2024 Answered Prayers

Annual Goal Series: Reflecting on what God has done this year

Our 11th annual goal series starts today! Here’s what’s coming!

• 2024 Answered Prayers (12/27)

• 2024 Goals Recap (12/28)

• 2024 Life-Changers (12/30)

• 20+ Books I Read in 2024 (12/31)

• 2025 Word of the Year (1/1)

• 2025 Goals (1/2)

• 40 Books to Read in 2025 (1/3)

• What’s Next? (1/6)

This is one of my favorite posts from the series, so I wanted to make it available to everyone.

Why is it so important?

Because I know there are plenty of people out there who are fighting for and struggling to see, God work in their lives right now. You might feel disappointed in what 2024 brought. You might feel like God didn’t even give you a second glance all year. Those may all be ways we feel, but in this post, I hope we can bring truth to that.

And so we make time to investigate with expectant eyes how God may have worked in 2024. If you use one of our prayer journals, this will be easy to reflect on. You can flip to your Answered Prayers page for each month and even read through your written prayers. I love taking a highlighter as I read through the prayers and highlighting more ways God worked that I may not have written down in my Answered Prayers list.

If you don’t have a journal, look at your calendar and separate by the month. Think back on the seasons. Ask people around you how they saw God work in your life. And then order you a prayer journal for 2025 so you have it all ready to go by the time the ball drops in 2026. ;)

Another reason I love this post so much is that it takes the pressure off the goals I set in 2024. I talked about this a bit here, but before I reflect on what goals I actually accomplished, I get to reflect on what God did, and that eclipses my own plan by infinity so I can approach my goals in a much more grace-filled way.

Last year, I worded it this way: “If I can get even more dramatic for a minute….what are we doing with our lives if we aren’t shouting from the rooftops what God is doing in our lives? What are we doing if we aren’t pointing fingers and telling anyone who will listen that God is good and real and present in our lives? I’m also not so dense to think that everyone saw answered prayers they hoped for this year. This is about more than me getting to celebrate what God did, which I could do in the privacy of my own little world. I hope anyone who feels they’re missing out on what God is doing will read this post and be assured He is real and at work in their own life, too.

We’ve got more important things to discuss, and I pray this blog post is just a hint of the conversations around answered prayers that you have this week. Grab some friends, send a group text, and ask “What did God do in your life in 2024? What prayers did He answer?”

A few notes before I dive in:

• First, I am not sharing EVERYthing. Many answered prayers were personal or for someone else.

• I have no idea if this will sound lame or impressive. I have no idea where your personal line is for what counts as an answered prayer but I hope reading this will inspire you to probably give more credit than you think God deserves. Yikes. I said that. But yikes! We do that. I used to put an answered prayer through the gauntlet. Would this have happened if I hadn’t prayed? Is it a coincidence? No more! God gets all the glory, and I get less stingy with the praise.

• Reading through my written prayers, I notice ways I have been praying for something that God answered much later. If you see a *, that’s what it is.

JANUARY

1. Back to school went well. This might sound small, but our mornings have been rough for the last year or so. I dreaded the girls' return after two and a half weeks out of school.

2. Back hurting less. I wrote, “I haven’t really praised or acknowledged the Lord for this blessing!” Better late than never!

3. A growing passion for God’s word.

4. Finding a worship pastor after 2 years. Tyler felt led to ask someone about being a worship pastor, and at the same time, they felt prompted to be open to it! It was crazy timing on both ends and has impacted our church in so many sweet ways this year!

5. We got to give away 1,000 Rhythms journals! I had planned to give away 1,000 journals but didn’t expect them to be our big ones. God had a plan and used my own mistakes for His glory.

6. Wisdom and clarity on decisions for our VMP team.

FEBRUARY

7. Comfortable with uncertainty about VMP and Tyler becoming a pastor.

MARCH

8. Peace while Tyler was in Uzbekistan. It came at a really rough time for me emotionally/mentally, and the Lord was so gracious! He had a wonderful (and safe!) trip and didn’t have to worry about us back home.

9. Inspiring call with a business mentor. After our conversation, I started taking 2 days off a week. This was helpful in so many ways. We streamlined a lot of things that we had been doing just because we thought we had to.

10. Launched Substack. It’s funny to look back now. It was on Christmas Day last year, while the girls were playing with the toys on the floor that I sat next to the fireplace reading a book on writing and feeling so ready to be on a platform for writers. I had no idea I’d be selling VMP and be especially grateful for this outlet to write still and connect with you guys.

