Blog - Jodie Berndt

Face Tattoos and the Wonders of His Love

12.23.2025

How could I have forgotten the face tattoos?

I don’t know whether to credit Myers-Briggs, the Enneagram, or even the Rorschach, but there’s something in my brain that prompts me to take life’s good moments in stride and let the bad ones pitch their tents in my head. The face tats – or lack thereof – is just one recent (and yes, pathetic) example.

We’d managed to secure a tailgate spot and football tix for our crew of 16 for this year’s Commonwealth Cup between our beloved UVA Cavaliers and the dastardly HokieBirds from just over the mountain. Never mind that two of our sons-in-law graduated from Virginia Tech or that temps were forecast to be in the high 20’s at game time; our whole crowd was pumped.

I’d packed ham biscuits, chicken tenders, and the Coleman stove for the chili; goldfish and cheese sticks for the under-5 set; homemade sugar cookies decorated with U’s, V’s, and A’s; and a comprehensive assortment of cheer gear, including pompoms, party beads, and face tattoos with the UVA logo. We were ready to party—and the ‘Hoos did not disappoint. Even one of the two-year olds was still cheering in the 4th Quarter (three hours past bedtime) as UVA locked up the win.

I went to bed happy, visions of field-storming fans dancing away in my head.

The next morning, I woke up and realized—gasp!—that I had never unpacked the face tattoos. The tattoos! The ones I had purchased long before we had grandkids and was saving—saving!—for such a time as this. Somehow, suddenly, the whole priceless experience was compromised.

The Bible calls thoughts like these “little foxes,” seemingly small issues that can eat away at and destroy something precious, be it an experience, a relationship, or the security that comes with knowing we are beloved by God. And while missing cheer gear is a ridiculously minor example (and believe me, I am not proud that I gave it even a moment’s consideration), the reality is that our brains often hang on to negative thoughts more than positive ones. Psychologists call this the negativity bias.

Which is one of the reasons, I think, that God exhorts us to “sing praise and tell of all his wonderful acts” and “remember the wonders he has done” (1 Chronicles 16:9-12). Reflecting on the wonders of God’s love comes with the power to fill us with peace and transform our perspective, bringing us out of darkness and into the light.

This theme weaves its way through the Bible, perhaps nowhere as colorfully as in the Psalms. In Psalm 40, David writes about God lifting him out of the “slimy pit, out of the mud and mire,” a wondrous rescue that equips him to trust God’s plans for his future. Psalm 139 reveals the deeply personal and intentional nature of God’s creative power, knitting us together—“fearfully and wonderfully”—in the womb. And Psalm 78 points to the generational spiritual legacy that comes with telling our kids about the God’s praiseworthy deeds and the wonders he’s done: “Even the children yet to be born” will put their trust in the Lord!

Christmas is a season of wonder. This year, as we find ourselves surrounded by the sparkle of it all—lights, music, gifts, beauty—let’s pause to reflect on the ways God has been wonderful to us. Let’s talk about his praiseworthy deeds. And if God feels distant (or when the the little foxes conspire to steal our joy and and take our gaze off of God), let’s lean in. Let’s ask God, as David did, to hear our prayer, be our refuge, and show us the wonders of his great love. (Psalm 17:7)

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

The Best Back-to-School Deal in Your In-Box

08.25.2025

It’s back-to-school season, and whether you’ve been packing lunches and signing permission slips for nearly a month or the big yellow cheesewagon (a.k.a. the school bus) won’t be rumbling through your neighborhood until after Labor Day, the pressure to shop is everywhere. I don’t even have kids at home, but my instagram feed is filled with so many “great deals” that I can almost smell the pencil shavings. And in a moment of nostalgic weakness last week, I bought a new backpack.

Do I need a new backpack? I don’t know yet. But the savings were too good to pass up!

At least I’m not alone. According to the National Retail Federation, families with a student in grades K-12 are expected to spend an average of $858.07 on new clothes, shoes, school supplies, and electronics this year; if your kid is headed to college, tack on another $500 or so. And that doesn’t even factor in the cost of first-day flowers for the teacher.

