Pearls & Pumas

An Encouraging Anchor for Your Inbox When God Speaks Life Into Familiar Words Hi Reader, If you were to open my Bible and turn to Psalm 91, you would see “Papa” scribbled at the very beginning, right next to the bold numbers introducing this incredible Psalm. After my father's second unexpected surgery, in each precious moment we spoke before his passing, he would ask me to read it to him. The thing is, each time I read it aloud like a prayer, I never realized that I wasn’t really meditating...

An Encouraging Anchor for Your Week When Your Soul Needs a Contingency Plan We have backup plans for almost everything we believe we can’t live without. But where do we run when we’re the ones running on empty? Let’s talk about Wednesday evening. So, apparently, I had an urge to vacuum something that, for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was. (I mean, who has a desire to vacuum on a Wednesday night, right?) And then I legit heard my poor baby’s motor die. I mean, it was a sound that I...

An Encouraging Anchor for Your Week The Real Season Shift It's Labor Day weekend, so I'm going to keep this short and sweet. I've been in my feelings lately. And you know, going through the proverbial motions of judging myself against what scripture states. I read my Bible. I know God's truth. I know His promises. Yet, I seem to be going through a transition of seasons where I'm resisting what the Holy Spirit keeps pressing on me. Uggh Don't know what it is. But, I do know that He's trying to...

An Encouraging Anchor for Your Week God Is in the Moments We Don't Plan What if some of our greatest opportunities to show the love of Jesus are hiding in the ordinary moments we usually rush through? This is a good one. So stay with me, Reader... So, I've been working from home the last few weeks (while my company makes our office space collaborative-fancy). And during this time, I've had the opportunity to be a little more reflective and intentional with my time. So, while in between...

An Encouraging Anchor for Your Week Is Your Planning Making Room for What Matters? What if better planning starts by asking God what deserves your YES and trusting Him with what grows? Hey Reader! Just this week, I woke up on what I thought was a glorious Friday morning, only to realize it wasn't Friday...it was Thursday! I was so depleted that I had the entire day of the week wrong! I hadn't exercised since Monday, and somewhere along the way, I realized I'd started losing touch with who I...

An Encouraging Anchor for Your Week Learning to Practice What I Preach ***** So... I didn't plan for this email today. And I'm going to be real with you when I say I spent far too much time beating myself up over that. I kept thinking about what I should have done. So, I found myself staring at a blinking cursor, feeling strangely numb and wondering if I was using the time God has blessed me with the way He intended. And here's the thing: Writing these weekly emails often reminds me that I...

An Encouraging Anchor for Your Week A Growth Mindset Starts with What You Believe Don't let yesterday's limitations keep you from tomorrow's calling. God is still growing you. Math has never been my thing. And when I say, never, I mean forever never. Even 'till this day I'm haunted by the memories of how my lack of math skills had me stuck in a random room in the fourth grade (with other classmates who apparently lacked the same skills). And then, in high school, I never actually made it to...

An Encouraging Anchor for Your Week Living the Vision You Prayed For When the excitement fades, faithfulness begins. Intentional Planning Part 7 Over the past several weeks, we’ve spent time talking about our mission, identifying the vision God has placed on our hearts, and creating goals that align with His purpose rather than our own. We even paused for a bit, talked about planner paralysis, and reminded ourselves that intentional planning isn’t about filling every square on a calendar, but...

An Encouraging Anchor for Your Week The Space Between the Plans While we've been talking about creating goals that align with our compass, I wanted to take a moment to share a quote I read by Lysa TerKeurst that literally stopped me in mid-planning mode: “ "Never is a woman so fulfilled as when she chooses to underwhelm her schedule so she can let God overwhelm her soul." — Lysa TerKeurst Underwhelm my constant moving... my loaded schedule... to be overwhelmed... by GOD. I don't know about...