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RECENT POSTS:

A Blessing for the Changing of the Season
For When Your Clothes No Longer Fit
He Is a Present Tense God
Jesus Will Meet You in Your Mourning
12 Can’t-Miss Books Coming September-December of 2021

MY BOOK // Even If Not: Living, Loving, and Learning in the in Between

Even If Not: Living, Loving and Learning in the in Between

kaitlyn_bouch

The last of the autumn leaves, the last light of t

The last of the autumn leaves, the last light of the day (at 4:51pm, fix it Jesus), and a teeny tiny glimpse of the light of night shining through the branches.⁣
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It’s smaller than the lamp’s glow in this photo, but we all know a parking lot light has nothing on the actual moon. Looks can be deceiving and not all is as it appears at first glance.⁣
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There’s hope in that sentence.⁣
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And there’s a light even though the dark of night.⁣
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A nightlight for all our⁣
can’t sleep⁣
worn out⁣
tear soaked pillow⁣
spinning mind⁣
nights.⁣
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🕯

Your worth isn’t dependent on your work. It isn’t tied to your progress or accomplishments, your checked-off To Do list, your bank account or the number of likes on your last Instagram post.⁣⁣
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The things you do matter. Your work matters. But if it all disappeared in an instant, if you lost your job, if your body refused to work like you longed for it to, if you suddenly couldn’t do what you’re doing today…⁣⁣
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Your worth would not change.⁣⁣
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You would not be a disappointment.⁣
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You would not be called Less Than or labeled Not Good Enough.⁣⁣
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You would be named: beloved.⁣⁣
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Whatever is yours to do today, do it well. But rest in this: the One who made you and named you declared you to be worth it all before you had done anything at all.⁣
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👆🏻This is what I need to know, here on the first day of the last (very full, very busy) month of the year. Maybe you need to hear it, too?⁣
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Your worth is not dependent on your work.

This question forever changed how I think about Ad

This question forever changed how I think about Advent:⁣
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What if the last time God spoke, it was 1621? It takes half a second to flip from Malachi to Matthew, but 400 years pass in-between.⁣⁣ What does 400 years sound like? Quiet. Confusion. Doubt. Has He forgotten us? Maybe we misunderstood. Maybe... we were wrong?⁣⁣⁣
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It’s been 2 years of confusion and grief, questions and loss, silence and “what is this?” We’re waiting for the next chapter in the story, watching this upside-down world become the new normal, and yet… it's 2 years, not 400.⁣
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Tonight, on this first night of Advent, I'm thinking about the generations that continued to tell the story, the ones who kept on repeating the words while listening for the next line.⁣⁣⁣
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Sunrise, sunset, repeat.⁣⁣⁣
Day after day, generation after generation.⁣⁣⁣
Waiting. Remembering. Believing.⁣⁣⁣
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And then the page turned.⁣ God didn’t just break the silence with a word… The Word became flesh and moved right into the neighborhood.⁣ The promise-maker in Malachi is the promise-keeper in Matthew.⁣⁣⁣
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Funny how they waited for a word to break the silence, and now we mark 400 years of silence with 4 weeks of hushing. Waiting, remembering, believing: Christ has come and will come again.⁣⁣
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We get to tell the story in this in-between, on this page, in the already-not-yet.⁣ May we be a people who wait well, who cling to hope when the night is long, who remember and believe even in the silence that darkness doesn’t get the final word.⁣⁣⁣⁣
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Everything sad will come untrue for Light has come, Love has won, and all is being made new.⁣ A thrill of Hope, the weary world rejoices. Amen.

For those walking into a tense room, choosing to h

For those walking into a tense room, choosing to hold both truth and grace…⁣
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For those sitting at an empty table today…⁣
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For those walking into a room full of strangers…⁣
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For those with an unexpectedly empty seat at the table, showing up with both a smile and a breaking heart…⁣
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You are brave. You are seen. You are not alone. You are loved.⁣⁣
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No matter what today looks like, no matter who is or isn't next to you, and no matter what is said, left unsaid, done or not done, this is true of you.⁣⁣
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And it'll be true tomorrow, too.⁣ 💛

A blessing for the changing of the season:⁣ ⁣

A blessing for the changing of the season:⁣
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In every high and every low, may we remember that we do not walk alone. There is grace for each moment in a Guide who makes a way and a Friend that stays beside. The seasons may change, but His love will remain the same. Instead of holding our breath in fear or dread, may we breathe in His abundant grace and breathe out trust in the Keeper of time. May we trust the unknown of the future to the One we know is authoring its pages. And with our hands open and eyes fixed, may we rest and remember: For everything there is a season, and the unchanging God will be with us in every one.

My fridge is covered in save the dates, baby showe

My fridge is covered in save the dates, baby shower invitations, and old Christmas cards I leave up year-round. It’s a time-lapse of lives changing, families growing, and the honest truth is this: occasionally I read “the countdown is on” when I’m just reaching for last night’s leftovers and I’m reminded that it’s still just me.⁣
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This time of year often shines a spotlight on being a “party of one.” Showing up to gatherings by yourself, traveling alone (or always being the one expected to travel), going home to silence, putting presents you bought under the tree until you give them away just so there’s something there, an abundance of marketing all about buying for your spouse or kids, the sudden awareness of your alone-ness or the amplified feeling of being behind/the odd one out. (Last week a photo gift company sent me a magazine with 65 Christmas card designs. 63 featured couples/families.)⁣
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Two months ago, a married friend called and said "I’m worried if I ask questions related to singleness, I’ll make my single friends feel sad or I’ll say the wrong thing, so I usually don’t ask anything. But I’m realizing that might seem like I don’t even care. And I really do care. How can I love you and other single people well?"⁣
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My answer summed up in one sentence? Life will remind me that I’m single; you reaching out reminds me I'm not alone.⁣
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When the "it's just you" line (lie) briefly shows up, the Christmas cards from families who have invited me in, who thought to mail a card when I didn't have one to send back, remind me what's true. It cost them a stamp… time and again, it changes my day.⁣
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♥️ Married friends, your kind questions and thoughtfulness mean more than you'll ever know. If you aren't sure what to ask or say, start here or save this post for later! And if you’re willing to mail an extra card this year, click the link in my bio. I’ll match you with someone who would be so grateful for a kind note or Christmas card!⁣
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♥️ If you're single or widowed or lonely this season, please (!) request a card via the link in my bio. You are loved. And you are not alone.