Grease-the-skids expenses aside, it’s not just your wallet that can take a hit during back-to-school season. There can be an emotional price-tag as well. One of my empty-nest friends confided that she still hates Labor Day. “It’s the signal that summer is over,” she said, “and I was always the mom in a puddle of tears at the bus stop. I didn’t want to let my kids go.”

(Of course, after a long summer of piecing together childcare or wondering how long sunscreen can go past the expiration date as you slather the kids up for the pool, you might be ready for a return to the routine. You might even be celebrating.)

Wherever you are on the back-to-school spectrum – sobbing or singing or a little of both – I know you love your kids and you want God’s best for them in the coming year. Which is why I’m sliding into your inbox on this Monday morning with one of my favorite back-to-school must-haves: A collection of printable prayers to help you cover everything from first-day jitters to new friendships to character traits like wisdom and self-control.

Click here to download all 12 prayers. You can tuck one or two into your prayer journal, pop them into your child’s backpack or a college care package, or post them next to the coffee pot in the kitchen, both as a reminder to pray and a signal (to you and your children) that God has them covered.

I can’t think of a better (or more powerful) back-to-school deal.

(Especially since this one is free.)

Have a great year! May the Lord cause you to flourish, both you and your children! (Psalm 115:14)

Experience God’s Power in Seasons of Suffering

06.13.2025

“God has a lot on his plate—people with cancer, marriages falling apart, teenagers battling addiction—and I don’t want to be clogging the lines in case somebody with something really important is trying to get through.” I’ve heard that line, or some version of it, any number of times as I’ve talked with people about how to experience God’s power through prayer. We don’t want to “bug” God with our problems. And if our particular worry or pain has gone on for a long time, we may wonder if God has some secret reason for our suffering.

Maybe, we think, we are just supposed to endure it.

Is that what the crippled woman thought when she went into the synagogue where Jesus was teaching? She’d had what the Bible calls a “disabling spirit” for 18 years. Reading her story in Luke 13:10-17, my mind swirled with questions: Was she hopeful? Discouraged? Resigned to her situation? Did she think Jesus could heal her? Did she wonder if he cared?

And could Jesus even see her in the crowd?

He could, of course. And when he did, Jesus stopped what he was doing—he interrupted his own sermon—to call her over. “Woman,” he said, “you are freed from your disability.” (Luke 13:12)

And with that, the woman in the synagogue stood up straight and praised God.

Three Ways to Experience God’s Power

The Bible doesn’t indicate that this nameless woman ever asked to be healed; all we know is that she was “there.” She was at the synagogue where Jesus was teaching. And that, I think, is the first key to experiencing God’s transformational power: Proximity.

We don’t have to know how to pray or what to ask for when we come to Jesus; we can simply show up. It doesn’t matter what our problem is—whether we are crippled by sickness, fear, addiction, uncertainty, or anything else. When we draw close to God, we discover a place of confidence and security. “I will praise the Lord, who counsels me,” King David wrote. “With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” (Psalm 16:7-8)

But proximity isn’t the only key to experiencing God’s power. We also have to be willing to listen for his voice—and respond.

When Jesus stopped teaching and called the crippled woman to come forward, do you think she was nervous? Worried about being the center of attention? Concerned about bugging Jesus, especially in front of a crowd—even as she longed to experience his power? I can imagine her feeling all of these things (particularly in a culture that did not value healthy women, let alone those who were sick or disfigured), but she didn’t let any of that hold her back.

Instead, she said responded to Christ. She said yes.

The woman positioned herself to be proximate to the Lord. She heard his call and said yes. And then, as she experienced freedom in Christ and stood upright for the first time in nearly two decades, the third step just came naturally: She glorified God, in whose presence she found “fullness of joy.” (Psalm 16:11)

Drawing near to God, responding to his invitation, and acknowledging his provision with praise are three keys to experiencing—and enjoying—God’s presence. But they are not, for me, the biggest takeaway from this woman’s story.

