Cover It With Love

There are certain seasons of life that never really leave you. Even when the years pass, they remain tucked inside your heart, still speaking, still shaping, still reminding you of who God was to you in that moment.

About eleven years ago, I was invited to be part of a Discipleship With a Purpose Leadership Course. At the time, I was serving on the Board of Directors for One Life at a Time, a missional organization through Hill Country Bible Church. The mission of One Life at a Time was deeply close to my heart: to empower survivors of sex trafficking by serving their restoration needs with faith, hope, love, and the life-changing reality of Jesus Christ.

It was holy work. Tender work. The kind of work that opens your eyes and stretches your heart.

During those six months in the leadership course, we studied scriptures that spoke so deeply to me I began writing them on index cards. I wanted to keep them close. I wanted to be able to reach for them in the ordinary moments, in the hard moments, and in the moments when I needed to remember who God is and who He was calling me to be.

I kept those little cards with me, and over time they became more than notes from a course. They became companions. They held truth for the days when I felt strong and full of purpose, and they held truth for the days when I felt weary, weak in body, and even tired in spirit.

And isn’t that just like God?

He knows how to plant His Word in our lives at exactly the right time, knowing we will need it again and again in seasons still to come. What I studied back then was not only for that season of leadership. It was for this season too. And for every season where I would need His strength more than my own.

Recently, I pulled those index cards back out and noticed they are beginning to fade. The ink is lighter now. The edges are worn. Time has left its mark on them, just as life has left its mark on me.

But what is written on my heart has not faded.

Those scriptures still speak. They still steady me. They still remind me that leadership, in God’s kingdom, is not about striving or recognition. It is about surrender. It is about serving. It is about being willing to be shaped by love, strengthened by truth, and led by Christ.

So I want to share those verses here, on these digital pages, as a way of preserving what God used to form something lasting in me. What once lived on handwritten cards can now live here—still breathing life, still offering hope, still pointing back to His faithfulness.

Maybe that is part of the beauty of walking with God over time: the paper may fade, but His Word does not. His purpose does not. His presence does not.

And for that, I am deeply grateful.

Here are the verses – we used the NIV for our study:

Luke 9 23-24

Then he said to them all, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will loose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it”

Luke 9:62

Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God

1 Corinthians 6: 19-20

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body

Luke 14:26

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple.”

2 Peter 1 2-4

Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption of the world caused by evil desires.

Matthew 6:33

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all of these things will be given to you as well”

Philippians 3: 7-8

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compare to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ”

1 Corinthians 10: 13

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Matthew 20: 26-18

Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Philippians 2: 1-5

If you have encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, the make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

Hebrews 10:23-25

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together as some are the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – all the more as you see the Day approaching.

1 Peter 4:10

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms

Luke 6:40

A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.

Ephesians 5: 1-2

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Ephesians 4: 11-13

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

2 Corinthians 3: 2-3

You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not on ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts

Romans 12: 1-2

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Thank you will be able to test and approved what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Luke 6: 46-47

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice.”

2 Timothy 2: 1-3

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:24

The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

losing Prayer
Lord, thank You for the ways You speak to us in every season of life. Thank You for planting Your Word deep within our hearts, where time cannot erase it and trials cannot steal it. Thank You for being faithful in seasons of strength and in seasons of weakness.

As I reflect on the journey You have carried me through, remind me again that true leadership begins with surrender. Teach me to serve with humility, love with compassion, and follow You with courage. Let the truths You wrote on my heart continue to guide me, strengthen me, and give me purpose.

May these words encourage someone else to hold tightly to Your promises and trust that what You begin in us, You are faithful to complete.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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