The other day, someone asked me “What do you kno

The other day, someone asked me “What do you know about God that you might not have known, had this prayer already been answered?” I could answer many ways, but today it would simply be: I know that God never leaves and that He always proves to be more than enough.⁣⁣⁣
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I recently read the story of the Israelites walking around the city walls of Jericho. We skip to Day 7 so quickly in the retelling, but how about Days 1-6 when NOTHING seemed to change? I would have felt so dumb by Day 3, so incredibly disheartened and confused on Day 5. It’s not like rocks fell a few at a time with every lap, you know? Then Day 7 arrived and the walls gave way. It’s incredible! But I kind of think days 1-6 are incredible, too… Because it’s there, in the place where things don’t make sense and they’re walking the same circles day after day—there, that a miracle begins to take place.⁣⁣
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If He changed them each day, their hearts softening as they relied on Him and His timing and His with-ness… then there was a miracle along the way, smack in the middle of the Already But Not Yet.⁣⁣
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This is the hard but beautiful truth: The “other side” of The Thing you’re hoping for, praying for, daily asking God for? It might not end up looking like what you hoped/prayed/asked. It might be that what changes is… you. It might be that instead of walls falling, by God’s grace and with His strength, at the end of it all you’re still standing.⁣⁣
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That’s still a miracle. That’s still an answered prayer.⁣⁣⁣
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If He’s told you to hold on and have hope, to wait well and keep believing? Do that. Walk one more lap. Don’t give up on what might be Day 6. But also, from one girl walking laps to another, let's not forget: We'll see a miracle either way. We’re already in the middle of it.⁣
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He walks with. He never leaves. And He’s always, every time, more than enough.⁣

Hi. 💛 It’s okay to not be okay today. It’s

Hi. 💛 It’s okay to not be okay today. It’s okay to still be sad. Hurt isn’t something you have to hurry through. Grief isn’t something you need to “get over.”⁣
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I made this for a friend last week, stuck it in an envelope and slipped it in the mail. Something truly, truly terrible happened and the truth of it is that she doesn’t need a piece of paper to somehow have “permission.” But sometimes we just need to see it in black and white:⁣
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You can be sad without shame or a timetable.⁣
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A little while later, I wrote it out again for myself. There's an area in my life where I could really use it too, and maybe you’d say the same… so I made an extra. This one is for you. 🗒⁣⁣
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Jesus doesn’t show up with a tidy “just choose joy!” bow when the waters are rising and the waves keep on coming. He doesn’t dismiss our sadness or grow weary of how long we’ve struggled to stay afloat. No, Hope just gets in the boat.⁣
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You don’t have to slap a smile on sadness or answer “I’m fine, really!” when you aren’t. You don’t have to hold it all together or hurry through to the “other side.” There is One who is holding you, and He’s familiar with waves.⁣
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The permission slip is yours for the taking.⁣⁣
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💛 If you’re comfortable doing so, I invite you to raise your hand if you’re (still) sad about something, if you’re holding hope and also grief at the same time. Then bookmark this post. It isn’t the same as showing up with tissues or a meal, a hug or encouragement when it’s needed most… but next time the tears or the waves keep coming, when you just need to know it’s okay to still be sad? Come back and look. There will be other hands. You are loved and you are not alone.⁣
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🙋🏻‍♀️

I could make a joke about daylight savings time, b

I could make a joke about daylight savings time, but underneath that would be the truth that this year particularly, maybe because we’ve been walking through Whatever This Is for nearly two years now, the dark feels different. I can already sense the heaviness of night creeping closer, earlier.⁣
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This is the view from my porch, taken 5 minutes ago. 5:07pm.⁣
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I’m writing this from my couch, my face illuminated by the glow of a computer screen with a tab open asking “what does the Bible say about darkness?” I’ll turn a lamp on in a minute, but for just a moment I’m sitting with these words from the Word who came to be a Light in a very, very dark world. Maybe that’s a little cheesy, but it’s also the truth. And here, when the clock ticks to 5 and the sun disappears, the night sky covering like a thick and heavy blanket… that’s what I need. A nightlight of Truth in the dark. Perhaps you do too? He will keep watch through the night, singing us through until morning arrives.⁣
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🤍The LORD will send his faithful love by day; his song will be with me in the night — a prayer to the God of my life. (Psalm 42:8)⁣
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🤍He will not let you stumble; the one who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps. (Psalm 121:3-4)⁣
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🤍Yours is the day, Yours also is the night; You have prepared the light and the sun. (Psalm 74:16)⁣
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🤍We live within the shadow of the Almighty, sheltered by the God who is above all gods. This I declare, that he alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I am trusting him… His faithful promises are your armor. Now you don’t need to be afraid of the dark anymore, nor fear the dangers of the day… For the Lord says, “When he calls on me, I will answer; I will be with him in trouble and rescue him and honor him.” (Psalm 91:1-2, 5, 15)

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