11. New members joining our small group.

APRIL

12. Overwhelming and unexpected peace.

13. Seeing growth in a relationship with a family member.

14. A friend sees a breakthrough at our church women’s retreat.

15. Church Leadership Conference. This has been such a sweet trip for the church staff in the last few years, and I’m always blessed to be a part of it.

MAY

16. Ellie’s (my niece) safe arrival! My sister-in-law had some complications during pregnancy, so this was such an answered prayer.

17. Creativity and ideas for VMP.

18. A friend I had been mentoring experienced a breakthrough.

19. A friend who had been trying to conceive for years announced she was pregnant.

20. Better resistance to temptations.

JUNE

21. A friend's marriage is restored.

22. Some lingering side effects I had from previous surgery are finally gone!

23. I took a chance of looking weird to pray with someone and God opened a door.

24. I wrote the hypochondria series I had been wanting to write for years. This felt like such a victory! I’m still planning to put it in an e-book form!

JULY

25. Progress with the girl’s relationship.

26. Answers for Vana’s rash.

27. God bringing clarity to close VMP. I had been feeling like God was silent on this for TWO YEARS. And like a lightning bolt, I had a clear direction. I wasn’t even sad at first. I was just so happy to feel like God wasn’t silent any longer. Have you ever felt like that? Also, I told this to L (our soon-to-be VMP owner) when she came to town a few weeks ago that I had to wait 2 years for the answer because she wasn’t ready to take it over until now. She had told her job that she was going to stop working end of this year BEFORE I even announced all this. God’s timing was perfect. Had I tried to close years ago, VMP would not be continuing now.

* In January, I asked God to help me be comfortable or content with whatever God’s plan was for VMP. I seriously never thought I’d be okay closing VMP, but 6 months after praying that prayer, I had my answer.

28. Lots of new people at church. Our church is growing again, and it’s so sweet to be a part of and witness after several tough years.

29. Talking to Betsy about VMP. I was so nervous to share with my shipping manager my feeling like we needed to close. She’s been one of the best employees I’ve ever had, and I hated that this decision affected her so much, too. She was so gracious and supportive.

30. The girls’ favorite babysitter being able to babysit short notice.

31. Betsy getting a job with CPA. I shared this story in one of my lives about VMP closing but my CPA was one of my first calls when I decided to close. I wanted to understand the implications of closing and if I needed to do everything by end of year. I mentioned Betsy just got her accounting degree, and “coincidentally,” he had someone put in their two weeks notice the day before. Within a few weeks, Betsy got the job working part-time until she finishes up with VMP this week and will be working in a bigger capacity there!

AUGUST

32. Great launch! It was our biggest ever. Knowing this would be my last launch, it was a really sweet time.

33. Announcing our close. I prayed so much about this. I wasn’t sure how people would respond––when to tell people, what to tell people––but everyone was so supportive!

34. Less spiritual heaviness leading up to launch. I have noticed for years that the weeks leading up to our pre-orders are filled with anxiety, very restless nights and just an overall heaviness. I believe part of this is the enemy fighting so hard against what he knows will be a threat. And maybe part of it is my own doing. This year though, I remember getting to launch thinking it wasn’t so heavy.

35. Vana’s sleep. I literally had a dream and woke up thinking, is Vana struggling to sleep because of restless leg? For months she’s struggle for hours and say she felt like her legs wanted to get up and walk around. We tried magnesium lotion and she sleeps much better.

SEPTEMBER

36. Checked gas before trip. The day before we left for our annual week at the beach, I had the forethought (which I never have) to fill up gas the day before to save us from having to do that on our way out of town. When we went to get gas, I found out our gas tank wouldn’t open. We were able to get it temporarily figured out since it was during a work day and not 7 am Saturday morning.

37. Awareness of my actions and growing desire to love others better. I feel like God opened my eyes to how what I do affects others and it’s helped me to make better decisions.

38. Amazing beach trip! Ok, this might not seem like an answered prayer, but I physically felt so good (energy, steadiness, no joint aches) this week at the beach. It might have been the combo of the sunshine and ocean but I also think being out of our moldy house showed me what life can be like if we got rid of the mold. It got me serious about finding out the answer (even though it cost a small fortune to do so).

