Skip to content
Jessica Fralin

Jessica Fralin

  • ABOUT JESSICA
  • SPEAKING
  • COPYWRITING
  • CONTACT
  • RESOURCES
    • #MAKEMONDAYKIND
    • SHELF
Scroll down to content

Posts

Posted on November 30, 2017November 30, 2017

hope on the rise.

As soon as the Christmas tree goes up every year, my morning routine shifts. All I want to do is pour a cup of coffee & linger in front of it, taking in the silence of the morning & the softness of its glow (team white lights FOREVER, you guys). I can see those little …

Continue reading "hope on the rise."

Posted on May 1, 2017May 1, 2017

What I’m Reading: 2017 part one.

This year, I rediscovered the library. I've loved to read since I was three. (I know, the nerd in me showed up early & has been going strong ever since.) If I close my eyes, I can still picture the library in my hometown neighborhood, can still smell that well-read paper & feel that calming …

Continue reading "What I’m Reading: 2017 part one."

Posted on April 17, 2017April 17, 2017

on taking deep breaths.

Tonight, I'm crashing into bed proud of myself. Over the past three weeks, I've pushed myself harder than I can remember. I took on three new clients in an already insane season. I worked a lot of 12+ hour days - and still went to bed on time. I took care of my body. Today, I …

Continue reading "on taking deep breaths."

Posted on March 13, 2017

#makeMondaykind: An Introduction

Last week's giveaway was so much fun for me - not just because I got to share some of my favorite products with y'all (congrats to Lauren from Texas for winning!), but because I saw you guys get on board. You're ready to share kindness & kick start your week with a dose of encouragement. …

Continue reading "#makeMondaykind: An Introduction"

Posted on March 6, 2017

The #makeMondaykind Giveaway!

It's my birthday week, but I want to give some things I love to YOU. So here we go - the very first #makeMondaykind giveaway! (To learn more about #makeMondaykind, click here.) The winner will receive: 1️⃣ Two copies of Darling Magazine No. 18 - one for you to keep, one for you to make Monday …

Continue reading "The #makeMondaykind Giveaway!"

Posted on December 24, 2016December 24, 2016

Something Worth Rejoicing Over

“A thrill of hope; the weary world rejoices. For yonder breaks a new & glorious morn.” O Holy Night has always been my favorite Christmas song, & I've always held that lyric close. But this year, it hits new depths in my soul. Because this year, more than ever before, I’m weary. I’m weary of opinions …

Continue reading "Something Worth Rejoicing Over"

Posted on September 9, 2016September 9, 2016

The Year I Stopped Trying to Control People

2016 will go down as the year I stopped trying to control people. Not that I was successfully controlling them before. But I tried. Wow, did I try. My soul still has some scars that prove it — on their way to healed, but still visible if you look hard enough. I think my heart …

Continue reading "The Year I Stopped Trying to Control People"

Posts navigation

Page 1 Page 2 … Page 11 Next page

LET’S GET TO SOCIALIZING.

  • View jessicafralinwrites’s profile on Facebook
  • View jessicafralin’s profile on Twitter
  • View jessicafralin’s profile on Instagram