For me, the most remarkable part of the story—and the part that has been transformational for my prayer life—is that the woman could not actually see Jesus, at least not like the others could. Depending on which Bible translation you prefer, she was “bowed together,” “bent over double”, or not able to “look upwards at all.” I imagine this gal longed to behold the Lord’s face but, hunched as she was, she could glimpse only his feet.

God knows the way that you take

Job might have understood how she felt. In his suffering, he desperately wanted to see God—to know what God was doing, to plead his case, to get some sort of answer—but he could not find him. “When he is at work in the north,” Job wrote, “I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.

“But,” Job continued, “he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” (Job 23:9-10)

I don’t know about you, but when life has me weighed down and bent over (that is to say, when it’s a struggle to look upwards at all), or when I can’t perceive God or make sense out of what he is doing, those words breathe hope into my soul: I catch no glimpse of him. But he knows the way that I take.

God knows the way that we take. And as we consider Christ’s tenderness in hitting pause on whatever he was talking about in the synagogue to attend to a crippled woman that day, we can be equally confident that when we come before God with our needs and concerns, we are never bugging him. We are doing the very thing that delights him.

When you cannot imagine anything changing

What about you?

Can you relate to the crippled woman’s experience? Is there a “disabling” relationship or circumstance that has gone on for so long that you cannot imagine anything changing? Do you worry that you’ll be “bugging” God if you talk to him about it, especially since he has been silent for what feels like forever?

Instead of holding back, try leaning in. Draw close to God. Ask him to open your ears to his invitation—to let you hear the words he wants you to hear—and respond with whatever praise you can muster. Glorify God, as the crippled woman did, knowing that he has both the power and the desire to set you free. Here’s a short prayer that might help:

Heavenly Father,

When I am afflicted and my soul is downcast, help me find hope in this truth: Because of your great love I am not consumed; your compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:19-23)

Amen

(Note: A version of this post appeared last month on Club31Women.com, a place where you’ll find encouragement for your faith, your family, and your home. Check out this recent post about Mary Magdalene’s Contagious Joy from my friend Nicole Zasowski. And if you’re looking for a good Bible study to do on your own or with a group this summer, click here to learn more about her just-released Daring Joy.

Mother’s Day Gift Idea

05.10.2025

(Sliding into your inbox this Mother’s Day weekend with a quick hello and a free printable. These beautiful cards from Focus on the Family make a great Mother’s Day gift idea for any mom!)

If you’ve tuned in for any of the conversations we’ve had on Mom Life Unscripted, you know that every episode wraps up with an invitation to pray with us, using a printable collection of prayers and screen savers that relate to the topic we’ve covered that day.

I’ve loved gleaning wisdom from folks like Alexa PenaVega, Sissy Goff, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and more than a dozen other moms. We’ve talked about everything from banishing anxiety, to navigating infertility, to teaching toddlers to pray, to knowing how to love your adult child well (even when you don’t love all the choices they make). Missed an episode? You can catch them all here.

To celebrate Mother’s Day, we’ve pulled ten of our favorite go-to prayers and put them in one single printable, just for you. Print them for your mom, your friend (let her know she’s doing a great job!), or for yourself – what an easy and fun Mother’s Day gift idea!

Simply click this link to access the free download – and Happy Mother’s Day!

“May the Lord cause you to flourish, both you and your children!” (Psalm 115:14)

How to wake up in the morning (in the month of May-hem and beyond)

05.03.2025

It’s here. The month of May-hem. The slower rhythms of summer are coming, but they’re not on us just yet. And if your calendar looks like mine, you may be wondering if you will even make it to June, what with all of the graduations, weddings, recitals, end-of-year parties—and let’s not forget Mother’s Day.

(Seriously. Let’s not forget Mother’s Day.)

May is not like December. December gets heralded months in advance; we’re braced for impact by mid-November. Not so with May. May can sneak up on the unwary. One minute it’s April and you’re dreaming about a spring garden–should you try pink petunias this year?—and then boom. It’s May, and you need 30 treat bags for the baseball party tomorrow.

Where do we turn for relief? I can’t answer that—not completely, anyway—but I can share something that has been life-changing for me.

