Find Faith, Hope, and Encouragement for Your Walk with God

I am blessed to have two jobs that I love and that give me the opportunity to engage with a large group of people. This week, I had some unexpected encounters from both my civilian job and my military job. Both encounters were not about my jobs or my work, but about my blog. I am always moved when I run in to people that share they read my blog or share it with their families. I am especially encouraged when the feedback comes from people of all ages and backgrounds. I had an earlier encounter with my civilian job and then, at the end of the week, I had a couple of encounters in my military job. I had two women come up to me encouraged that I am so open about my faith, even in such a senior position in the military. By seeing me open in my faith, they are encouraged to be open about their faith. How amazing is our God that my writing would encourage others to be bold in their faith. As Paul stated, when we put God first and listen to our calling, when we are bold in our faith, we exalt Him in all we do. “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or death” (Philippians 1:20, NIV).

I think “Not on my bingo card” is going to be my motto for 2026. It doesn’t have a negative or positive definition, it is simply things that happen that make me scratch my head and go-”nope, that one wasn’t on my bingo card.” Last night was one of those nights. Helena and I went with some friends to watch a Banana Ball Series and had an amazing time. While in the parking garage and getting ready to head home, I received a text message from home with a photo of his bloody shirt holding one of our pups saying “send help.”

A day late, I know! I might have been a little occupied yesterday bringing my new car home. After taking everyone for a drive, I was exhausted and decided to go to sleep and catch up today! I had the chance to travel up North to one of our training sites today and spent the day engaging with teammates. I love the way conversations take their own special journey when you let it flow freely. Conversations ranged from PTSD and suicide prevention, to favorite flavors of ice cream, to drab color selection of shirts for our teammates. In the middle of one of these random chats, someone shared that he and his wife read my blog. I continue to be in awe of how many people far and wide continue to find my blog interesting and give me encouragement to keep writing. God reminds us to “Sing to the Lord, all the earth; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples” (1 Chronicles 16:23-24, NIV). I love these verses, especially the call to proclaim his salvation day after day. Today, regular conversations led to discussion about the blog, a pilgrimage in Spain for El Camino, and how miraculous healing has come to many who struggle with PTSD and suicide ideation. That was just one day-imagine what we all could do to declare his glory if we all had days like today…everyday.