Personal Reflections Archives - The Restored Orchard

Personal Reflections

Unhindered Emotions: Why We Need to Steward What We Feel

Emotions are not a design flaw. They are part of God’s good creation. They are not sinful in themselves, even when they feel intense or inconvenient. Jesus, fully God and fully man, felt the full range. Luke tells us He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit with joy that overflowed. John records the shortest verse in Scripture, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35), reminding us that sorrow has a place in holy ground.

February 1, 2026

Personal Reflections

Steward the Season You’re In

To be unhindered is not to have a flawless plan or a perfectly curated life. It is to clear away the distractions that keep us from being faithful right where we are. It is to remember that our identity is in Christ, not in comparison, not in productivity, not in striving. And because God is our source, we are not dependent on systems that exhaust us. We lean into the

January 24, 2026

Personal Reflections

Unhindered: A Call to Run Freely

And as we sit here in 2026, I think many of us aren’t tangled up in obvious sin and rebellion. We’re actually exhausted by accumulation. Expectations. Distractions. Comparisons. The pressure to do more and be more, even when God hasn’t asked us to.
That’s why the Word of the Year, Unhindered, is so timely and fitting.
We’ve got to get more honest about what we’re carrying. We often

January 1, 2026

Personal Reflections

Waiting Well: Meeting God in the Silent Seasons

To wait well is to lean in when we want to pull back. It’s to light our lamps with trust and faithfulness. It’s to keep our hearts open, our hands obedient, and our eyes on the horizon.

So if you’re in a waiting season right now, whether it’s for healing, direction, provision, or just a sense of peace, take heart.

December 1, 2025

Personal Reflections

Living an Integrated Faith: Why You Don’t Need to Compartmentalize Your Walk with Christ

The gospel isn’t a section of your life. It’s the center. It’s the lens through which everything else comes into focus. Christ doesn’t want a slice of your schedule. He wants to shape and permeate your whole life.

So how do we begin to live integrated lives of faith?

November 1, 2025

Personal Reflections

How to Build a Bible Study Right Where You Are

Here’s what I want to remind you: You don’t have to wait for the perfect group or the perfect time. You already have what you need.
Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 3:16–17 still hold true: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the servant of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

October 1, 2025

Personal Reflections

Examine Yourself: A Biblical Invitation…

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (2 Corinthians 13:5, ESV)

September 1, 2025

a woman reading a book while sitting on the ground

Personal Reflections

The Key to Discernment: Renew Your Mind

Culture will always present us with distractions; bombarding us with ideas, identities, and lies designed to draw us out of His light. True spiritual maturity requires more than borrowed convictions from social media faith influencers. It is a daily rhythm of renewal, of resetting our minds by the Word of God.

August 1, 2025

Personal Reflections

Trusting God with the Gifts You Didn’t Ask For

We talk about living open-handed; about trusting God with our future, our desires, our “what ifs.” It sounds holy. Surrender looks beautiful on paper. But in practice? It often feels like heartbreak. It’s easy to let go of something when you believe it’s only temporary. Somehow thinking that God will give it back, just dressed differently.

July 15, 2025

Mourning, Grief, African American Woman in a Maxi Dress

Personal Reflections

Naming What You’ve Silently Grieved

July is my birth month. Usually, it’s when I pause, reflect, and take inventory of where I’ve been and where I’m going, but this year… it has felt different. There’s a heaviness I couldn’t shake. Not depression. Not sadness at the thought of getting older, but this deep weighty feeling. At first, I tried to push through it because, after all, nothing big or catastrophic had happened. Yet, the heavy

July 1, 2025

Personal Reflections

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