Hi friends! Today is my birthday and I want to celebrate with YOU! No, I’m not a large gathering, the more the merrier kind of celebration girl. The introvert in me loves celebrating my day with several scheduled lunches decorating my calendar over the entire month. Doesn’t that sound delightful?

How I want to celebrate with you is to giveaway a gift of a few of my favorite things. I know gift giving isn’t one of the five love languages, but it truly is one of mine. Gifting makes me oh so happy!

This year my birthday celebration gift will include…

My favorite tea, my favorite chocolate, one of my favorite books, one of my favorite journals, and my favorite pen

Just comment below what YOU like to do on your birthday. I’ll pick a winner and I hope it’s you.

I’d love for you to join me on my Facebook ministry page. On Monday mornings I do a Facebook live called #mondaymoments. It’s a short devotional to help focus our week on Jesus. God is growing a sweet community of women there. Will you join us? The great think about Facebook live is that you can watch the replay whenever is convenient for you. I hope to see you there! Here’s the link!

Blessings to you!

On this week’s #mondaymoment I talked about the sacrifice of thanksgiving. There are some tender truths in Psalm 50.

I’m still pondering those verses. I would love to know your favorite Thanksgiving tradition or food or that person you are most thankful for. Please know that I’m thankful for you!

Those were my holiday thoughts. Now it’s time for the brave girl gift.

My love language is gift giving. I know it’s not an “official” love language, but it’s mine. So can you imagine what I’m like when planning for Christmas? Yep. I need to exercise MUCH self -control.

I was never one to get up in the middle of the night and go shopping on Black Friday. That is way too overwhelming for this introvert girl. But I do love to grab a deal online when I can find one. I think I have a fun Christmas gift giving idea for you.

Today through Monday night at 11:00 pm (CST), when you buy Brave as a Girl Can Be on Amazon, you’ll receive a brave necklace for free – from me to you. It’s a beautiful necklace made by my daughter and me for my speaking events. I love seeing pictures of women wearing their brave. I’d love to see you wearing one too.

After you order Brave as a Girl Can Be, just send me an email at deb@debbrown.org. Write book in the subject line and include the order number along with your name and address in the email. I hope Brave as a Girl Can Be encourages you to take some brave steps as you head into the new year.

And speaking of next brave steps, I hope you will join me on a 7 Day Brave Girl Challenge. Just fill out the sign up form on this page or click here and the 7 Day Brave Girl Challenge will arrive in your email starting today. Each day will include a short teaching video, some Truth to focus on, and a challenge – if you choose to accept it – to take one small step to do some brave girl living. We’ll dive into ways to love bravely, live bravely, serve bravely, and pray bravely. I’m so excited to be on this brave girl journey with you. Will you join me? Bring a friend or two. Let’s be brave girls together!

Today is a very special day. Today is sweet Sangeetha’s birthday. Isn’t she beautiful?

My family and I sponsor a few kiddos, but this girl owns a tender piece of my heart. When faithWalk Ministries began, I asked God to fill my speaking schedule so that I would be able to sponsor children. It’s my heart. And a few years ago, it happened. Sangeetha is the first of what I hope to be many children loved on through the ministry work God has called me to do.

Why Sangeetha? We share a birthday. That’s really fun. And today she is 13 – a teenager! Sangeetha is from India and she had been waiting over 350 days for a sponsor. She lives in an area where the risk is high for exploitation and abuse. I fell in love with her the moment I saw her.

Sangeetha knows/is learning English. When I compare the first letter with the last one received, it’s amazing the progress. She is one smart girl. We share about the everyday moments. We pray for one another. We help each other memorize God’s Word. And she calls me Aunty.

Last Spring we were told by Compassion that the Indian Government had stopped allowing our sponsorship funds into their country. Within the next month Compassion will likely be forced to shut down the sponsorship program in India. They have done all that is humanly possible to work with government officials. We continue to pray for a miracle. Will you please pray with us?

My heart aches for the more than 145,000 children impacted by this decision. And, selfishly, for my sweet Sangeetha, my heart breaks.

Compassion needs my help and your help in releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name. I’m going to be bold here on my birthday and Sangeetha’s birthday and ask you to please consider standing with me to be an advocate for children in extreme poverty all over the world. Who can you be an Aunty for?

The process is simple. A visit to the Compassion website walks you through step by step. My friend, Cindy Bultema, is an Ambassador for Compassion, her sponsorship page is here. For $38 a month, you can change a child’s life forever – and your own.

If you choose to sponsor a child, would you please let me know? I would love to send you a gift as my way of saying thank you. I’m looking forward to standing together to love and care for these amazing kids.

Happy Birthday my dear sweet Sangeetha! Your Aunty loves you so very much!!

