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Healing Families

To some, this may seem insignificant, but for this mama, it was deeply meaningful. She wondered why her nonverbal autistic son would get out of the bathtub just to check where she was, then return to the water. Up until this point, she had never left him alone—she always stayed with him while he bathed. But on this day, she decided to step out for a moment to take care of a few things, not sure what he would do.

The most beautiful part was this: he stayed in the bath, okay with being apart from her, but he checked on her. He climbed out of the tub to see where she was, and as soon as he made eye contact, he went back to the bath. She asked me what this was about, if I had any thoughts. I told her that, from what I understand, it’s actually a sign of secure attachment. He feels free to explore—in this case, enjoy his bath—but he keeps checking in because Mom is his secure base: I’m okay being away; I just need to know you’re near.

This family has faced tough days since their son was about two years old, but now they’re on the mend, and healing has begun. I’m so honored to be part of this moment in their lives. For some, it may seem insignificant, but for this mom, it was monumental. Her son, once distant and disconnected, using behaviors to get his needs met, is now able to begin to regulate—and in this case, for the first time, bathe alone.

I’d love to connect with you on Instagram and Facebook ( The Art of Jodi Lynn) – support my work at my online store at The Art of Jodi Lynn

Visit Raivu Ministries at www.raivu.org to learn more about my work with families and individuals, “Building a community of people loving people- ensuring everyone is seen, heard, and valued.

Running the Race

My longtime mentor and teacher, Sandy with Sight Ministries at the Vineyard in Grafton, explained to me that the human experience is an event with spectators, where you are the only person on the field. There is nobody with you and nobody against you—it’s just you.

Every person you cross paths with in your life is sitting in the stands: people whose names you know and people you do not. Your parents, your siblings, your children, your friends, and even the person you married—all of them are sitting on the bleachers of your life. They are not on the field with you.

Some will ignore you. Some will encourage you. Some will speak negatively. Others will speak life. Some will cast disbelief, while others will cast optimism. Some will be dismissive. Some will be your biggest cheerleaders. Some will abandon and cast you off, but others will desire your companionship. However, they will all engage with you through their own journey, wherever they are in their race. They are only spectators in your life. It’s the way it was meant to be.

When I keep my eyes straight ahead, fixed on Him. I find that the things I desire most have become the reality that I walk in. Safety, stability, consistency, being delighted in, provision, and protection. My life is about Holy Spirit and me walking the journey together as I find my authentic self—the woman I was created to be.

Hebrews 12 :1-2 – TPT

As for us, we have all of these great witnesses who encircle us like clouds. So we must let go of every wound that has pierced us and the sin we so easily fall into. Then we will be able to run life’s marathon race with passion and determination, for the path has been already marked out before us.

We look away from the natural realm, and we focus our attention and expectation onto Jesus, who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith’s perfection. His example is this: Because his heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be his, he endured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation, and now sits exalted at the right hand of the throne of God!

I’d love to connect with you on Instagram and Facebook ( The Art of Jodi Lynn) – support my work atmy online store at The Art of Jodi Lynn

Visit Raivu Ministries at www.raivu.org to learn more about my work with families and individuals, “Building a community of people loving people- ensuring everyone is seen, heard, and valued.

A cup of cold water

Jesus came to bring “The Way.” He walked through every step that we will walk through as humans. He loved, He laughed, He cried—and in the end, He followed the Father’s heart for humanity. Jesus came because The Way of love needed to be laid.

There is so much in time and history that we do simply because of those who taught us. Many do not see a different way, nor do they want one. For those who are at the end of themselves and are brave enough to say ” I want a different way” He will faithfully show up.

In the depth of every human being, this journey is about love—our way, our path, our journey with the Holy Spirit in this lifetime, and what His purpose is for me and you. For me, when my time in the natural is up, there is nothing greater that I want to be known for than this: She loved like Jesus. She was not afraid to speak the truth. And when I was at the end of myself—and even in the middle—she was always open to giving me a cup of cold water.

I’d love to connect with you on Instagram and Facebook ( The Art of Jodi Lynn) – support my work atmy online store at The Art of Jodi Lynn

Visit Raivu Ministries at www.raivu.org to learn more about my work with families and individuals, “Building a community of people loving people- ensuring everyone is seen, heard, and valued.