(Well, potentially life-changing; I’ve only been doing this for about 12 days now. But people say it works.)

(And by “people,” I mean Andy Crouch.)

I’ve long been a fan of Andy’s (I loved his books, Playing God and The Tech-Wise Family), and it was a huge treat to hear him speak last month at the Center for Christian Study’s 50^th Anniversary Celebration in Charlottesville. (Sidebar: If you have a kid going to the University of Virginia, or you know a student who’s headed there, click this link; the Study Center’s Move-In Day lunches are not to be missed for those looking to build Christian community from Day 1 of their college experience.)

Andy talked about a lot of things—the difference between “space” and “place”, for example, and how place kindles memory, a concept he linked to Deuteronomy 6—and I wanted more. I started poking around online and stumbled upon a short YouTube clip in which Andy talked about how to wake up in the morning—and what was clearly the wrong way to start your day.

Andy confessed that he had long held to an “ironclad rule” of checking his phone every morning, first thing. “I let the glowing rectangle tell me whatever I needed to pay attention to,” he said. Realizing that there had to be a better way, he resolved to ignore his phone and go outside as soon as he woke up, even if that meant descending several flights of stairs in a hotel on the other side of the world. What Andy discovered, as he pursued this new practice, was the gift of perspective and the ability to be who he really was: “A very small part of a very large world, rather than what I am on the screen, which is a very large part of a very small world.”

Andy’s words resonated, and I resolved to do the same thing. I woke up and, instead of checking text messages or the weather on an app, I stepped outside with my coffee and felt the actual air. (And yes, I am grateful that it is not still February.)

It was glorious!

It was glorious the next day. And the next—getting up and going outside, leaving my phone plugged into the charger. At first, I wondered if I might miss something important (What if one of my children needs me? What if they changed the time for today’s meeting? What if I won some sort of Fabulous Prize?), but it wasn’t long before I realized that it didn’t matter. Waiting a few minutes—or half an hour—wouldn’t change anything. No matter what my phone (or my ego) might want me to believe, I am just not that essential.

Andy was right.

(Of course he was right; he wrote a whole book about putting technology in its proper place.)

Do try this at home

Today, if you drive by our house in the early morning, you might just spot me on the front porch, dressed in my favorite bathrobe or sporting some sort of workout gear. I’ll have a big cup of coffee and, more often than not, a favorite devotional book. Our dog Minnie is apt to be out there, too, sniffing the day to see what it holds.

Want to join me? The coffee isn’t required (Andy drinks tea), and you don’t need a book (Andy goes outside on his own). But if you’re like I am and you often sense God’s presence when words are around, consider starting your day with intentional praise.

Praise “changes our attitude, brings an awareness of God’s presence; defeats Satan; releases God’s power; brings a victorious perspective; provides peace; wards of the spirits of self-pity, depression, and discouragement; and produces strength in an anxious heart.” That’s according to Moms in Prayer founder Fern Nichols, quoted in Praying the Scriptures for Your Life, and honestly? I want every. single. one. of those benefits!

Right now, I’m igniting praise with the help of Ruth Myer’s classic, 31 Days of Praise:

The chapters are short—less than two pages—and chock full of Scripture. I often find myself reading each entry out loud (a habit I like to think Minnie appreciates).

Another time-tested favorite is Sara Hagerty’s Adore. Sara knows what it’s like to wake up and not feel like giving God praise, times when grief, disappointment, or worry fills the radar screen of our lives. But, Sara says, that’s actually the best time to adore. “God does not want our polished pretenses,” she says. “He wants us to come honestly. He invites us to wrestle.”

Truth be told, you don’t need a devotional book. You can just grab your Bible and start praising your way through the psalms, kind of like Jesus did. If you do one a day, that will get you through the end of September (by which time you’ll be wishing you’d clicked that link for my favorite bathrobe).

So…here’s to deep breaths and morning calm in the month of Mayhem. You might not hear from me for awhile–hooray for Summer!—but if you live in Virginia Beach and you happen to pass by our house before 7 a.m., I hope you’ll wave!