Welcome! Thank you for visiting. Today begins – what I hope to be – a fun series I call Friday Finds. Often when I’m meeting with women, I get asked what I’ve been reading, seeing, and discovering. I hope to share some of those finds here. Please let me know what you think! Let’s get started.

My friend, Jenn Hand, is hosting an online conference next Friday night and Saturday morning. Jenn is author, speaker, and founder of Coming Alive Ministries. It was so fun having her visit Minnesota last fall to be a part of the Living Bravely Conference. The women loved her! Here’s Jenn’s invitation…

Friends, do you ever get a case of the winter blahs? Feel like your heart needs an awakening? I am so excited to announce that we are doing an online Bloom Conference. You can attend from anywhere – in your pj’s at home, at your favorite coffee shop, or with a group of your friends in the living room. If you cannot join us live, you can still register and watch the replay. The cost is only $10.00 for a four-session two-day event. I promise you will come alive. All ticket proceeds benefit Coming Alive Ministries.

I love that if you can’t join in live, the replay will be available to you whenever it works for you. I’ve registered. I hope you’ll join me. Click here to register.

Last week I wrote about my word for 2017…believe. You can read about it here. But beyond my words, the comments from dear women who shared their word and why they chose it are genuine and heart-felt. Definitely worth your time.

In that post I shared about my favorite journal that I’ve been using in my times with God for the past year. It’s from Life Lived Beautifully. Check out them out here. My favorite is the “Give Me Jesus” journal. It’s a 40-day or 90-day quiet time journal. This journal helps guide my time through the study of Scripture and prayer and allows space to journal my thoughts.

We can choose our word or phrase for 2017, but this week Holley Gerth challenged us to think about the words we won’t be choosing. Holley writes, “‘Should’ in my life is a shamer and a trickster, a liar and taskmaster. I have decided that for this year I will not speak its name. Instead I will choose love. I will choose gratitude. I will choose contentment.” I encourage you to visit Holley’s blog here.

I’d love to hear about a word(s) you’re not choosing. Mine? Not enough. More about that later..

I’ve never been good with entering the new year with a list of resolutions. One quick fail and I’m ready to call it quits. But a few years ago I read about choosing one word or phrase to focus the year on. Something about that resonated and I took the leap.

In Brave as a Girl Can Be I wrote about my phrase for 2015…Living Bravely…and then how God led me to stick with it one more year. I thought I knew what living bravely would or could look like. Boy was I wrong!

As I began planning for 2017 I also began asking God for direction and for that one word. Weeks went by and I still didn’t know. Continuing to pray I asked Him to show me where He wanted my focus to be. Added to that prayer was asking Him to help me pay attention. True confession: sometimes I can get distracted with my own stuff and I just didn’t want to miss it.

Well, He certainly made sure I didn’t miss it! Within days I received the following gifts.

First this one

And then this one

And let’s not forget this one

Not only did He show me visually what my word should be, but He also used some dear friends to direct my focus. Again within days of each other I heard this: “Deb, I wish you could see and believe in yourself what I do.”

I receive this invitation to believe. To believe more in Him – to learn how to believe in me – to grow deeper to believe in us. I hope you’ll join me on this journey. I’m excited in a tender kind of way to discover where BELIEVE will take me and us this year.

Do you have a word or phrase for 2017? I’d love to know what it is and why you chose it. Comment below and on Monday I’ll randomly choose a name to receive my favorite journal from Life Lived Beautifully.

Until next time…

Well. As my Grandma Rose would say, it’s been a “sweet forever” since I’ve written in this place. Yes, a sweet forever.

Lots of life. Lots of hard. Lots of enduring. Oftentimes grace and hope and life show up brightest in the dark…layers of dark mingled with glimmers of light. There is much to learn there. I’ll be sharing about those lessons in the weeks to come.

During a walk recently I noticed these beautiful pines. What struck me where the different shades of green. The shades gave those old pines character. They told a story. The darker greens representing strength and depth resulting in time tested character. The lighter shades displaying the hope of new life. Both are needed. Both are necessary. That’s true in those pines and it’s true in our lives. And we need both to begin starting over.

I’m glad to be starting over. As ministry was something I was asked to lay down during this time of hard, I wasn’t sure if it was for just a season or forever followed by a period. But God chose a sweet forever. He has been rebuilding my calling and ministry step by step. Fun stuff is happening.

This happened!

And this happened!

And this is happening on October 22nd!

I would love for you to be a part of the Living Bravely Conference. It wouldn’t be the same without you! Some dear friends are joining me to share their stories and gifts. You will love them. I promise! Click here to learn more.

It’s good to be back. I’d love to hear your sweet forever story.

I’m excited to introduce you to a sweet friend of mine, Gretchyn Quernemoen. Our kids have grown up together, we attend the same church, and she’s on my Prayer Advisory Team. (and lots of other things!)

