My Journey with Purpose, Calling, and Ministry

I’ve written to God in journals every day ever since I was 12 years old. I came home from church camp with a fire burning within me for Christ when I was 12, and I made the decision to journal to Him each day of my life. I also felt the call to ministry at that church camp and knew ministry would be something I’d do in my future.

Fast forward to my junior year of college, and I was still journaling, but I felt like God was calling me to post publicly what I was writing. I decided to start a blog called Bound Blessings, and shortly after, I came out with a devotional book. I simply started posting on my personal Facebook page, but after one of the blogs went viral, I received so many personal Facebook requests that I decided to start a Bound Blessings Facebook page.

Things were going well. The blog was taking off, and the books were selling. Half of the proceeds from the devotional book went to a local children’s hospital. But honestly, it was one of the lowest seasons of my life. Nothing felt like it was enough, and honestly, I got roped into hussle culture and felt like I needed to do more, make more, and be more.

Then God told me to give the other half of the money away that I had made off of my book… after I had already given away half to that local children’s hospital. What?! I worked so hard for that money!! But God told me to give it away. I thought, Who do I give it to?! And it was clear: to the office remodel at our church. I was dumbfounded. Like really God?! Can’t I give it to starving kids around the world?!

Nope. It was clear. To the office remodel. I told God I would do it if it came down to the church needing the EXACT amount He had put on my heart to give. The very next week someone from the stage at that church announced they were off by that EXACT amount. So a day before I put my two weeks in at my first job out of college that I absolutely hated, I wrote a check giving up the money and surrendering everything I had been clinging onto. I felt like God told me to pray over that money as time went on, so I did.

A couple months went by, and my husband and I were asked if we wanted a tour of the offices the money helped pay for. As we were walking through, the Holy Spirit whispered that that was going to be my office someday. I looked up at my husband as we were walking out, and I said, “I know this sounds crazy, but God told me that was going to be my office someday.”

Fast forward a few more months, and I got a call from the lead pastor of that church asking me to be their full time college and youth pastor. A true dream come true.

And that’s where I serve now. I’m a pastor! A calling God put on my heart at that church camp when I was 12. I continued to work on Bound Blessings a little while I headed into my first year of ministry, but once Tyler and I found out we were pregnant with Hazel, my priorities shifted. I felt like God wanted me to use that time for my husband and I. It was a surrendering of dreams to be obedient to where God was calling me in that season. I surrendered, and now we have a beautiful little girl, our sweet Hazel Bug.

So I put it down for a year. I didn’t blog. I didn’t really post much. I didn’t update the podcast. And I didn’t add to the shop. I believe a refining process took place in that time. God was using it to shift my heart from focusing less on me and more on Him. Less of what I want and more of what He wants. Less of worldly gain and more of heavenly gain.

But now He’s stirring my spirit again. I’ve learned. I’ve grown. And I’ve still got a long way to go, but I believe it’s time to relaunch Bound Blessings, open the shop back up, start up the blog and podcast again, and be ready for what God wants to do! 

But this time things are different. This time God is saying, “I don’t need you to write another book. I need you to teach others how to read THE book.”

There are too many people trying to make their names be known. I just want to make THE name known. There are too many people trying to sell their own books. I just want to help people read and study and know THE book.

So be on the lookout for journals and study guides to help you study THE book, the Word of God, the truth we should live by… the Bible. I can’t wait to see what God does with these books bound with blessings.