ZOLD Hot Topics of the Heart
From Performance to Presence: Living Unveiled Before God
Hello Friend! This post is about performance-based faith and how God is gently drawing me into presence. You see, for much of my life, I believed that pleasing God meant doing better. Trying harder. Getting it right. If I could just be more disciplined, more obedient, more faithful, then surely I would earn His approval.…
Contentment That Heals: When Forgiveness Protects the Peace God Is Building
In this season, God has been teaching me about contentment and forgiveness in ways that feel both tender and refining. For a long time, I thought contentment meant learning how to live unaffected. Unaffected by people.Unaffected by past wounds.Unaffected by situations that once stirred insecurity, defensiveness, or fear. But the Lord has been gently undoing…
Integrity Before God, Contentment Within | Becoming Whole
Hello Friend! Lately, God has been teaching me about contentment. Not as an idea. Not as a personality trait. And not as something you arrive at once and for all. He is teaching me contentment as a way of living before Him. Slowly. Honestly. Undivided. I am learning that contentment is not something you force…
Contentment, humility, and the surrender of self-protection
“Contentment lives where humility trusts God’s leadership over self-protection.” This sentence has been settling deeply into my heart lately, especially as God continues to reveal areas where I have learned to protect myself instead of trusting Him. For a long time, I believed self-protection was wisdom. I thought staying guarded meant staying safe. In many…
Radical Obedience, Contentment, and Trusting God in a Season of Pause
Hello Friend! Can you believe we’re already halfway through December? I want to acknowledge my absence here, not with apology, but with honesty. Life has been a beautiful whirlwind of God’s goodness at work in my life, and while that has kept me quiet in this space, it has also kept me deeply rooted…
Radical Obedience Over Outcome: Trusting God When Faithfulness Doesn’t Feel Fruitful
My word for 2025 is “Radical Obedience” and as I shared in my post Joy in the Pause, God gave me the opportunity to choose Radical Obedience, at the beginning of this year-and I’ve been choosing to walk it out, one step at a time. Radical obedience isn’t glamorous. It’s quiet, very often misunderstood, and…
How to Live a Surrendered Life: 7 Practical, Biblical Ways to Trust God Daily
Have you ever heard someone say, “Just surrender it to the Lord,” and felt confused or even frustrated? You’re not alone. I’ve had several conversations lately with a few different girlfriends specifically about them wanting practical, life-applicable, tangible, black & white ways to surrender to God. Each one of my friends stated feeling frustrated by…
Joy in the Pause: Finding Peace and Purpose in Seasons of Waiting
Hi Friend! Our church Mercy Culture‘s Word for 2025 is: Radical Love. I love the explanation our pastoral staff gives of Radical Love: “God loves us for no reason! When we love God for no reason, no reason can take our love from God.” Ironically, yet not surprisingly, my word for 2025 is: Radical Obedience…
My Social Media Break
Hello Friend! Here’s hoping and praying you had a lovely and relaxing Thanksgiving with your family/friends! I recently had the pleasure of attending Soul Camp 2024, hosted by Jess Connolly & Go + Tell Gals, in the beautiful town of Charleston, South Carolina. (I may have fallen in love and want to retire there one…