Faith. Family. Purpose. A Journey of Surrender.
Writing has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. In fact, my love for writing was born out of one of the most painful experiences of my life.
I was just four years old when my daddy died.
Too young to fully understand death, but certainly old enough to feel the pain of losing someone I loved. His death impacted me in ways I would not fully understand until much later in life. It shaped how I saw the world, how I processed my emotions, and even how I viewed love and loss.
I remember my daddy. My Boom-Boom, as I affectionately called him.
He wasn’t a perfect man. None of us are. But I knew that, at one point in my young life, I had been loved by him. And when he was gone, there was a void that I didn’t quite know how to fill.
Death seemed to be all around me during those early years. People I loved were leaving this earth, and I was left trying to make sense of a world that sometimes felt so lonely.
And somewhere in the middle of all those emotions, I began to write!
Writing became my outlet. My way of expressing the things I couldn’t always say out loud. My way of making sense of feelings that were very real, even when I didn’t have the words to explain them.
Little did I know that God would eventually take something born out of pain and use it for His glory.
But isn’t that just like God?
He takes the things that hurt us, the things that threaten to break us, and somehow, when we surrender them to Him, He gives them purpose.
From a Father’s Love to the Love of the Father
My mother introduced me to the love of Jesus.
And what a gift she gave me!
For a little girl who had lost her earthly father, discovering that I had a Heavenly Father who would never leave me was life changing. I wasn’t fatherless after all.
I was loved. Deeply. Completely. Unconditionally!
The love I thought I had lost forever was met by a love greater than anything I could have imagined.
And over time, I began to understand that while my earthly father could no longer hold my hand, my Heavenly Father had been holding me all along.
He was there in the moments when I felt alone. There when I was confused. There when I made mistakes. And yes, there when I went my own way instead of following His.
Oh, how patient He has been with me!
My life has certainly not been perfect.
I met my husband when I was just 16 years old. We fell in love, married as teenagers, and started our family early. We were young, trying to figure out marriage, parenthood, and life, sometimes all at the same time.
And let me tell you, we didn’t always get it right!
There were disagreements. There were struggles. There were moments when we simply didn’t know how to communicate with one another. We had growing up to do, and we were doing much of that growing while raising a family.
There have been so many peaks and valleys along the way.
But God!
Through every season, He has been faithful.
When I look back over my life, I can see His hand in places where I didn’t recognize it at the time.
He took the broken pieces of my life and still chose to color with them.
The very pieces I thought were too damaged, too painful, or too insignificant to be used, He picked up and began creating something beautiful.
And He is still creating.
That is why I worship Him with such passion. That is why I sing of His goodness. That is why I write.
Because I know what He has done for me and for my family.
He is a good, good Father. The best Father a girl could ever have!
As my relationship with the Lord grew, so did the purpose behind my writing.
What began as a way to process my emotions eventually became a way to share my faith.
To be a witness.
To encourage someone who might be walking through a difficult season. To remind another person that God sees them, loves them, and has not forgotten about them.
Many of the words I have written over the years have come out of my quiet time with the Lord.
Just me, my Bible, my thoughts, and His presence.
Sometimes a scripture would speak to me. Other times, a sermon, or simply; something happening in my own life that would cause me to reflect on His goodness. And before I knew it, I would find myself putting pen to paper.
I didn’t know whether one person would care enough to read what I had written.
But I wrote anyway.
Because I believed God had placed something on my heart that needed to be shared.
And out of those quiet moments, my blog, A Journal of Love, was born.
Eventually, my first book came to life!
It took five years to see that first book become a reality. Five years of writing, waiting, learning, praying, and trusting God through the process.
And now, here I am, patiently waiting for the completion of my second book.
There are other dreams still tucked away in my heart. More Video blogs (or is it called a podcast, now), and yes, my sophomore music project that I have been working on for a few years now. #selah
I can see glimpses of what they might become, but I am learning not to rush the process.
Because this journey is not about my timetable.
It is about His timing.
And if there is one thing the Lord continues to teach me, it is the importance of surrender.
Not my will, Lord, but Yours.
I must admit, I remain in awe of what God is doing through this little space on the internet.
Without a major marketing push, my blog has been receiving somewhere between 4,500 and 6,000 unique visitors each month.
I sometimes sit and think about that.
Thousands of people visiting a space that began with one woman simply wanting to share what God had placed on her heart.
People from different places, different backgrounds, and different walks of life.
Some I know personally. Some I have met along the way. And many I will probably never meet this side of Heaven.
The feedback has been encouraging. I am grateful for every subscriber, every person who takes the time to read, and the other blog sites that have chosen to share or repost my writing.
But as thankful as I am for those numbers, I have to remind myself of something very important. The numbers are not my why!
If one person reads something I have written and decides to open their Bible, that matters.
If one person who feels forgotten is reminded that God loves them, that matters.