Instagram

Welcoming spring weather back with a lil front yard Bible study prep session. Listen, y’all already know how much I love my Tuesday crew. They’re such an amazing group of women. I cannot oversell the value of having people gather in your living room to eat snacks and walk through breakups and celebrate promotions and hear from Jesus week in and week out. It’ll heal your soul like nothing else. Find your people and DO IT. Today, I’m sitting here on my great-grandmother’s quilt, getting especially wistful about all the communities it’s been a part of. I’m so grateful to come from a long line of women who have flung open their front doors and refrigerators and said, “come in, eat and drink and be welcome. My home is yours, too.” My legacy is full of strong ladies who knew the importance of hospitality, the sacredness of creating safe spaces that make people want to kick off their shoes & stay for a while. I’ll keep this picnic blanket forever - and every time I sit here, I’ll invite people to come, sit, stay, and be loved here, too. 💛 #tuesdaystogether
Do you ever feel like your heart just might burst? We always say that - “my heart is bursting” - to reference happy feelings. But I’ve spent a lot of days walking around with… well, most emotions I know how to name (and a few I don’t.) Happiness, of course, is in there - nature makes me well up with love every time I wander in it, sitting around the table with people I love threatens to undo me because of its simple sacredness. But there are other feelings elbowing their way in, too. Longing is taking up a lot of space right about now. Longing to see the end of meaningless violence splashed across headlines every days, longing for any needle & thread that would hold a dear friend’s marriage together as I watch it unravel, longing for an oasis in the spiritual wilderness I’m in the midst of. Throw in a dash of anger, a pinch of sadness, and a handful of holy anticipation for what’s ahead. That’s my heart right now. It feels like it might burst at any minute. Having all these emotions tangling together in my soul seems like it would be a weight heavier than I want to carry. But it’s not. I want to feel every moment of heavy and light, because for so many years, I numbed myself to feeling at all. The world told me my heart was too much - that I was too much - and I listened, shut it down, shrank back so as not to offend. But now, thanks to the Holy Spirit and some gut-wrenching therapy sessions, I’m finally embracing emotions in healthy ways, learning to hold the good with the bad. I thought it would feel miserable to open myself up. But it feels… human. It feels like I’ve finally given my soul the space it needs to live. If you’re filled to the brim with goodness and sadness and joy and grief and anticipation, know you’re not alone. Know you’re not too much. And know that emotions are a gift, a crucial piece to the healthy human experience. Don’t stonewall and shut down and go robotic on us. We need you. Your heart, and everything it holds, is what will make you come alive to your calling. So come alive again - live wholehearted. If your heart bursts open in the process, let it. It might just break the chains you’ve had around it for too long, anyway.
Honestly? I’m over social media today. (To prove it, here’s a picture of my favorite plant with our cable cord smack in the middle of it. Ain’t nobody got time for perfection here. 😂) See, no matter how much I guard who I follow & what I see, the toxicity of social media has a way of seeping back into my bloodstream from time to time. The heaviness of the world, the hate between people, the highlight reels that bring constant comparisons - it’s all too much. Thankfully, my heart’s learning to tap me on the shoulder when it’s had enough. And I’m learning to listen. For me, soul health means unplugging from this - for an hour, for a day, for a week. Whatever it takes to root myself back into the ground of my real, in-person life. Screens are no substitute for flesh & bone community. There’s plenty of psychological and spiritual research to back me up on this: we ALL need to unplug, to reset, to settle down and settle in from time to time. I hear the argument often: “I have to be on here for my job / passion / platform.” Sure. So do I. But your job is not more important than your soul. Never has been. Never will be. If you’ve been feeling weighted down and tired, if you have empathy exhaustion from the constant horrors in the headlines, if you find yourself rolling your eyes at every third post you see - take. a. break. You soul will thank you. And you’ll be better for it. 💛
Here's what I know: Jesus delights in us even on mundane, rainy work weeks filled with less-than-glamorous projects. He's not obsessed with seeing our names in lights. He meets us in the normal, in the gritty, in the unseen. And gosh, am I ever grateful for that. (He’s also not judging me for the hundreds of fingerprints on my MacBook, so I need you not to, either. 😂)
If you’re experiencing Easter heavy-hearted this year, that’s okay. Theologically, sure, you’re resting in the hope of resurrection. But experientially, there are things in your life that look deader than dead. If that’s you, you’re not alone. The resurrection of Jesus doesn’t immediately fix every broken place, in and around us. It brings hope that He WILL. We’re in the already and the not yet. And that brings tension. Today might not feel glorious. But glory is coming. So if you, or the things around you, are broken today; if you’re swimming in a sea of doubt and questioning and uncertainty; if your church preached happy-clappy victory and you’re still in the heart of the battle - I just want to remind you that liminal space is a okay place to land today. You don’t have to hide where you are. Jesus is in the wilderness, too. 💛
It’s Good Friday. But to those of us who hold Jesus near, this day was anything but good. Resurrection is a central piece to His story - and to ours. But what can be resurrected that hasn’t died? It’s easy to fast forward through today, to treat our hearts as though Sunday’s already arrived. But it hasn’t. Today, we feel the weight of a King who has died - for us. If I can’t wrestle with the deep & painful points in Jesus’s timeline, I’ve found I also can’t wrestle with my own. I’m not comfortable holding pain and joy and grief and tension all together. I just want the highlight reel. But if grief has a place in the story of the God I follow, I’m learning to let it have a place in mine. To grieve over broken relationships and broken places in my soul and a broken world. To grieve that some days, it looks like evil is winning. But even as I grieve, I have hope, stirring below the surface. I know He’s rising. But not yet. See, it’s only when we sit with the weight of today’s sorrow that we’ll be able to fully hold the weight of Sunday’s glory. Today marks the day He was laid in a tomb. But He will rise. And hallelujah, so will we. So sit with pain and grief and sadness, in the Easter story & in your own, but hold on to hope. Resurrection’s on its way.
Blog at WordPress.com.
Jessica Fralin
Blog at WordPress.com.
Cancel