The Card I Made So My Heart Would Slow Down Enough to Receive

Knowing God loves you and feeling that love settle into how you lead, decide, and relate to people are two very different things. One lives in your head; the other changes your whole day. I’ve been CHEWing on God’s love throughout the day for about sixteen months now, and I’ve recorded hundreds of CHEWs so you can hear what it actually sounds like. I also made a card that’s built to close that gap.

C.H.E.W. with Me

New here? What is CHEW? — a 30-second practice that grows into a day woven with God’s love.

C – Clarity: I Was Moving Faster Than My Heart Could Follow

I can read a verse, understand it correctly, even explain it well to someone else, and still not feel it land. My mind processes it. My heart stays somewhere else, still running whatever it was running before I opened Scripture. I noticed this most on the days I needed something to go a certain way, or needed someone’s response to be a certain way, or needed the day to produce enough. My CHEWs on those days got thin: technically correct, genuinely rushed.

H – Hear: Be Still Is How the Knowing Happens

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalm 46:10)

Psalm 46 was written for people in upheaval, and the voice in this verse is God’s own. “Be still” (raphah) means to loosen your grip and let your hands drop. “Know” (yada) is relational knowing, not just knowing facts. The stillness isn’t preparation for the knowing. It’s how the knowing happens at all. You cannot rush your way into being known by someone, and you cannot rush your way into receiving that God loves you. My mind can receive a verse in five seconds. My heart needs longer than that.

E – Exchange: What I Built to Slow Myself Down

Underneath almost every spike in my mood or drivenness is one of six core longings: to feel safe and held (Security), included and wanted (Acceptance), cherished (Love), valuable (Value), delighted by life (Enjoyment), or like my life truly counts (Significance). We refer to these with the acronym SALVES. Every one of them is good, and God put them there. The trouble starts when I try to meet one with something smaller than Him: control instead of His holding me, approval instead of His acceptance, constant affirmation instead of a love that never pulls back, achievement instead of His settled verdict on my worth, escape instead of the delight He already offers, recognition instead of a significance already secure in Him. The longing is a gift. The substitute is where the lie creeps in. When I really believed my heart needed stillness more than my mind needed another verse explained, the card stopped being one more productivity tool and became how His love actually landed.

Because God’s love is patient enough to wait for my heart to catch up with my head, how does that change how long I’m willing to sit still with Him today?

W – Walk: Sixty Seconds, Then the 5-Minute Card

Right now, set a timer for sixty seconds. Don’t read anything yet. Just notice what you’re truly longing for before you try to fix it.

Then set up the card, once:

• Download your ​My CHEW Card​.
• Take the ​SALVES assessment​ (90 statements, 7–15 minutes). New to this? Read ​What’s Driving You?​ and ​How God’s Love Meets the Deep Drivers​ first.
• Write your top three drivers on the card, with the lie each tells and the verse that answers it. The reference page has all six.
• Save a master copy and make a fresh copy each day, so you build a running record.

Start with the 5-Minute Card inside it, four questions:

1. Which driver spiked today, and what’s one honest sentence for how I feel?
2. Read today’s passage aloud, slowly, once. What one word or phrase will I carry?
3. Write the verse back to Him as a short prayer: “Father, You love me…”
4. Name one small step.

Do that for a week or two before growing into the full Daily CHEW. One guardrail for hard seasons: what you get done today does not add to His love for you, and what you miss does not take away from it. To hear what a CHEW sounds like first, the recordings are ​here​.

Closing question: What would change today if you believed God’s love doesn’t require you to move at full speed?