I’ve had the privilege of watching Gretchyn take one brave step after another in pursuing a lifelong dream of becoming an author. That dream is called Sixty Six First Dates – Every Day Offers a New Chance to Fall in Love with God. I asked her a few questions so you could get to know her and learn about her brave yes.

Gretchyn, tell us about you – your family, your life, what you like to do for fun…

I am married to my college sweetheart, Barry. We were married the week after we graduated in 1995 from the University of Northwestern St. Paul (formerly Northwestern College). That means we’ve been married for almost 20 years! We have two kids, Caleb who is 14 and Shalyn who is 12. I homeschool both kids, and we are all involved in sports. We also enjoy planning trips as a family, especially when it’s to somewhere warm! I should also add that we love our energetic dog Coco, who keeps our laps warm in the evenings. We each shamelessly try to entice her to sit with us – and usually the one with the best treats wins.

I love the title (and the cover!) of your new book, Sixty-Six First Dates. Tell us about it.

I have to admit I love the cover, too! I wanted the cover to be fun and eye-catching, and I think it turned out great. This book is the result of a series of events in my life over the last five or so years. I was in a spiritual valley and my friend Deb (you know her!) gave me a Chronological Bible to read. I had never read the Bible through, so this was a new experience for me. It took me three years to read it, but every time I opened God’s Word, He was faithful to meet with me and reveal Himself to me. I started to blog about what I was learning, and a friend who read my blog challenged me to pray about the possibility of turning this blog into a book. I wanted others to experience the same joy as I did from spending time with God each day, so I decided to create a habit devotional out of the blog entries.

What’s one thing you learned while writing this book?

I learned that the best way to get to know God and understand who He really is, is through reading His Word. Bible studies are great, but going directly to Scripture will give us the most accurate account of God. If we are still and listen, He is faithful to speak to us and give us what we need for each day of life.

What is your prayer for every woman who reads Sixty-Six First Dates?

My prayer is that women (and young ladies) will start or continue a habit of spending time with God every day. Current research shows that it takes about sixty-six days to make a habit, so that’s why I’ve included sixty-six devotions. Each day includes a Scripture reading, a personal application, a prayer and an action question. My desire is that after spending time with God for sixty-six days, you will create a habit you’ll never want to break.

Thank you, friend, for your brave yes.

Gretchyn has generously given me two copies of her book to giveaway. To enter, just comment below by telling us about a first date. I’m looking forward to reading those stories!  If you don’t want to share a story, just tell me you’re in. The winners will be announced on Monday, November 10^th.

You can connect with Gretchyn on her blog and on Facebook.

**Affiliate links are used in this post.

Wow! It’s been a while since I’ve written in this place. It would take a novel or two to fill you in on the happenings of my life over the last several months. Challenging, long, difficult are a few words to describe the season we’re walking through and longing to find our way out of. One in which for a while I thought was bringing me to the end of ministry. And to be honest, I was weary and ready to lay it down.

But ever so slowly, we’ve begun to catch a glimmer, a glimmer of hope.

 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.  Romans 15:13

As much as we desire to be lifted out of a painful season right now, sometimes it’s hard to know where to begin. The feelings of overwhelm can take our breath away. So what if…what if instead of looking forward to the end of the challenge and being utterly convinced we’ll never make it, what if we focused on just one thing. Taking the next brave step.

Just one. Plant your foot, look back if you need to, but choose to shift your gaze in the midst of the chaos. That next brave step has the potential to take us farther than we could ever imagine.

Here’s what I’m learning when taking the next brave step…

 We’re Not Alone. It may feel like we’re alone. It may be the blackest of dark. But the truth is we are never alone.

^“Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.” Deut 31:8  

And my life verse…

The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk]and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]! Hab 3:19

We are NEVER alone!

We need to Do it Afraid. If we wait for the feeling of fear to go away, we’re going to die waiting. Don’t wait until you don’t feel afraid. That’s never going to happen. Never! I promise. Do it afraid. Be brave afraid. Because here’s the secret…once you take that first step, the next step will come a little easier and the one after that and the one after that.

We need a tribe. We can’t do life alone. We need to surround ourselves with community who will walk alongside us, support us, and be our biggest cheerleaders. Early on in ministry I knew I needed a group of women to pray for me when I’m speaking, when I’m writing, when I’m traveling, when I’m scheduling. They are a vital part of faithWalk Ministries. I never stand behind a podium or write a word without their covering. I need these women in my life because they continually live out bravery. You’ll be reading about them very soon.

Over the next few weeks the focus in this place will be a new series I’m calling When Brave Is… I hope you’ll join me. I’m excited to keep working on our next brave steps.

Before you go, I’d love to hear about your next brave step. Remember, you’re not alone.