Last summer, my friend Kayla and I sat in her back yard with our collection of eight children running and laughing around us. We had been bandying around an idea: what if we built a faith-strengthening tool that was part devotional, part planner? It would be aimed at encouraging the generation of young women we loved working with at our church. We wanted to see them live their faith out in an others-minded, service-oriented, God-honoring way. Kayla was a whiz at layout and design. I loved playing with words. It seemed doable, right?

In between tying shoes and unwrapping freeze pops, I remember tapping my pen against my notebook, saying Yes, YES, YES. Let’s DO this.

I started scrawling thoughts about my bible reading in a notebook that July. As fall progressed, and my son played happily with his Legos while his sisters were in school, I kept “writing down the bones”, as author Natalie Goldberg puts it. Bone after bone connected into a topical collection, organized by month. These devotional thoughts, built on teaching from the Bible, spanned into enough content for nine months. Kayla filled in content for the other three, and then worked her design magic to create the planner, complete with weekly calendars, health, activity, and social media trackers, and notes pages to encourage thought journaling. Meanwhile, our friend Rebecca (@rebecca.p.morrison.art on IG) created some amazing original coloring and doodle pages to include in the content.

It sounds so easy, laid out like that. 😉

A couple of months ago, Kayla unexpectedly plopped two copies of a book in my hands. It was our planner in real life, complete with glossy cover, paper pages, and that magical, new book smell. A small team of friends read through the proof, poured over edits, and worked to make it stronger.

And somehow, here we are! The Faithful-Minded planner, published and sold by Joyful and Free Paperie, releases July 1, 2020. It’s an academic planner, meant to follow high school, college, and young adult women through their daily, weekly, and monthly rhythms. As a collaborative team, we hope this tool helps young women create God-centered habits and routines, recognize their abilities to love and serve others, and take initiative to grow in their faith.

The Faithful-Minded planner is available for pre-order now through July 1st for $18. After the official release on July 1, the regular price will be $22. Secure purchases can be made through the Joyful and Free Paperie site via PayPal.

This planner has been a joy to write for and collaborate on, and I’m so excited to see it released into your hands. Please feel free to share this post, send it to anyone who might be interested, and follow @joyfulandfree_paperie on Instagram for more encouraging content!