My newest book Small Steps (cue the preorders!)

Written on 16 March 2026.

I’m delighted to share with you my newest book, Small Steps: Blessings to Lift Your Soul on the Pilgrimage of Life. My favorite things: walking, blessings, celebrating the ordinary, and living with attention fill the pages of Small Steps. As a mother, pastor, and avid walker, this book feels like the truest extension of what I hope to share with the world — the reminder that we don’t walk alone.

Small Steps: Blessings to Lift Your Soul on the Pilgrimage of Life comes out on Tuesday, May 5th, 2026.

About the Book

Small Steps is a collection of blessings and essays that meet the reader in their everyday life: the nitty gritty, down-in-the-dirt, dishes-piled-in-the-sink, carpool-waiting, caring-for-family-and-friends life. These blessings invite readers to see the world before them with hope. These blessings relate to the reader as pilgrims in this life — those who put one foot in front of the other, pay attention, and savor the ordinary miracles before them. Small Steps takes the lens of pilgrimage witnessing our everyday lives as journeys. Blessings aren’t meant to be kept to ourselves, and in reading this collection the reader is invited to see their whole life with the reminder that God is always with them, wherever they go.

Preorder Your Copy!

When to Offer a Blessing

Blessings can be whispered in the dark or shouted from the pulpit. They can be spoken with tears in your eyes or through joyous laughter. Sometimes they are simply sighs. They are available to you from the moment you wake until your head returns to the pillow. Blessings can come in the deep sleep of our dreams. They can be spoken at the first sign of sickness, the tired eyes and hot foreheads, or after the relief of a clear scan. At the bedside, on the bus, before the interview, the first practice, the big game, recital, before or after a meal. In welcoming friends to dinner. For a new friendship, changing friendships, or in the desire for companionship.

You can use ancient words from the Bible: The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace (Number 6:24-26). Or speak the same words over and over: Help, please, be with them.

Blessing can happen while celebrating another year. Or when plunging your hands in hot water to wash dishes, setting the table, spreading peanut butter and jelly, packing kids’ lunches, and doling out snacks. Blessings for strength, clarity. For peace and patience. For love. For remembering to keep going. Before that phone call. When you make the appointment. When your children slam their doors. When a relationship crumbles. For the latest headline. For the pit you feel in your stomach. Blessings also come in the delight in listening to your child read out loud. Watching your loved ones sleep peacefully and safely.

For the gift of this day.

For the hope of tomorrow.

Preorder Your Copy!

How Can You Support My Writing and the Book?

PRE-ORDER the book today! For you or a friend or your church small group (or all the above!)
Share this email with a friend
Like, comment, or restack this post
Ask your local bookstore or library to purchase Small Steps
Did I mention pre-order Small Steps? Preordering is so important to the life of a book. Buying the book before release day signals to publishers and retailers that this book is one to promote.

I’d love to write you a personal blessing

If you are a part of a church and order 5 or more copies, I’d love to write a piece of liturgy, a blessing, or a newsletter article for your congregation! Anything you’d like to help your congregation deepen their understanding of blessing.

For anyone who buys 3 or more copies of Small Steps, send me a note and I’ll write a personal blessing for you on the topic or theme of your choice.

If you’re local to Cole Camp, Missouri, I’d love to celebrate with you in person at WAM on Friday, May 1st in the evening! We’ll have live music, books to purchase, and a reading from Small Steps.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am excited for you to have these words in your hands soon! And for the blessings to meet you in your lives with a word of hope.