To help some folks having trouble finding every post, I’m including links to each post right here. Scroll down to get started with Day One!

Day 1 (below)   Day 2  Day 3  Day 4  Day 5  Day 6  Day 7

Day 8  Day 9  Day 10  Day 11  Day 12  Day 13  Day 14

Day 15  Day 16  Day 17  Day 18  Day 19  Day 20  Day 21

Day 22  Day 23  Day 24  Day 25 Day 26  Day 27  Day 28

Day 29  Day 30  Day 31

If this is your first time visiting With Love, From Here, there might be about thirty things you might need to know… but I’ll try to keep this introduction brief. First, my name is Caroline Collie, and oh my hat, I do love the Lord and His Word, and writing about the Word and talking about the Word. I try to live it, too, but I fail a lot. I’m married to a wonderful South African gentleman I met in Scotland, and that scenario gets more complicated when I mention that each of our three precious wee kiddos were born on different continents. I started this blog when we were just stepping into a season of ministry with a charity called Samaritan’s Feet in South Africa.

We’re back in my hometown in North Carolina now, and I’m in my second year of homeschooling my eldest son. My website has been hacked, and I’m currently in the throes of working on getting multiple issues resolved. So if you see spammy comments or links that take you to websites that try to convince you to buy a dump truck, ignore the spam and don’t buy the dump truck, unless you need one, but I can’t promise you it’s a good deal. So don’t hold me responsible. There is a strong possibility that by the end of the month this website might look completely different than how it does now, so that I can delete some corrupted files and move on… just to warn you.

Last year, I embarked upon a little writing adventure called 31 Days, started by a blogger called the Nester. She’s great. Feel free to follow that link… it’s legit. It was about seven months after I lost my Dad, and that 31 Days series challenged me to focus on the Goodness of God, which was very meaningful for me as I continued the journey of grief after that unexpected loss. I enjoyed the process, and received a lot of positive responses about it being meaningful to other people, which was lovely and encouraging because the only reason for putting your words onto online pages instead of regular paper is for other people to read them and for it to mean something to them, right?

So, back in July, I started thinking about whether I should embark on the adventure of a 31 Days series again, because it’s a bit of a commitment and it would be a good idea to start preparing. I immediately felt like a topic dropped in my lap, with a number of post ideas. Prayer is cool, you guys! If you haven’t tried it, please do!! Nearly a year ago, I introduced a concept – perhaps better put, a metaphor – for learning to focus on living your life in step with the Spirit of God, instead of in step with the world around you. Drawing from the perspective that the Hubs and I both had as competitive swimmers, I talked about the concept of learning to “Swim Your Own Race.”

We live in a world that is eager to tell us how to live, what’s wrong with how we look or what we eat or what we’re doing with our time. More important, it’s telling us what our core values should be, and often forcing us to compare ourselves, our lives and our achievements with those of others… and we probably often come to a consensus that we don’t often feel like we measure up. So in the month ahead, I’d like to spend some time encouraging you. Helping you to take a look at your life and your circumstances, to focus in on the things that matter, and dial down the distractions that don’t.

My hope is that by the end of this month, this metaphor will stick with you enough to continue to challenge and encourage you to walk out your own walk, to live with your eyes focused where they ought to be focusing, and to find joy for the journey.

I’m not sure exactly where this ship is headed, but I’d love for you to climb aboard for the month ahead!

Please leave a comment to let me know if you’re in!

xCC