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    NIKI FLORICA

    The Quiet Quill

    Books, Blessings, & Quiet Contemplations 

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    • Reviews
    • Mon. Musings
    • Tues. Truths
    • Wed. Wisdom
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    And the Walls Came A-Tumbling Down
    nikiflorica
    • Nov 25, 2021
    • 3 min

    And the Walls Came A-Tumbling Down

    For the past few weeks, sitting down to blog has felt like staring at a solid wall and trying to see through it. And no, I'm not referring to writer's block, though I've certainly experienced enough of that. The wall I have in mind is worse—taller, thicker, uglier, and stationed squarely between me and God. We often think of Satan as a master destroyer, but in many ways, he's a master craftsman as well. He carves beautiful idols for us to worship, forges weapons to use agains
    26 views3 comments
    So What's the Deal with Me?
    nikiflorica
    • Nov 15, 2021
    • 3 min

    So What's the Deal with Me?

    I don't normally let more than a week slide by between posts, but I don't normally let myself off the hook in general, so this could be a good thing, couldn't it? It's been a busy few weeks and, aside from a pile of assignments, the pressures of AuthorTube, work, my attempts at a social life (go, introverts!), and National Novel Writing Month, I've also reached a fork in the road. In many ways, I feel that God may be calling me to course-correct my post-secondary education, w
    48 views2 comments
    The Mundane is the Mission: Thoughts from Telephone Book Club
    nikiflorica
    • Oct 6, 2021
    • 2 min

    The Mundane is the Mission: Thoughts from Telephone Book Club

    Yesterday marked my first trip to campus in a few weeks, and I was reluctant to go. Having mostly online classes allows me to stay within the precious comfort zone (population: 1) but it also means that when I do need to venture into the unknown, every time feels like the first time. Maybe I should move to the moon. As I parked my car and prepared for the trek across campus, I kept one train of thought in a loop on my head, a rolling tape of a conversation I'd had the night b
    19 views0 comments
    Eph'pha-tha.
    nikiflorica
    • Sep 13, 2021
    • 2 min

    Eph'pha-tha.

    The moment I saw this Hebrew phrase on the page of Mark 7, I knew I had to blog about it. I knew because I felt called out by it. Challenged. Convicted. Commanded. Compelled. Eph'pha-tha. That is, Be opened. (Mark 7:34). The past year and a half has been a time of closed stores and closed doors, and many people have struggled with feeling closed-off because of it. I must confess, I can't relate. Lockdown has been, to me, permission to stay in my comfort zone without interrupt
    24 views0 comments
    Here's an Idea.
    nikiflorica
    • Jul 22, 2021
    • 3 min

    Here's an Idea.

    Ideas. Why is that such a scary word? Don't get any ideas. She's been filling her head with ideas. I think sometimes we forget that life is a process—a never-ending progression of ideas—and that living in this world means exposure to all kinds of them, just as living with Christ means being changed by the ideas he brought into the world when he came. I've lived most of my Christian life on the defensive. I knew what I believed and when I came against something that contradict
    10 views0 comments
    Prayer Doesn't Rhyme With Failure
    nikiflorica
    • Jun 7, 2021
    • 2 min

    Prayer Doesn't Rhyme With Failure

    I had a rough day last week. A Thursday, but if we're being honest, I wasn't feeling very Thankful. Some new-ish responsibilities at work were killing me: I wanted to nail it and instead felt as if I'd spent the entire shift in anxiety overdrive and still managed to be less than flawless in my execution. I was so rattled and discouraged, tears were flowing by the time the car pulled into my driveway. Now, with the same shift looming on the other side of tonight, I'm tempted t
    14 views0 comments
    Problems, Prophets, and Progress
    nikiflorica
    • Nov 17, 2020
    • 2 min

    Problems, Prophets, and Progress

    We think of progress as something linear—an arrow from present to future, improving all the time, always a step ahead of where we were before. We think of progress as the "new" and regress as the "old." And in the world's eyes, that paints a bad picture for the Word of God. I mean, how many times have we heard Christianity pegged as something "old-fashioned?" Something that worked for the pioneers, maybe—but society has moved past that now. We've grown. We've improved. We don
    16 views0 comments
    And Bob's Your Uncle
    nikiflorica
    • Nov 12, 2020
    • 2 min

    And Bob's Your Uncle

    I do not have a spontaneous bone in my body. I mean that in the most literal sense. I am not impulsive. I hate making decisions and usually go out of my way to leave the big ones up to other people, and most of my life happens within a comfortable status quo that I have no problem with 90% of the time. When the idea of a bob haircut first struck me, it was almost laughable. Inspired by one of my favourite characters from Marissa Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles, and later by anot
    62 views0 comments
    Even the Fearful
    nikiflorica
    • Oct 5, 2020
    • 3 min

    Even the Fearful

    I've done it! Finally! After too many years of eyeing it on my shelf, I have completed The Pilgrim's Progress and checked it off my mental TBR. Interestingly, having now read both Part I and Part II, I can say that both pilgrimages are profound works of spiritual allegory, but Part II—Christiana's journey—struck me most deeply. The Pilgrim's Progress is the allegorical journey of a Christian on the road to Heaven, leaving all behind (including his family) to pursue the Celest
    26 views0 comments
    Floating
    nikiflorica
    • Sep 22, 2020
    • 2 min

