Three Strands Ministries

08/22/2025

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I don’t just think it… I know you make God happy!

You are a gift to this world! You and your beautiful heart. 💗

From Field Notes for the Wilderness by Sarah Bessey.

08/04/2025

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Lectio divina this morning on my back yard deck with my coffee, bird sounds all around.

I love the way that The Message puts verse 3:
“Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar
and watch for fire to descend.”

•What pieces of your life do you willingly lay on the altar?
•Are there some areas of your life that you feel more hesitant about offering to God?

Spend some time asking the Holy Spirit to reveal anything about that hesitancy that you feel.

07/14/2025

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After a week in the wilderness I return to urban life. I don’t feel quite ready to réengage… with social media, with the news, with the distraction of my phone.

This afternoon I finally gave myself permission to create. I listened to a podcast this morning about creating just for creativity’s sake. I often have an intense longing to create, but rarely make time for it. The “tyranny of the urgent” seems to always take priority.

I’m treating this creative space as prayer time as I go through my journals from the past 18 months of the Ignatian Exercises and mining the gold ✨from this incredible journey with Jesus.

As I am reminded of the words spoken to me by God, the beautiful prayers that emerged and the vivid experiences I shared in prayer with the Holy One, I find my heart filled again with the blessings of it all.

I’m so thankful that Jesus wants to walk with us in intimate ways and to speak to us, if we would take time to listen.
To stop doing.
To be.

That’s hard, isn’t it?

I still struggle to still my heart, body and mind enough to listen.

Blessings, friends.

07/01/2025

06/24/2025

🙏 Starting this week with prayer and purpose.
Lord, give me strength to stay focused, grace to be present, a heart to serve, and courage to lead with love.

06/22/2025

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This.
That’s all I have this morning after the news of the bombing of Iran.

Last night at our end-of-year youth group party, I spent time talking to a mom from Iran 🇮🇷. She and her two teens are here in Canada while her husband continues his work in Tehran.
And she hasn’t heard from him for 5 days. I can’t imagine the stress she and her kids hold in their hearts.

Arrived home to the news.
My heart was devastated.
Anger flooded my body.

And today my only prayers are tears.

Christ, have mercy.
We know your Holy Spirit prays for us and with us when our words fail in the face of such evil in the world.

06/11/2025

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Yesterday I had a session with someone and we spoke of this season in our lives and the tension we live in: feeling the call of God in certain directions while still needing to do all the other things we are not released from yet. It was such a beautiful conversation filled with resonance and wondering and possibility.

We both agreed that we need to seek the glimmers. ✨ We need to pay attention to the things that catch our attention, maybe even out of the corner of our eye: the “sparklies” as my directee put it.

Often, glimmers provide us with clues about God’s leading in our lives. God has created us in certain ways, with particular gifts or skills, with different personality traits, and blesses us with our unique circumstances and experiences.

Discernment is how we seek out and find how God wants us to love and serve the world in our own unique way. 💗

I invite you to take a moment and … pause…

Turn your heart toward the One who created you.
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you notice the glimmers ✨as you go about your week.

And may you lean into the beautiful way that you can love this world.

Blessings, friends.

06/03/2025

Some days I feel like this flower:
Droopy, sad, down, unable to lift my head to notice good things, and unable to receive the love and care of God.

Often it’s hard to admit that I’m feeling down. As a spiritual director, I sometimes feel pressured to have “all my ducks in a row”, to not struggle with feelings of depression or intense sadness.

But some days I do.

And I know that it’s ok to have those sad, depressing days. It makes me human, just like anyone else!

Mental health is a complicated business. Some people think that as a Christian we are not allowed to be depressed. 😔

However, I know that Jesus longs to meet us in every emotion, and in every circumstance and He wants our honesty. We can bring all of our emotions to Jesus because He cares for us. I think that he especially tends to us when we come to him sad, drooping, disappointed or depressed.

Emotional health and spiritual health are closely related.

Be well, today, friends.
And if you feel like this flower, know that Jesus cares, He longs to have an honest conversation with you about what is heavy on your heart. 💜

And if you need more support, reach out! Spiritual directors are trained to listen, provide empathy and care during difficult seasons.

05/25/2025

If you could slip a note into God’s mailbox today, what would it say?

What are the longings in your heart today? For others?
For yourself?

Or perhaps there is a tender ache that needs care? Slip that note into God’s mailbox.

Or is it a small note of gratitude?

Whatever type of note you leave for God you can be sure that He reads every word, with care and with love. 💕

05/13/2025

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Lord, today receive from me ~

•my uncertainty
•my unsettledness
•the discouragement that lingers around the edges
•the unspoken sadness
•the stress that is not mine to carry
•the complicated feelings
•the anxiety

And Lord, in return, I take from you ~

•your great love for me
•your gentle care
•your peace in the midst of the storm
•your hope
•the dreams you wish to birth through me into the world

May I breathe in your gifts, recognizing with gratitude the ways that you meet me in the moments of my day.

May I look to find your hopes and your will in all.

Amen