God – Faith Love n Joy

Be Light

Posted on September 11, 2025 by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

Whenever something tragic happens, I try very hard to find the right words to say. Folks on social media are always talking in loud, screaming voices but mine is often never heard.

That’s because I usually just choose to stay silent. I don’t want to offend anyone. I have people I love who believe all sorts of things so I don’t say much except to tell myself that I’ll just pray for the situation and that will be enough.

It’s not enough though. Not anymore. I’m sick of being silent.

Last night, we lost a young man. A father. A husband. A son and who knows what else Charlie Kirk was the people he surrounded himself with.

I want to respond to this. I want to say something more than “I’m praying for the Kirk family” because that doesn’t feel like it’s enough. Like many others, I’ve looked at social media. Not for inspiration, mind you, but perhaps I just want to see what others are saying. I want to know there’s still some good in this world when proof of evil is so evident.

Thankfully, I seen an outpouring of love. But I’ve also seen a lot that hurts my soul. Comments like, “karma…” and posting about how the far right supposedly reacted when so-and-so was killed. It’s as if to say “the Kirk family doesn’t deserve compassion. They deserve just what they got so why should we care”.

It would be so easy for me to react emotionally to this. For me to remind them of a time when someone they loved was ripped away from them leaving us all to deal with the shock and awe of an unexpected death. It would be easy to say, “if that’s how you feel, unfriend/unfollow me”. I’ve heard many say that also.

But that wasn’t what Charlie Kirk was about. Moreover, it certainly isn’t what Jesus is about.

Jesus is all about love. But make no mistake, some of us don’t understand what that means. Jesus didn’t love us the way some “churches” teach about love. He loved us enough not to tickle our ears with false words of comfort, or watered-down religion that cherry picks through the words of the Father so as not to offend.

No, that’s not Jesus.

He came to turn the tables over. He came to uninstall puffed up religion and install the hardware called a very real relationship with the Father. He came to replace outdated software with the Bible. And it’s not The Bible 2.0, or the new and improved version. The Word of God was never meant to change with the times. It’s not going to. Not ever. The Word of God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Fact!

Jesus came to be lifted up on a cross of love. It was the love the Father had for us that held Jesus there ever so much more than nails. It’s a love we cannot hope to ever understand with our mortal minds. It’s a love that requires trust and surrender. Everything Jesus ever did was because of love.

I decided that will be my reaction to this – love. I don’t want folks who think Charlie Kirk deserved to die to unfriend or unfollow me. Trust me, if you truly feel that way, you need the same Jesus I did when I was locked in discord, unrest, hate and fear. He is the only one who can truly heal our hearts. Anything the world or other “religions” might have is fleeting.

Nothing and no one heals like Jesus.

Will I pray for the Kirk family? Yes! I know the sting of sudden death and whether it’s through violence or accident, the venom that comes from that sting is every bit as painful. They’re going to need every single prayer any of us can muster during this time.

I will pray for my country and when I do, the words “conservative, Democrats, etc…” will not come from my mouth. We ALL need Jesus and he’s not interested in our politics.

He’s interested in our souls.

I will do my best to love like Jesus at all times, and I know I probably need to do better moving forward than I’ve done in the past.

I will no longer be silent but instead, I’ll ask the Holy Spirit for the right words to say at the right time.

I’m not going to worry if people want to leave my life because I choose to be uncompromising in the face of a world determined to make sin a way of life.

But if you do choose to leave my life, know that I love you and I will never stop praying for you and you cannot stop me from praying for you. Know that Jesus is real and really loves you and you cannot change that either. You also cannot stop it anymore than you can change the FACT that he died on a cross a horrific death because he loved you just that much. Know that if you were the only person on the face of this earth, he STILL would have gone to the cross for you.

I would suppose there are many who feel as I do in this moment. Let me urge you not to be counted among those who would sow discord. I know we’re grieving and angry but let me urge you to be mindful of your words and be guided by the Holy Spirit when you do speak. But also do NOT be silent. That time has come and gone. Do not let your souls be lukewarm anymore. This world is hurting. This world is dark. It needs the Jesus in us to be a light.

So go….be a light. Be Jesus to the world.

It’s all about Jesus anyway. It always has been. It is now. It always will be.

I love you ALL and I’m praying for all of us.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Moments and Musings

Storms are My Favorite

Posted on August 20, 2025October 7, 2025 by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

This morning, I took Percy for our usual morning walk. Multiple storms had come through the area two nights ago making the ground soft and wet. As we walked to the park, I thought about storms and how they relate to life. Storms come and they go and while they’re here, they change everything they touch, if only for a moment.

