You won’t understand how to carry out this commandment if you don’t internalize his love. Everything you do will just be an action, a duty. God is love, the very essence and presence of love and what it is. Once you start internalizing his love, then you will be able to have love pour out of you in all areas of your life. And each day you’ll be drawn in deeper and pour out more. Not because you are trying to earn love, but because you can’t help but act out of love, both to God and to others in all that you think, say, and do. P.S. When we internalize and engage with God’s love, we stop idolizing the chase of human love. We start discerning and attracting healthier relational dynamics. We look for people who can rest with us in the calm—not pull us back into the storm.

Trust God’s Timing During A Long Season Of Waiting! He has made everything beautiful in its time! He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end! Ecclesiastes 3:11 I’m waiting! It seems like I have been there forever! Because it’s true! We all spend the majority of our lives constantly waiting for answers to prayers, for our efforts to pay off, for struggles to resolve! For relief, rest, and peace to sweep over our weary souls! What are you waiting for? I know there’s something! The only things I don’t know are what you’re waiting on and how hard and long it’s been! If I could guess, like most of the world, you wish you could weather the wait a bit better! You probably wish you could trust and depend on God a little deeper! Wholeheartedly believing that He will provide a way, redeem a situation, restore something or someone that seems broken, or just move you out of the rut of what seems stagnant or full of struggle! I’m sure you need encouragement and confidence in His control and timing. And I do, too! But as I reflect on that first deep dive with Sarah and Abraham, I remember the encouragement I received as I read how God’s gaze was always on them! How God promised a child, God delivered that child, and how He used that baby boy to someday bring about the nation of Israel! Isaac also falls in the lineage of the blessed Messiah! What a story! If only we could take a peek into and see all the blessings that are to come from every prayer, promise, and planted seed scattered through our lives, too! And blessings bestowed upon us personally, treasures, and tokens received ought to serve as reminders of God’s goodness and glory throughout our entire existence! But, we tend to stay in a state of struggle to feel encouraged while we wait! Wrestling with truly trusting God, as our patience wears thin and our attitudes and actions, reflects a lack of confidence in His trustworthiness! Because we just can’t see it! We wait longer than we think we can bear and just aren’t sure God will ever come through in this lifetime! What we do know! God has had a plan before the beginning of time! A plan that included you and me! A plan that includes every single detail of our lives! And all of it is for good! For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope! Jeremiah 29:11 For your good! For God's good and glory! And for the good of His entire kingdom! We’ve seen it. He shared it! We can believe it! And we can rest today and trust it! The LORD, our good God, is trustworthy! And in His timing, He absolutely will make all things we're waiting on so very beautiful! LORD God, You are the author of all time! The author and finisher of our faith! With a perfect plot and plan for every detail of our days! Thank You for never being a moment late and for Your unfailing faithfulness! In Jesus' mighty name Amen! Hallelujah! Awesome God! Glory be to God!

"Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." (Romans 12:12 ESV) What does Christ want to send with you into the new year? HOPE! Hope for the joyful moments that will come. Hope in the hours of distress & trouble. Hope in the circumstances you're unsure about. I pray you find great adventures in 2025. But the most important thing I pray you find is God...because He IS hope. So no matter what does come in the next 12 months, you can squash discouragement with the knowledge that HE is in control. You won't quit in hard times. You'll hold fast to His Promises & trust solely in His faithfulness. Let hope make you glad as you patiently wait in times of trouble...and never ever stop praying. ⛲ #BrendaDillon #WellSpringWords #encouragementfor2025 #Blessed2025 #walkingwithJesusin2025