You can have a piece of time.

My work documents a season of history through a deeply personal lens. Each piece captures the quiet tension between memory and change, inviting viewers to pause with me in the space between what was and what is becoming. I create to preserve moments that might otherwise go unnoticed, turning small truths into visual testimonies. Through color, form, and rhythm, I offer a record of my lived experience — an invitation to witness, reflect, and remember.

You can take home a piece of my “record in time” at my online store at JodiLynn.art/shop

Thank you in advance for supporting me in my journey of loving “the least of these” and telling you about “His True Character.”

I’d love to connect with you on Instagram and Facebook ( The Art of Jodi Lynn) – support my work at my online store at The Art of Jodi Lynn

Visit Raivu Ministries at www.raivu.org to learn more about my work with families and individuals, “Building a community of people loving people- ensuring everyone is seen, heard, and valued.

Sacrifice

“Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭37‬ ‭RSV‬‬

“The boundary is where I stop and you begin.” That quote from Boundaries by Henry Cloud describes a beautiful starting point for understanding who we truly are—what our “yes” is and what our “no” is. Why do we sometimes say yes when we mean no, and no when we mean yes? The challenge with understanding boundaries is that when we don’t know who we are, we often become defined by what everyone else says—what they think and what they feel. It’s like being caught in a spider’s web, unable to move. The more we struggle, the more entangled we become in the trap of not living true to who we were created to be.

I’d love to connect with you on Instagram and Facebook ( The Art of Jodi Lynn) – support my work at my online store at The Art of Jodi Lynn

Visit Raivu Ministries at www.raivu.org to learn more about my work with families and individuals, “Building a community of people loving people- ensuring everyone is seen, heard, and valued.

Healing families

I work with all kinds of families—adoptive, foster, blended, and biological—but there’s one story that I want to tell you about. It’s about a little boy who experienced a medical trauma when he was just a year and a half old. In an instant, his voice was gone. He stopped speaking, and from that moment on, his behaviors became his only way to communicate his needs.

His mom is a single parent. His father is not in the picture. At first, this seemed like a story I had heard many times before—but then something remarkable happened. This mom leaned in. She began learning and practicing Trust-Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI®). Slowly, she started to see her son for who he truly was: incredibly smart, but locked inside a world where neither of them knew how to connect.

The little boy’s behaviors were extreme. He often hurt himself—self-injurious behaviors that broke his mother’s heart. I met them when he was five years old, and by then, those behaviors had caused real harm. I worked alongside his mom for about a year, and then one day, everything changed. The moment happened and mom was able to separate her son from his behaviors.

This boy, who still had very few words, shed his first tears since he was a year and a half old. From the time he was a toddler, it was as if his emotions had been taken from him. He didn’t cry. He didn’t share feelings. He was stoic, shut down, and disconnected. But that day, he cried. It was the beginning of healing.

His mom was learning what he needed, and he was beginning to feel again—feel the things he had buried for almost four and a half years. Today, he seeks his mom. Yes, he still needs time alone, but when he hurts himself, he goes to her for nurture. When he’s scared, he goes to her for comfort. When he’s sick, he goes to her for care. When he needs reassurance, he reaches for her touch.

Healing happens when we see the need—and then meet the need.(TBRI®) So grateful and honored for having the opportunity to be a part of families stories.

I’d love to connect with you on Instagram and Facebook ( The Art of Jodi Lynn) – support my work at my online store at The Art of Jodi Lynn

Visit Raivu Ministries at www.raivu.org to learn more about my work with families and individuals, “Building a community of people loving people- ensuring everyone is seen, heard, and valued.

Living Water

It was midday, the sun blazing overhead, when Jesus, weary from His journey, sat down beside a well in Samaria. The disciples had gone into town to buy food, leaving Him alone. As He rested, a woman approached, carrying her jar to draw water. She was a Samaritan—someone Jews typically avoided—but Jesus spoke first:

“Would you give me a drink?”

Startled, she asked, “How is it that You, a Jew, speak to me, a Samaritan woman?”

Jesus replied gently, “If you knew the gift of God and who is asking you for water, you would ask Him—and He would give you living water.”

Confused, she said, “Sir, You have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where will You get this living water? Are You greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst. It will become a spring within them, welling up to eternal life.”