OCTOBER

39. Decided to homeschool the girls! Ok, this is brand new information for most of you. I have prayed for years about what to do with the girl’s schooling. They go to an excellent private school, but there have been several points of tension that have made me unsettled for a few years, mainly the margin we don’t have with full school days. I always respected home school mamas but never thought I could do it myself, but within a matter of 24 hours, God put it on my mind, and there was no turning back. God was so clear and so firm. I have joked that this has been the year of doing all the things I never thought I’d do: become a pastor’s wife, quit VMP, and now homeschool. Getting a dog is obviously next. 😜 I’ve also said I’m grateful for God’s timing of these conversations. If He had said, “quit your business so you can homeschool,” I think I would have fought back a little harder. But having space in between two such massive changes I wouldn’t have planned for myself made them easier, and I feel like it was God being so gentle with me.

* In August, I prayed, “How do I keep my world from getting too small and too comfortable?” I feared how I might turn inward and get consumed with myself. VMP has given me an outward purpose, and I got nervous about how I could twist this sweet gift of a restful season.

40. More energy. My fatigue got really bad in October. I started reading about moving. It sounds so obvious, but it not just getting exercise or walking in every day but spending less time sitting. I wrote all about it here. It unlocked so much energy for me!

* In August, I prayed, “Lord, I feel so drained energy-wise. Would you help me, Lord? Show me what you want me to do.”

* In October, during our Proverbs’ Challenge, I read, “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.” (Proverbs 6:8). I prayed, “How easily I berate myself for my laziness, yet I keep on in the same way. Help me understand what it means to consider the ways of the ant and be wise. Show me what discipline and wise preparation is compared to too much striving. Show me what good rest and sleep is compared to overindulging.”

41. Chocolate fast. This led to so many good things! Clarity for which direction to take VMP and being weaned from my desire for chocolate.

* In July, I asked God, “I know I need to slow down if not go cold turkey and give up chocolate. Would you help me? Would you remove the desire altogether?”

NOVEMBER

42. Decide to close all other doors for VMP. We had many offers for potential ways to carry on VMP (licensing, acquiring, managing), and I ultimately felt God call me to close all other doors besides the one with our current buyer, L. And if, for any reason, things aren’t finalized as we are expecting in the next 2 weeks, I need to be ok closing as planned.

* In August, I was praying for God to help us sell out of inventory by December 31 so we could close and I could save as much money for our family as possible. Thankfully, we did not sell out and will have a product for L to get VMP going with. It also reminded me of my old prayers before starting the prayer journals. I was praying for invitation clients, and God had something different in mind.

43. Good results for mammogram.

* I had pain off and on for months, and I even prayed about it in July. Love seeing how God answers months later.

DECEMBER

44. Mold results. The report showed we had lots of mold, including black mold. We also got results back for me and the girls that we all have a good bit of mold in our body, so this confirmed the house tests, too. As much as I wish we had none, I was honestly glad to have answers for prayers that I’ve prayed for YEARS. Vana’s rashes, Vivi’s energy, my health stuff. I felt crazy.

45. Business occupancy resolved. I had a looming piece of mail that was either going to be no big deal or a huge deal, and I am praising God that in the midst of so much upheaval, it was the former.

Lastly, I wanted to share this post-it with you. For the last 3 years, I’ve picked 10 big prayers and stuck them in the front of my prayer journal. I had forgotten to transfer this teal post-it to my Signature Prayer journal for the second 6 months of the year, so when I found it a few days ago, I was blown away.

1. Tyler became our full-time pastor.

2. Trinity is growing in numbers and energy again.

3. I’m going to be focused just on writing in 2025.

4. Vivi had some breakthroughs with forgiveness this year.

5. Vana is having better mornings with school.

6. Seeing small steps in this one! ;)

7. Our physical home issues have been detected and are getting fixed within the month.

8. We decided to homeschool.

9. I decided to close and then was fortunate to be in the process of selling VMP.

10. No cyst or symptoms from more cysts, and we’ll soon be out of the mold that’s been helping them grow.

It’s pretty insane to see how God has worked in some of my biggest prayers this year. None in ways I imagined, which makes me even more confident it’s been God’s hand at work all along.

My hope as you read this very long post, is

1. That it will encourage you to talk to God about things you weren’t sure you could talk about. The seemingly small and the seemingly big. Maybe you saw something on this list and thought, “I didn’t think about bringing that to God”. I pray it will be your little reminder that you can.

2. That you see God’s patience and timeframe isn’t like ours. I prayed for things for months and some for years. God answers but in His time. And when that time comes, it’s perfect.

3. That it’s inspiring to keep a record of all God has done because the power it brings to our faith is insane. It’s the anchor for why I trust God. Because I’ve seen Him be faithful so many times before.

Now, tell me in the comments! What answered prayers did you see in 2025?

Up next: 2024 Goals Recap