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Welcome to our weekly Friday Check-in for July 25th, 2025 ✅
If you are new to Soul Care, WELCOME!! We are so glad you are here.
We have a weekly rhythm of checking in together on Fridays. We use Soul Care's Page, Person, Plan framework to create a weekly rhythm and prepare ourselves for Sabbath rest.
How are you, as you check in today?
Let's begin with,
Page: An Invitation to Reflection
Read Mark 4:21-34 (NIV) three times:
He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”
“Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”
He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”
With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything. (NIV)
As you reflect on these parables, is there one that especially resonates with you today? How might the Spirit be inviting you to notice joy or delight through it?
The parable of the lamp invites joyful openness to truth, reminding us that the Kingdom is meant to shine and not be hidden. We can deeply delight in revelation, in both seeing and being seen by God... as what was once hidden comes into the light.
There’s a beautiful simplicity and mystery in the parable of the scattered seed. Growth happens apart from our control. We can delight in the way the Spirit works in hidden places: slowly, silently, steadily. We can take joy in the surprising ways grace unfolds.
Finally, the parable of the mustard seed celebrates smallness and the unexpected — that from something so tiny comes something great and sheltering. We can delight in the surprise of divine grace... how the Kingdom grows from what seems insignificant.
Thanks for checking in today - Blessings!
Team Soul Care