Her heart stirred. “Sir, give me this water so I won’t thirst or have to come here again.”

Then Jesus said, “Go, call your husband.”

“I have no husband,” she replied.

“You’re right,” Jesus said. “You’ve had five husbands, and the man you’re with now is not your husband.” -gospels Mathew and Luke

In that moment, she realized—this stranger knew her story. Not as gossip, not as judgment, but as truth spoken with grace. Many assume she was an adulteress, but I would say she was a woman cast aside and abandoned, broken by circumstances beyond her control. She came to the well at noon, avoiding the other women whose lives seemed perfect, whose laughter reminded her of what she lacked. She wanted solitude—but instead, she found the Savior.

Jesus saw her. Heard her. Valued her. He spoke to the deepest longing of her soul: “You’ve sought fulfillment in men, but they could not satisfy. I offer you more—living water. Immerse yourself in Me, and you will find rest.”

That day, her shame gave way to hope. She tasted grace and discovered her true identity—not in her past, but in the One who called her beloved.

I’d love to connect with you on Instagram and Facebook ( The Art of Jodi Lynn) – support my work at my online store at The Art of Jodi Lynn

Visit Raivu Ministries at www.raivu.org to learn more about my work with families and individuals, “Building a community of people loving people- ensuring everyone is seen, heard, and valued.

Dance with me – Holy Spirit

It’s in the secret place — the time to
quiet your soul and set it aside for the Spirit to take the lead.
The space where you see and experience what cannot be explained.
A new season is here, and in this season, I know He is near.

There’s a longing within everyone for intimacy — a place of being known.
But for me, in this time and season, He simply says, “Dance with Me.”

It’s my heart’s desire to stay in
step with You, Lord,
to follow the rhythm where Your Spirit leads.

Having these conversations with the Holy Spirit is something meant for every believer —
to fully trust, to believe, and to watch life unfold in a new, rhythmic way
that could never have been imagined.

I’d love to connect with you on Instagram and Facebook ( The Art of Jodi Lynn) – support my work at my online store at The Art of Jodi Lynn

Visit Raivu Ministries at www.raivu.org to learn more about my work with families and individuals, “Building a community of people loving people- ensuring everyone is seen, heard, and valued.

Meeting Him in the Secret place

The journey of my yellow chair continues this time to the West Coast in California.

Everyone has a secret place with Him—whether they realize it or not. When you learn to quiet yourself and still your mind, He will take you there. In that space, He reveals the details of your connection with Him, offering a place of refuge when life feels overwhelming—a space where your soul, body, and spirit come into alignment.

It is an honor to walk alongside His Children and help them discover their true identity as a child of God: to be seen, heard, and valued by Him.

I’d love to connect with you on Instagram and Facebook ( The Art of Jodi Lynn) – support my work at my online store at The Art of Jodi Lynn

Visit Raivu Ministries at www.raivu.org to learn more about my work with families and individuals, “Building a community of people loving people- ensuring everyone is seen, heard, and valued.

When you become a part of the family

I spend a lot of time in people’s homes, working one-on-one with families to implement Trust-Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI®). It’s a deeply relational process, and over time, something special happens—there’s a moment when I know I’ve been fully welcomed into their world. It’s subtle, but unmistakable. I’m no longer just a visitor; I’m part of the rhythm of their lives.

One evening, that moment came wrapped in a tiny hand offering me a Sour Patch Kids and a teenager leaping out of the shadows wearing a terrifying mask. I’ll admit it—I screamed very loudly. And then I laughed even harder.

That night wasn’t just about candy and costumes. It was about connection. It was about being invited into the messy, joyful, unpredictable reality of a family learning to love without conditions and live life more fully.

TBRI® isn’t just a framework—it’s a way of being. It’s about helping families discover how to love without expectations, how to regulate through frustration, and how to build trust one moment at a time. And sometimes, those moments come with a jump scare and a handful of sour candy.

I’m grateful every day for the opportunity to walk alongside families on this journey. Because healing happens in relationship—and sometimes, in laughter.

Visit Raivu Ministries at www.raivu.org to learn more about my work with families and individuals, “Building a community of people loving people- ensuring everyone is seen, heard, and valued.”