If a struggling wife, a grieving daughter, a tired mother, or someone trying to find their way back to God reads a few words and finds encouragement to keep going, that matters.
And if someone who does not know Jesus comes to know Him because of something shared here, then to God be all the glory!
Learning to Protect What Matters
Lately, I have been very intentional about removing distractions from my life.
And goodness, there are so many!
How easy is it to pick up our phones, begin scrolling through social media, and suddenly realize that an hour has passed?
An hour we cannot get back.
Now, don’t misunderstand me. I enjoy social media. It can be a wonderful tool for connecting, encouraging, and sharing.
But I am learning that just because something has my attention doesn’t mean it deserves my time.
And I don’t want to become so distracted by everything happening around me that I miss what God is trying to do within me.
I want to hear His voice!
I want to recognize when He is speaking and have the courage to obey.
When He says go, I want to go.
When He says stay, I want to stay.
When He says move, I want to move.
And when He tells me to be still, I want to be comfortable enough in His presence to simply wait.
That last one isn’t always easy.
Especially when you have dreams, ideas, and things you believe God has called you to accomplish.
But I am learning that obedience is not always about movement.
Sometimes obedience looks like waiting.
Sometimes it looks like closing the laptop, putting down the phone, opening my Bible, and sitting quietly before Him.
And sometimes it means trusting Him even when I cannot see what comes next.
I may not understand the purpose behind every instruction today, but I believe that one day I will see why He led me the way He did.
And even if I never fully understand it on this side of Heaven, I know I can trust His heart.
My Strength, My Refuge, My Everything
Some of the most precious moments in my life are not the moments when I have accomplished something or received recognition.
They are the quiet moments spent in His presence.
The moments when life has been heavy, my heart has been tired, and somehow, in a way I cannot fully explain, I sense Him drawing close. Those moments mean everything to me. Because I know where my strength comes from. It comes from Him.
- He is my lifeline.
- My strong tower.
- My refuge.
- My peace when life becomes overwhelming.
And I believe with everything in me that no devil in Hell can take away what God has given me.
- Not the love He has poured into my heart.
- Not the peace that comes from knowing Him.
- Not the purpose He has placed on my life.
There have been seasons when I have questioned myself. Seasons when I have wondered whether I was doing enough, moving fast enough, or accomplishing what I was supposed to accomplish. But the Lord continues to remind me that my worth is not found in what I produce.
It is found in whose I am, and I belong to Him. And that is enough.
Psalm 119:105 reminds us:
“Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
I don’t need to see the entire road ahead.
I just need enough light to take the next step.
And I need to trust the One who is leading me.
Remembering My Why
So here I am.
A little girl who once wrote because her heart was hurting, now a grown woman writing because her heart is overflowing with gratitude.
A woman who has known loss, made mistakes, experienced disappointment, and walked through seasons she never imagined she would face.
A wife, mother, grandmother, worshipper, and writer who is still learning what it means to surrender every part of her life to God.
I am not the same little girl who struggled to understand why her daddy had to leave.
But I carry her story with me.
And I believe God has used every chapter of that story to help shape the woman I am becoming.
When I think about my marriage, our children, our family, the lessons learned, the prayers answered, and even the prayers that are still waiting for an answer, I cannot help but worship Him.
He has been so good to us!
Not because everything has always gone the way we wanted. But because through it all, He has never stopped being God.
And that brings me right back to why I started writing in the first place.
- To share His goodness.
- To encourage others.
- To point people toward Christ.
- To remind someone that even when life feels broken, God is still able to create something beautiful.
This blog is more than a collection of stories to me. It is a ministry the Lord placed on my heart.
A place where I can share what He is teaching me, celebrate His faithfulness, and hopefully encourage someone else to go a little deeper in their faith.
I want every word written here to honor Him.
I want to remain sensitive to His leading.
And I want to be careful that in sharing my life, I am always pointing people back to the One who gave me life.
Because without Him, none of this matters.
A Little Encouragement for You
Perhaps you have been walking through a season of waiting. Maybe there is a dream God placed in your heart years ago that has yet to come to pass.
Or perhaps, like me, you have experienced loss and wondered how anything beautiful could ever come from the pain.
Can I encourage you today? Don’t give up on what God has placed in your heart.
Don’t despise the small beginnings.
And don’t allow the distractions of this world to pull you away from the quiet place where He speaks.
Your story matters.
Your testimony matters.
And you never know how God may use the very thing that once caused you pain to bring hope to someone else.
Keep trusting.
Keep listening.
Keep surrendering.
And most importantly, keep your eyes on Jesus.
Because the same God who has been faithful through every chapter of your life is already present in the chapters you have yet to live.
Remember your why. And never forget the One who gave it to you.
With love and encouragement,
Marvlun
A Journal of Love | that focuses on; Faith • Family • Fitness
