With All Your Heart: Devotions for Girls

By Kristi Holl and Jennifer Vogtlin

Beautiful and insightful, With All Your Heart offers girls 90 honest and relatable devotions to strengthen their heart, spirit, and faith.

God wants every girl to know she's awesome in his sight. He cares about everything—from boys to bullies, friends to future goals, disappointments to discoveries. In this ninety-day devotional, girls will grow closer to God as they share with him their everyday achievements and dilemmas.

Each devotion includes a Scripture verse, an encouraging message, discussion questions, and a short prayer. As they read through the devotions, girls will grow more confident in their faith and the plans God has for them. Page by page, girls will discover the amazing things in store for them when they follow God with all their heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Jun 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9780310120513

Kristi Holl

Kristi Holl is an award-winning author of dozens of middle-grade novels and six devotionals for girls. As a writing instructor with a background in elementary education, Kristi's books are on many recommended reading lists and have been nominated for numerous Children's Choice Awards. Kristi is married and has three grown daughters. She lives in San Antonio, TX. Visit wwwkristiholl.com to learn more. 

Book preview

DAY 1

THE NARROW ROAD

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

MATTHEW 7:13–14

You can enter God’s kingdom only through the narrow gate that leads to life. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way. But the road to life is narrow, and only a few ever find it.

Many of your friends will encourage you to join them on the wide path. It looks like fun, and Satan promises that you’ll feel loved and accepted if you live as the world lives. You’ll have more friends on the broad path. You won’t be branded a narrow-minded Christian if you choose to travel on the Anything Goes Highway. On that wide path you’ll hear that cheating to get good grades is okay, that R-rated movies don’t hurt you, and that it’s cool to drink and do drugs.

The broad way is also the way of disappointment and false promises. It can’t deliver love and acceptance and long-lasting happiness because it’s Satan’s lie. Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV) says, There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. The broad way might be fun for a while, but your heart will never find peace this way. True joy and acceptance are found through God on the narrow path. Traveling God’s way can mean a difficult, rocky road at times. But it leads to peace here on earth and eternal life in heaven. It’s not heavily traveled, but Jesus is always with you, so you’re never alone.

You’re standing at a fork in the road. Take off with confidence down the narrow way—to life!

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

What path are you walking on right now? Do you think God is happy with your choices?

[Your Notes]

PRAYER

Lord, I don’t always make the right choices. Help me to be courageous and choose the right path. I want you to be proud of me. I love you. Amen.

DAY 2

NEVER-ENDING LOVE

The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.’

JEREMIAH 31:3

Our limited human minds find it hard to grasp how much God loves us. His love continues forever and can be counted on in all our times of need. God pulled us to him with his love and kindness. We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19 NKJV).

Think about the person you love most in the world. Then multiply the love you feel for this person a thousand times. That’s only a tiny drop of the love—the everlasting love—that God feels toward you.

Every day for the rest of this month, take a few minutes to think about how much God loves you. Say it out loud: "God loves me. The all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving God of the universe loves me!" See how that changes your feelings during the month. We would live differently if we truly understood how much God loves us. He wants only the best for us—all the time. He wants to meet all our needs—we only have to ask him. (That doesn’t mean he will give you everything you want, but instead everything he knows you need.) He wants to fight our battles for us—we only have to lean on him. He wants to give us direction and to have the joy Jesus died for us to have.

God wanted us so much that he pulled us to him. Jesus said, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them (John 6:44). People do not come to Christ strictly because of their own ideas or decisions. It is God pulling them to him. He loves you and wants you that much!

God’s love for you is without limit. Soak it up!

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

Do you feel that God really loves you? How do you think he shows his love to you each day?

[Your Notes]

PRAYER

Lord, it’s hard to believe that you love me so much, but I am so grateful to have your love. Help me to show love to others the way you show your love for me. Thank you for never leaving me. Amen.

DAY 3

CULTIVATE YOUR FAITH

Good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!

MARK 4:20 (NLT)

When you plant garden seeds, you don’t expect much of a crop from dry, rocky ground, or a patch full of weeds. But good soil—black soil full of minerals—will produce up to a hundred times the amount of seed that was planted. In the same way, people with good hearts, ready to receive God’s word and act on it, will also produce an abundant harvest. They will become all that God created them to be.

God has given you special talents and abilities that he wants you to use. Do you love to run fast? Do you have a good singing voice? Can you play an instrument, write poetry, or paint watercolors? God wants you to enjoy the gifts and talents, but also use them to bring joy to others and glory and praise to God. Is your life producing such a harvest? It can!

If you don’t like your harvest, check your soil. Is it full of weeds (like resentment, laziness, or jealousy)? Then deal with the weeds. Pray for help to get rid of them, then do what God tells you to do. Is your soil dry and hard from lack of water (not reading your Bible)? Then soak it in the rivers of living water from God’s Word. Then you’ll grow the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23 NLT).

If your soil needs attention, be a good farmer and plow it. Plant it with seeds of obedience to God’s Word—then reap your harvest!

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

Are you using your talents to the best of your abilities? Can others see God’s influence in your behavior?

[Your Notes]

PRAYER

Lord, I want to use my talents for you. Please help me to honor you in all I do. I want to produce a good harvest! Amen.

DAY 4

THE POPULAR GROUP

Don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you.

1 CORINTHIANS 3:21 (NLT)

Don’t get your feelings of self-respect or personal worth from being accepted by a particular person or group. Because you belong to Christ, they don’t have anything that you don’t have!

Most classes have a few girls who have decided they are the popular group. They will claim to have inside information that others don’t have, or act as if they are more special than anyone else. Don’t fall for that! Don’t believe the lie that claims you have to be part of someone’s group to be cool. You already belong to the coolest group you could join: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!

God designed you to have friendships that are rewarding, with give-and-take sharing. Relationships get out of balance when one person thinks she’s better than others. YOU are important, valuable, and significant. Centering your life on someone who demands to be the focus will throw your friendship out of balance.

If you belong to Christ (have accepted him as your Savior), then you’re a daughter of the King. Everything God has belongs to Christ, and everything Jesus has is yours. If you stay true to him, all the blessings here and in eternity belong to you. You are as worthy as anyone else on earth—anyone! So don’t brag about being part of a particular group, or follow the popular girls because they have more of what the world offers. God says you have worth and value. You are worth so much to him that he sent his Son to die for you so that you could spend eternity with him. You can’t get any more valuable than that!

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

Where do you go to feel wanted and respected? Do you rely on friends for self-esteem or God?

[Your Notes]

PRAYER

Lord, I sometimes worry too much about what others think of me. Please help me remember that you are the one I need to please. In you, I have all the love and respect I will ever need! Thank you! Amen.

DAY 5

BE A GOD PLEASER

Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.

GALATIANS 1:10 (NLT)

Are you trying to win the approval and acceptance of people? Is that your primary reason for saying and doing things? You can’t spend your time trying to win the approval of people and still be a servant of Christ.

At the lunch table, when someone tells a dirty joke, do you laugh too so you’ll be accepted, even when the joke makes you very uncomfortable? Or do you gossip about other students so you won’t feel left out, even though you know it’s wrong? Do you ignore a less popular student because your friends would make fun of you if you were nice to him? Then you are trying to please people instead of pleasing God. And God’s Word says you can’t be in God’s service—useful to him—if you’re more interested in people’s opinions than God’s opinion.

As believers, we are to be like Christ and follow in his footsteps. How did he handle such situations? Once the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus into saying something they could use against him. " ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are’