Daily Devotional

About 6 months ago my aunt bought me a daily devotional that I absolutely adore. My aunt is a very spiritual person and knew that I would love this little book as much as she did. The devotional is called “Jesus Calling” and is written by Sarah Young.

Each day there is a a paragraph or two describing something to focus on for the day. It includes great advice on how to become closer to God and live a faith-filled life. At the end of each passage it tells you where the ideas and messages from that day came from in the bible.

I love reading the book of psalms in the bible but have never gotten super excited about the other parts of it just because of the wording and how it is written. That is one reason why I love my devotional so much. All of the messages stem from different parts of the bible, but the author puts it in to words that I can understand and relate to personally.

I try to read this devotional every morning to start my day off right. It really does help me to put my life in perspective and remember what is important.

I was baptized in to the Catholic church as a baby and growing up my parents constantly emphasized the importance of faith and religion. We would pray together as a family before bed and before meals, and went to church together every Sunday. I went to a Catholic grade school where we learned about God and Jesus in our religion classes and went to church as a school once a week. However, it wasn’t until I was in high school that my faith really became my own.  I went to an all-girls Catholic high school and was blessed to have great theology classes including “Feminine Spirituality” and “Life Skills.” We also had a phenomenal retreat program and retreat director. All four years we had the opportunity to go on overnight retreats to connect with our classmates, strengthen our relationship with God, and grow in our spirituality. I enjoyed these experiences so much that I went on to lead these retreats after I had graduated high school and gone on to college. Leading was just as fun, if not better than being on the retreat.

My love for retreats continued, while in college, when I got involved with the retreat program at UD. I went on a retreat my junior year and loved it so much I decided to lead it my senior year. It was hands down, the greatest part of my college experience.

Being in Catholic schools my whole life (kindergarten all the way through college) has been a unique and great experience. It is coming full-circle now since I will be teaching in a Catholic school. My faith has always been important to me and something I take very seriously. Reading my devotional everyday is one small thing that I try to do to keep myself focused on what is important in life and strengthen my faith in God.

Do you have any special devotionals or books that you enjoy?