Kindly, Kayla

Hi friends!! Happy September. I always love it when the first day of a new month starts on a Monday. Something about it just feels right.

It’s 12:08 AM. I’m currently typing this sitting on the couch. I’m eating pumpkin cheesecake ice cream and listening to Whitney Houston. I feel a sense of excitement and expectancy for the rest of the year.

First of all, I love FALL. I know it technically doesn’t start until September 22, but to ME, autumn begins on September 1st. Something about this season brings me immense joy. It’s the pumpkin cold foam chai lattes. The leaves starting to change color. Rewatching Gilmore Girls. This season feels like the best time of the year. ☕️🍂🧣

Life Update 🍁

I also feel a sense of expectancy because I feel like God is doing a new thing in my life.

These past few weeks have been crazy, chaotic, stressful, yet good. I started a new job at an elementary school. I began my 4th semester of grad school. I got sick (bc kids are so germy lol). Now that I finally feel settled in after a wide range of emotions, I actually feel hope in my heart.

First things first, there’s a lot of things happening at my job. There are specifics that I cannot get into. However, I can tell you there’s a lot of instability. Overloaded classrooms, teacher shortages, I could go on but you get it. Despite these circumstances, I feel peace. I know that God is leading me through these situations. He’s trying to grow something in me. These circumstances have allowed me to see the evidence of God working in me. God helped me get this job in the first place. Now that I’m in it, I’m starting to see why He led me here. God has used my previous hardships to build and strengthen me up to handle this job. Kayla pre-2024 would not have been equipped to handle this job and actually feel like staying there. 2025 Kayla recognizes that there are challenges and hard moments, and that’s okay. She actually wants to stay and endure. She chooses to see the positives over the negatives. My past trials prepared me for this, and this challenge is preparing me for something bigger! Nobody but God could change my mindset in this way. It amazes me to think about how each day we are growing and becoming more like Him.

I also feel a sense of hope because this year looks a lot different than last year. Last year, around this time, I had just found out that my jaw was misaligned on both sides. I was barely able to get soup down. Just this week I’ve had pizza, catfish, chicken, YOU NAME IT. One side of my jaw is fully healed and the other side is on it’s way to getting there!! God is so awesome. I can’t wait until the day I get to make a blog post sharing my full testimony of how God completely healed me. He changed my perspective and brought me closer to Him. I’m expectant and waiting on Him to fulfill His promise of healing to me. And one thing I know for sure is that He always keeps His promises.

¹⁰ Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
    I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. Isaiah 48:10 ESV

⁶ In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷ so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:6-7

Little Joys ☕️

Little joys are small things that bring me immense joy! It’s waking up and making your favorite coffee drink. Going on daily walks. Finding that new song you’re obsessed with and playing it on repeat until you get sick of it. Here are some of the things that brought me joy in August.

• The song “Call Me When You Get This” by Corrine Bailey Rae.
• Walking around Barnes and Noble, feeling like the main character in a romantic comedy film.
• Spreading the Gospel outside of a Dollar General with the Women’s Ministry at my church. (Doing acts of service for others and actually forgetting about myself for once brought me joy. Many of our problems stem from focusing on ourselves too much. We should practice the art of self-forgetfulness more. I’ll share more on this in a later blog post…)
• Receiving sweet drawings from my students!!
• Drinking a vanilla chai latte on the way to work every morning!!!!
• Being capable of seeing little winks/confirmations from God that blow my mind!!! (More on this in a future post….)

Monthly Goals ✨

As someone who struggles with perfectionism, I have spent time rethinking my monthly goals. I want my goals to be attainable, stress-free, and more intentional. I no longer expect perfection from myself. I just want to make progress, even if it’s only a little bit every day. I also want to incorporate fun things!! Life doesn’t have to be so serious all of the time. I think it’s important to enjoy life as it’s short. So here are my goals for the month of September.

• Wake up earlier to make sure I spend time with God every morning, even if it’s only a few minutes.
• Try all the different fall chai lattes at the different coffee shops in my area!!
• Work out at least 3x a week.
• Go to a fall festival!!
• Read 3 books this month.
• Go to the fair!!

That’s all, folks! Usually, when I write my blog posts, I type up an outline of what I want to talk about. This time, I just typed from the top of my head. I apologize if it was all over the place. I suddenly felt inspired and wanted to let it all out and quickly so that I could share it today.

I truly hope that you enjoy September and feel just as excited for this new season as I do. I pray that you see how much God cares about every single detail in your life. He has great plans for you. Although seasons change, our Heavenly Father remains the same.

Thank you so much for reading.

Kindly,

Kayla ♡

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.

Ecclesiastes 3:1