We hung out at the park for a good long while before heading home. I looked up at the sky. To my left, it was partly cloudy. To my right, dark clouds still loomed. But then, directly above me, the sun broke through. It made the raindrops hanging on to the leaves look like diamond drops. All the trees lit up, bright and green. I could almost hear them sighing in the aftermath of a terrific shower.

We started to walk home and I noticed these mushrooms on the side of the walk. Such growth in such circumstances. Beautiful, delicate and perfect in their own way. They grow just as they’re supposed to.

Percy wandered on the grass, also glittered by the sun. Looking up again, I found the clouds to my left dispersing. Bright blue patches became bigger and bigger as the clouds retreated.

I think about my life in these moments. How many storms I’ve weathered. How many times I focused so hard on the dark clouds to my right that I neglected to see the sun shining above me. How many times God has waved His hand, dispelling the dark while giving me blue skies and diamonds on leaves to focus on.

He has never let me down. He has never left me. Like the sun follows the rain, every storm must end and when it does, the earth is left cleaner, brighter and ready for something new.

New growth. Like the mushrooms, something beautiful with raw edges growing in the seam where concrete meets the earth. I’m most alive during these times. Most in tune with God and most grateful. God isn’t absent in the storms but very much present during them. Afterwards, He paints the sky in rainbow colors, symbolizing His promise and its unfailing power.

What God has promised, He is faithful to see it come to pass. (Romans 4:21)

Maybe that’s why storms are my favorite. I love to see the endurance of nature and how it survives. I love the new growth. I love the freshness of it all. I love how it reminds me that I am never too old to be made new for this earth is very old and she is made new every time it rains.

Thank you, God, for each and every storm. Thank you for being with me during each one. Thank you for my rainbow afterwards. Thank you for mushrooms in the morning, for diamond raindrops, glitter in the grass and blue skies that chase away dark clouds.

Moments and Musings

February 2025

Posted on February 28, 2025May 27, 2025 by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

When I started out with this idea of posting a monthly life update, I didn’t mean to be so inconsistent. However, here I am, almost four months later, and just now finding time to write again.

I’m not going to try to backtrack too much. My family enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving and a quiet, comfortable Christmas. 2024 ended with a bang as I was involved in my first car wreck since my early twenties. I spent most of January dealing with the fall out of that.

God is so very faithful! Even when we are not. I still feel so undeserving of his total provision and yet, this car accident is proof of that very thing. Provision! I spoke it out immediately. I believed it immediately. God has surpassed by expectations.

And He’s not done yet! There is still more to come!!

At the beginning of February, I held a baby shower for my baby girl and her husband. My home filled to overflowing with so many folks who came out to celebrate. Of course, my anxiety and perfectionism kicked in causing me several panicky moments. (Oh, when will I ever learn!) My sister and niece came up from Tennessee and it was such a blessing to have them here! I love it when we can be together!

Emilie and Ben were blessed multiple times over with so many gifts. My sister, who has organized corporate parties, helped me with the food. My stepmom brought a lovely fruit tray, and we had perfect weather. What a wonderful day for them!

We finally got some winter weather in the form of about 4 inches of snow and a couple ice “events”. I love snow but I love it most on the weekends when I don’t have to go out anywhere. As a Midwest girl, born and raised, I know how to drive in the snow and I’m not afraid. However, I don’t like others who drive in any bad weather like they’re in a hurry to meet Jesus. It doesn’t help that I’m also still suffering from some residual trauma from my accident so driving has its challenging moments on dry pavement, let alone in slippery conditions.

I purchased a new car – I had to, really, as my other car was totaled. But I’m loving my new car, and I plan to pay her off and drive her until bits and pieces are falling out behind me. She’s a 2022 Hyundai Sonata and she’s a comfort car! Definitely one of the most luxurious cars I’ve ever owned so I’m very happy with her. Again, God’s perfect provision!

On a financial note, I’ve waged war against my debt. I don’t have a lot of it but what I do have, I’ve decided to put as much as I can towards getting it paid off. I’ve been using Dave Ramsey’s snowball method and already have paid off 2 credit cards! I have one more to go and then a small personal loan (I know, it’s a complete no-no!). Money has been on my mind lately as I’ve put some big goals into place. While praying about it, I felt God challenge me to go big in my giving and go even bigger in my faith.

