5 Friday Favorites: November 7, 2025
It's time for my Friday link up with A Little Bit of Everything and Momfessionals.
On Fridays I share things that made me happy from the week - a photo, a song, a quote, a beauty product, a recipe, a pair of cute shoes, etc. If it's a product, sometimes it's something I actually own and sometimes something I just saw online that gave me a smile. Sometimes it's serious and sometimes it's silly. I suppose I believe that God is in the simple details of life and yes, I can even find Him in a tube of lipstick.
Hello and Happy Friday! It’s November and this little person turns 21 years old tomorrow.
It’s literally the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. But it is also the greatest thing because as I’ve said before watching my little boys turn into adults is the best adventure of my life. My children are the coolest people on the planet. I simply cannot be convinced otherwise.
Here are some other favorite things from the week.
The Diplomat
Apparently, this show has been around awhile, but Steve and I just watched the first two seasons and it is so good. The relationship between Keri Russell’s character, Kate and her husband is both hilarious and a little deranged. Great acting and the plot keeps you on your toes.
2. A Thousand Hallelujahs
I heard this song this week and it’s beautiful.
3. A Thanksgiving Dress
I did not order this dress so I’m not sure if the fabric is too summery, but I think this would be so cute with tall boots for Thanksgiving dinner. It comes in a few other patterns and colors, but I love this one.
4. Round Toe Boots
Again, I did not order these boots, so I cannot vouch for their comfort or quality, but these are the boots I envision with the dress above. I personally like a round or square toe on a boot because a pointed toe makes me feel like I should be line dancing. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I just don’t do a lot of line dancing. Anyway, in my hypothetical Thanksgiving Dress with my hypothetical Thanksgiving boots, I expect to serve a hypothetical turkey that doesn’t dry out. A girl can dream.
5. Some Thoughts on Fear, Truth & the Power to Choose
I wrote a version of this in 2018 when I had one boy in college, one who was a senior in high school and one in the emotional hellscape that we call middle school. I wish that I could say that I don’t have any of “those nights” anymore. They are definitely fewer, but they still show up. I had a conversation with a mom this week who is having lots of these nights. It made me remember the fear and it made me remember how important it is to open our Bibles. He always tells the truth. He always gives a way. It is our choice to look for it or not.
It was one of those nights. From about 4:45 am - 6:30 am I lay awake with 6,432 questions swirling.
“Am I saying the right things? Am I saying too many things? Am I not saying enough things? Am I not being active enough? Am I not being patient enough? Did I remind him of that danger? Will he know how to handle that circumstance? Would it be illegal for me to institute some sort of lockdown/house arrest situation? Should I search for an ankle monitor on Amazon?”
Guess how many answers that hour and a half gave me? Exactly zero.
The world our kids walk into everyday is scary. There are legitimate threats to their well-being. I suppose there is no choice about that. Ironically, we constantly remind our kids to make good choices, and yet we choose to spend hours in the middle of the night ruminating on worst case scenarios as if that will make them disappear. We are making a choice to live in fear. We are making a choice to sit in our heads, listening to the voice that says, “Jenn, you in danger, Girl. And so are all your people.”
There are other choices. When I woke up this morning, I made one. I looked for truth. After two hours of fear mongering in my bed, it took me exactly two minutes to find truth in the pages of the first chapter of Joshua.
What I found was the same thing written six times in one chapter. “BE STRONG and COURAGEOUS.” He even throws in a “Be VERY strong and courageous” at one point. Six times! And while these commands are powerful, the most important verses to me are the ones in between them. He doesn’t tell us to be strong and courageous without giving us a way. We are not strong and courageous on our own. We simply can’t be. So He tells us how.
Verse 7 says, “be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you, do not turn from it to the right or to the left.” Verse 8 says, “Keep this Book of the Law on your lips; meditate on it day and night.” And most importantly, verse 9 reminds us “the Lord your God will be with you (and your knuckleheaded teenagers) wherever you go.”
Not sure which version contains the “knuckleheaded teenagers” reference, but I feel like it’s out there somewhere.
Joshua must have been scared to lead the Israelites after Moses died. He probably didn’t feel up to it, mature enough or smart enough for it. But he was chosen for the task and he was not asked to do it without direction and certainly not on his own.
The same is true for us as parents. We can be strong and courageous. We can lead our families. God didn’t just randomly throw these children into our laps. Perhaps we haven’t been chosen to lead an entire nation into the Promised Land, but he did choose us specifically for these kids. This responsibility is not an accident.
Years ago when I was spinning out about something, my mom interrupted me, abruptly stopping my panicked bellyaching and said, “Let me ask you something. Do you trust Him or not?
Today I’ll take a page from Patsy’s book and say this: “Let me ask you something, Do you believe that Scripture is true or not?”
If you do, there is a choice to make. Listen to the anxious voices in your head spin for hours. Or take a couple of minutes to put that head into your Bible. Make a choice to look for truth. It’s there.
Thanks so much for reading and have a great weekend.
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