January 16, 2025 — Finding Strength in Struggles
Words of Light
“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” – Isaiah 40:31
Reflection
Struggles are not meant to break you but to refine and strengthen you. When you place your hope in God, He renews your strength, enabling you to rise above challenges.
Each struggle, though heavy, prepares your soul for what lies ahead—deepening your faith, sharpening your resilience, and crowning you with hope. Remember, God walks beside you, offering His strength when you feel weak.
What struggle are you facing today? Surrender it to God and trust in His renewing power.
Affirmation
“My strength is renewed by my hope in God.”
Peace, Rita
Rita Lynn Berry, EdS, LCMHC
Therapist | Poet | Author | Creator of Journey to Me™
© 2024 Rita Lynn Berry. All rights reserved.
Begin Again Without a Plan—Just a Place to Stand
Starting again can feel unsettling when you don’t yet know where you’re headed. But not every beginning requires a plan. Sometimes, what you need most is a moment of stillness—a place to stand—before clarity can emerge. When you allow yourself to pause, ground, and breathe, direction often reveals itself gently, one steady step at a time.
When You Don’t Know Where to Start, Begin by Grounding
When you don’t know where to start, it’s easy to assume something is wrong with you. But often, that stuck feeling isn’t failure—it’s your nervous system asking for steadiness. Beginning again doesn’t require a perfect plan or a burst of motivation. Sometimes, the most powerful way forward is to ground yourself first, take one small step, and let clarity meet you there.
Holding Vision with Open Hands
Vision does not require a tight grip. It asks for trust—trust that guidance will unfold one step at a time, and that what is meant to grow will be sustained. Holding vision with open hands creates space for wisdom, timing, and grace to shape what you cannot yet fully see.
Becoming New, Again
God’s mercies do not rush in with urgency; they meet us steadily, morning by morning. Becoming new, again, is not failure—it is faith still unfolding.
Gratitude as a Way of Seeing
Gratitude invites us to slow down and notice what is already holding us steady. It does not change the path before us, but it changes how we walk it — with awareness, trust, and a deeper sense of peace.
Making Room for What Is Becoming
Making room begins with awareness — noticing what we’ve been carrying out of habit rather than intention. Sometimes growth doesn’t ask us to do more, but to clear space for what is already trying to emerge.
Rita Lynn Berry, EdS, LCMHC, is a licensed clinical mental health counselor and the founder of NewVision Counseling and Consulting Services, PLLC. She is also the creator of the Journey to Me™ program and Mend n Muse Media™, where she shares tools and reflections that support healing, resilience, and self-love.