So, God told me to ask BIG. And I did. I’m 56 years old. I want to retire when I’m supposed to and when I do, I want the house that I just bought last year to be completely paid off. I want to own nothing to no one. No house mortgage. No car payment. I want to be completely debt free by the time I retire.

Creatively, I struggled just a wee bit. I have way too many incomplete projects and more ideas and plans than I can shake a stick at. I also have a deficit of knowledge where some much-needed technology is concerned (like Procreate and learning to read crochet patterns). I allowed it to all bash me about mentally and put me in a bit of a funk. So, I took a weekend off from crafting, put my phone down (no Pinterest) and did some reading. I haven’t spent a weekend with a book in a really long time. It felt really good to get back into the old groove and even better not having a crochet needle in my hand, if only for a little while.

I read The Crow Trap, which is the first of the Vera Stanhope books by Ann Cleeves. It’s a long read as Ann doesn’t rush when introducing her characters. In fact, the character of Vera Stanhope isn’t fully realized until you’re almost halfway through the book. It was very good and, after finishing that, quickly picked up the next one in the series called Telling Tales. Again, it didn’t take me long to get through it. All in all, I was pleased to have my reading mojo back.

I can’t tell what helped me creatively more, reading or not spinning through Pinterest. I think I might give myself a social media break for lent and just refocus a bit. More God. More Word. More ideas. More finishing what I started. That’s a big goal for me for 2025. I don’t mind having a few projects going at once, but I have many more than that at the moment and it’s starting to grate against my anxiety. Too many tabs are open and I need to close a few.

After another long really cold snap, we’re finally warming up. It’s giving me Spring vibes in a huge way. This is the time of year when I count down to when the clocks turn back, and I wait for the snow to melt, revealing an ugly brown carpet of mud and dead grass. Spring is an ugly time of year as far as I’m concerned. However, I’m ready to put away the heavy coats, scarves, hats and gloves in favor of rain jackets, umbrellas and Wellingtons. It’s time to come out of hibernation, get out in the sunshine and take some walks. Already, I’ve noticed new blooms on the trees and increased birdsong. I can’t wait to sit outside and soak it all up.

February ended on a super high note! And you can read all about it here! I’m absolutely in love! God is so very good. And this next season of my life is about to be the best yet!

Photo courtesy of Glen Carrie via Unsplash.com

Moments and Musings

How To Stop Being So Sorry

Posted on March 4, 2021May 27, 2025 by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

Every since I was a child, I’ve always felt…wrong. Everything I did was wrong. Everything I said was wrong. I even looked wrong. Everyone around me always seemed to know the right thing to do and say and here I was – Lil’ Miss Awkward, wanting to badly to fit in and be accepted by those around me. I couldn’t measure up. Worse were the people in my life confirming my worst fears by either telling me to my face how weird I was or just walking completely out of my life without any explanation.

So, how did I cope? I began to apologize. For everything.

I said ‘I’m sorry’ for the things I said and the things I didn’t say. I said ‘I’m sorry’ for the things I did and for the things I didn’t do. I apologized for my immaturity and I apologized as I began to mature.

It started out being situational. I would say ‘I’m sorry’ in specific situations, like when a friend tripped over the sidewalk and I didn’t stop her from falling. Or if we were grading each other’s papers in school and I had to mark wrong an incorrect answer to a question.

I didn’t even know I was taking responsibility for things that didn’t even concern me. I just kept apologizing over and over. Before long, it wasn’t situational: it was personal. No longer was I sorry for things that went wrong but I was sorry for being wrong.

The phrase “I’m sorry” had become part of my everyday language to the point I didn’t even know what I was apologizing for.

I still don’t.

This habit has been hard to break and I still struggle with it today. It’s only been recently that I’ve discovered how much this lifelong habit has bled into my relationship with God. All these years I’ve spent apologizing has somehow translated and morphed into….I’m not good enough. How can God ever love me when I’m just not good enough?

Sound familiar? Has being sorry become a part of your personality, too?

If it has, let me share some good news with you. God’s not having it anymore! We’re too busy! Listen, if God’s Word is the antidote to what’s going on in the world – and it is – then we don’t have time for apologies to be part of who we are. We’ve apologized enough.

So how do we break this cycle? Two big important things were super helpful for me and I hope they will be to you.

The first thing God did was to reveal how hurtful this was to me. God didn’t create me to be sorry about my life. He created me to be victorious. Even named me Victoria! Jeremiah 29:11 is all about God hoping and planning good things for me. To be sorry for who I am is to be sorry about how God made me and that goes against what God says about me and to me. God said to me, “You’re not sorry; YOU ARE MINE.”