    Floating

    Sometimes we prefer our messages minced—into soft little bite-sized pieces that go down without much thought or pain or conviction. Painless. Isn't that just the human way? To crave the sense of virtue that comes from hearing the Word preached, but shy from any obligation to be changed by it? To be convicted? This world and Satan have a grip on us, even if we're free of their condemning chains. This world and Satan nurture a love of the wrong things in us, an aversion to the
    11 views0 comments
    "Going Nowhere" & the Real Adventure
    nikiflorica
    • Sep 14, 2020
    • 3 min

    "Going Nowhere" & the Real Adventure

    While sifting through blog ideas this morning, I came across one line in my daily devotion and knew I had found my Monday Musing. "Although you may feel as if you are going nowhere in this world, your spiritual journey is another matter altogether, taking you along steep, treacherous paths of adventure." ~Sarah Young, Jesus Calling Interestingly enough, my thoughts were running along these lines at church yesterday, comparing my spiritual journey to my efforts as a writer, an
    17 views0 comments
    Time Keeps on Slippin'
    nikiflorica
    • Sep 10, 2020
    • 2 min

    Time Keeps on Slippin'

    I feel like I've spent way too much of my life watching the clock. Despite my early enthusiasm for it, I realized quickly as a six-year-old that school was not my favourite place to be, and as soon as I learned to tell time, I imagine I spent a lot of classes doing just that. Watching that minute hand tick slowly, slowly toward the next period, the next bell, the next end of the day. It's a nasty habit that's followed me through all of elementary and high school, and now with
    13 views0 comments
    Passion Is a Puppy
    nikiflorica
    • Aug 26, 2020
    • 3 min

    Passion Is a Puppy

    Passion is a difficult one. I understand the struggle, and I'm by no means past it. But if your passion is in the puppy years, like mine,
    11 views0 comments
    100% His—Reaching for the Next Level
    nikiflorica
    • Aug 18, 2020
    • 3 min

    100% His—Reaching for the Next Level

    God is so much bigger than I've always known, and He's beginning to show Himself to me in ways I hadn't imagined before. I and people in my life are seeing miracles, feeling true Spirit-filled convictions, hearing God's will with a clarity I'd only groped for before. God hasn't changed, so I know it must be me. My perception of God's power has grown, and the more I believe He can do, the more He does. Yesterday, I needed to make a choice—a choice between acting or waiting. I
    13 views0 comments
    Life is Joy—And What To Do About It
    nikiflorica
    • Aug 13, 2020
    • 3 min

    Life is Joy—And What To Do About It

    Earlier this week, I blogged about the inevitable reality that life is pain, and that we have only two options in that regard: to suffer, or to suffer with Christ. It's as true now as it was days ago, as it was months ago, as it was two thousand years ago . . . but that doesn't mean there aren't other facts of life that are equally true as well. Life is joy, for example. A contradiction? I think not. It's the kind of paradox that can only exist within the infinity that is God
    12 views0 comments
    The First of Many Wonders
    nikiflorica
    • Aug 5, 2020
    • 2 min

    The First of Many Wonders

    The past few months have taught me a lot about myself—for one thing, that I spend way, way too much time in my own head. Novel-writing is my passion, but it can be an all-consuming one, and once it reaches that point, I usually start to feel it. It's the same with any task, any undertaking. As long as my physical goals are kept in perspective and balanced with my spiritual life, things feel manageable. I have God's peace with me, His Presence beside me, and they keep my goals
    14 views0 comments
    Need a Reason to Rejoice? Keep Reading.
    nikiflorica
    • Jul 13, 2020
    • 2 min

    Need a Reason to Rejoice? Keep Reading.

    Tackling new or overwhelming undertakings in our lives can be exciting, but it can also be laden with baggage—fear and uncertainty, doubt an
    6 views0 comments
    Because Prayer Works
    nikiflorica
    • Jul 9, 2020
    • 2 min

    Because Prayer Works

    Prayer works. Not always in the ways we expect, not always in the cookie-cutter outcomes we may look for, but God and His Holy Spirit are co
    11 views0 comments
    Self-Hatred: That Dark Indulgence
    nikiflorica
    • Jul 7, 2020
    • 2 min

    Self-Hatred: That Dark Indulgence

    To indulge, by definition, is to "allow oneself to enjoy the pleasure of" something. And it really can be anything. We tend to think of it in terms of chocolate or entertainment, but the rules are much broader than that. In fact, we can indulge in things that, on the surface, may seem completely unpleasant. Self-hatred is one of them. In a recent Sarah Young devotion on judging, I was struck hard with a warning against "indulg[ing] in self-hatred." It may seem counter-intuiti
    55 views0 comments
    Here in the Land of the Living
    nikiflorica
    • Jul 1, 2020
    • 3 min

    Here in the Land of the Living

    We already know that getting through this life with our faith intact means eternal life, joy, and ecstasy in heaven. But God doesn't just da
    9 views0 comments
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