So now, whenever I say, ‘I’m sorry’, God says, “Are you really? Did you do something wrong? Is there something that’s really yours to repent from? Or are you sorry just out of habit.”

God expects me to be intentional when it comes to living life His way. Philippians 4:9 says,

“Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”

The second thing he did was to pull me out of my comfort zone and gave me a mission, so to speak. When the idea of Faith Love N Joy first came to me, I began telling God how I’m not good enough to do this. I began telling Him how sorry I am and that I will most likely fail. No one will read this. No one will care.

God said two things to me:

First, He reminded me of who I am to Him. I’m His daughter (John 1:12). I’m a joint-heir with Jesus (Romans 8:17). I am loved by the King of Kings (John 3:16). I’m a princess of Heaven (Proverbs 45:6)

Then He told me scores of people don’t have to read this – just the ones that need it. He wasn’t expecting perfection from me; He was expecting obedience.

I didn’t have to say sorry. I did have to say yes.

I am who God says I am.

I apologize to no one for being that.

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Moments and Musings

Overcoming the Prayer Struggle

Posted on January 18, 2021May 27, 2025 by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

Do you struggle with praying? Do you get discouraged with thoughts of not doing it “right”.

I sure have!

Trying to pray “the right way” is something I’ve struggled with all my life. Initially, I thought prayer was boring. Sitting in a room, timer on the table, list on front of me of stuff I had to pray for.

I believed prayer was for results, not relationship.

When praying in a group, I would break out in hives at the idea of being called upon to pray aloud. I felt I wasn’t good enough to pray or I didn’t have the right words to pray or I didn’t know enough of the Word to pray. Comparing myself to Sister Sally Sue who got at least 5 rounds of solid “amens” when she prayed. I would pray more to hear a “yes, Jesus” just to prove I wasn’t a bad pray-er.

And of course, Satan used this over and over, repeatedly telling me, “See, you’re not as good as they are. They know the Word and you don’t. God loves them more than you.”

I know I’m not the only one who’s experienced this! How many of you feel trapped in that? How many of you have been lied to into not praying?

The good news is this can be overcome. A small group of women at my last church humanized the idea of prayer for me. They lived out the relationship part so well that I found myself wanting to pray. I wanted the intimacy of knowing God so personally.

And guess what? When they prayed, it wasn’t perfect. They stumbled over their words, they stopped to gather their thoughts, they laughed and cried and even said the word, “um” once or twice. Their imperfection encouraged me. If these who knew the Word so much more than I did prayed so humanly, then so could I!

So here’s a few things I did to overcome my shyness about praying. I hope these ideas help you into a praying relationship with God.

Read the Word. If prayer is a conversation, then we must know the One we are conversing with. Knowing who God is and what He’s about helps us to understand more of what the conversation will be like. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Ask God to help you pray. God’s Word is all we need to get help in every situation, including prayer. John 14:13 encourages us to ask for help. It states, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do…” So if you need help knowing how to pray, just speak that verse and relate it to prayer.
Be yourself. This is probably the most important one. I fell into the comparison trap and lost precious time with God. I tried to copy the prayer style of others. God knows all about you. He wants a relationship with you on a one-on-one level. There’s nothing we can hide from Him.
Start simple. You do not need to thee and thou your conversation with God. He knows you! He wants to hear from YOU! If you’re stuck on where to start, just thank Him for who He is and all He’s done for you. The rest will follow, I promise!
Be honest and real. When my mom died, I went to God and let Him know I didn’t understand Him or His plan in this. I was so upset and in so much pain. I cried out to Him out of complete fear and anger. God was a total gentleman and He said, “Vikki, I hear you. I love you. I won’t leave you. You can either move forward with me, or without me. With me will be so much better but the choice is yours.” (Yes, God is that real with me!)

There are days when I start out in prayer. There are days when I end in prayer. There are also days when I pray little prayers all day. I don’t always quote the Word back to Him or remind Him of His promises to me, although that’s a great way to pray. Sometimes, I talk to Him as a wife would to a husband and sometimes, I talk with Him as a daughter would to her father. Most often, I talk with Him like the best friend I know Him to be. But I do talk with Him each day.

Getting to know God through prayer is pretty cool, if you think about it. The Bible educates us about God but prayer brings about the intimacy of the relationship.

So without fear, I encourage you. Find your spot. Get your cup of coffee. Grab your blanket. And talk with Jesus. I guarantee you, friend – Jesus cannot wait to hear from you!

Let me know in the comments how it goes. I’m praying for you!