Write this Down! with Dot Bowen

There are two kinds of sorrow, and one of them is quietly leading you away from God. In this episode, Dot and Cara sit with 2 Corinthians 7 and get honest about broken hearts, the grief that draws you toward Jesus, and the grief that slowly pulls you away. They look at Peter, at Judas, and at what it actually means to bring your whole hurt to Him, even the parts you're afraid to say out loud. Pull up a chair, grab your Bible, and lean in with us.

Got a question about today’s episode or something else you’d like to hear us talk about on the show? Let us know! 

• Intro (00:00)
• Write this down: 2 Corinthians 7:6-11, on godly sorrow, repentance, and the kind of grief that leads to life (00:00)
• Cara gets honest right out of the gate: her heart is actually hurting right now, and this conversation is not just theoretical for her (00:03:58)
• God does not send a to-do list for healing; He is a deeply personal God who knows your personality, the way you process pain, and exactly how to meet you (00:04:35)
• Paul describes two kinds of sorrow in his letter to the Corinthians, one that leads to repentance and life and one that leads to death, and he shows us what both looked like in the lives of Peter and Judas (00:06:30)
• How you respond to your pain matters as much as what caused it. Peter ran toward Jesus. Judas walked away. Which direction are you moving? (00:10:16)
• You cannot heal what is not revealed. Naming your hurt honestly before God, even the ugly and angry parts, is where healing can actually begin (00:14:24)
• Dot shares the story of Corrie ten Boom, who begged God not to send her to the concentration camp and came out the other side knowing exactly why He had (00:21:45)
• God cannot heal a heart He does not have. Surrender means handing all of it over, not just the parts you are comfortable giving (00:24:06)
• Closing invitation: wherever you are today, just start somewhere. "Jesus, here's my heart. Will you heal my heart?" (00:29:32)

Are you interested in having Dot come and speak to your community? Email us at [email protected].

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2 Corinthians 7:6-11 (NASB) — "But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more. For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it — though I did regret it, for I see that the letter caused you sorrow though only for a while. I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance. For you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, in order that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold what eagerness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong. In everything you demonstrated yourself to be innocent in this matter."

How do you know if what you're hearing is actually from God? In this episode, Dot and Cara get honest about one of the most real questions a believer carries, and the answer keeps coming back to the same place: knowing His Word. Dot shares a story from her own marriage that makes the stakes of this unforgettable, and Cara opens up about a journaling practice that has been quietly changing the way she hears from God. Pull up a chair, grab your Bible, and lean in with us.

Got a question about today’s episode or something else you’d like to hear us talk about on the show? Let us know! 

• Intro — Dot opens by calling everyone to grab their Bible, a pencil, and a cup of coffee. This episode is as personal as it gets. (00:00)
• Write this down: Deuteronomy 6:6-9 — God's word belongs on your heart, your hands, and your doorpost (00:00)
• The whole idea behind "Write This Down": write it down so you can take it to God and ask Him directly whether it's true, not just hold onto someone else's good intentions (01:10)
• How do you know if what you're hearing is actually from God? The answer always comes back to knowing His Word and His heart, and Dot has a story from her marriage that makes the stakes of this impossible to forget (03:08)
• A well-meaning friend once told Dot that God would want her to leave Howard. Dot knew enough Scripture to know the difference between God's peace and her own unhappiness, and that knowledge changed everything (04:28)
• Write This Down from the Book of Job: his friends thought they were speaking for God, and at the end of the book God was angry at them for it. The responsibility of speaking for God is real, and it starts with knowing what He actually said (06:41)
• Cara opens up about what she's been walking through this year, and how journaling words she senses from God and then comparing them to Scripture has become a lifeline (09:03)
• Going back through journal entries from January, Cara finds God saying the same thing He said in April. Confirmation comes through consistency, and it's the kind of thing you can only catch when you write it down (13:01)
• Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice." If you've ever wondered whether God really speaks to His people, He already answered that in John 10, and Dot breaks down why that's a firm place to stand (22:15)
• Where to start if you're new to Scripture: Dot always points people to the Book of John, because John's whole purpose is to prove that Jesus is God. Two verses and a willing heart is enough. (25:51)
• Dot closes with a look at her father's cross on the wall of her study and a truth that quietly settles everything: you cannot honestly say you've never been loved or never been chosen (30:43)

Are you interested in having Dot come and speak to your community? Email us at [email protected].

Watch Write this Down! on YouTube

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What if worrying about the future is actually keeping you from experiencing God today? In this episode, Dot and Cara sit with Lamentations 3:22-23 and get honest about what it really means to trust that His mercies are new every morning. Dot talks about why living in the future, whether through anxiety or wishful thinking, can become a kind of hiding from today’s reality, and Cara opens up about a season of already grieving outcomes that haven’t happened yet. Pull up a chair, grab your Bible, and lean in with us.

Got a question about today’s episode or something else you’d like to hear us talk about on the show? Let us know! 

Episode Recap

• Intro (00:27)
• Write this down: Lamentations 3:22-23, the steadfast love of the Lord and His mercies that are new every morning (00:00)
• Dot reflects on being someone who always thinks ahead, and shares what she sensed God saying in prayer: just live today, and those days will add up to the future you’re hoping for. (01:18)
• The manna illustration: when the Israelites stored up more than they needed for the day, it turned to worms. Dot says that’s what happens when we try to live in a day we haven’t lived yet. (03:01)
• Cara opens up about writing narratives, already emotionally grieving outcomes that haven’t happened, and why that kind of anticipatory grief is different from surrendering to God. (03:44)
• The control problem: we try to escape into the future because we can’t control it, but Dot points out we can’t control the present either. Sometimes the future becomes a way of hiding from today’s reality. (06:48)
• Cara shares what staying tethered looks like in a hard season: worship music on repeat, calling truth to mind, and finding small moments throughout the day to go before Jesus, even two minutes at lunch. (10:09)
• Hope belongs in God’s character, not in circumstances changing. Dot shares honestly about years she believed God didn’t want her to suffer, and what Scripture actually teaches about following Jesus into a hard life. (13:45)
• Dot talks about a hard season two and a half years ago when she walked through her days like a zombie, but kept showing up to pray every morning anyway. That habit, she says now, was her lifeline. (19:54)
• Prayer is a relationship, not a to-do. If you don’t want to go to God right now, start by asking Him to help you know He wants to be with you. (23:10)

Are you interested in having Dot come and speak to your community? Email us at [email protected].

Watch Write this Down! on YouTube

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Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV) — “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

You had a plan. Maybe it was for the summer, maybe it was for your whole life -- and then reality showed up and none of it looked the way you thought. In this episode, Dot and Cara have an honest, tender conversation about what it means to surrender your expectations to a God who actually knows what He's doing. Cara shares from a raw and hard season she's walking through right now, and Dot reminds us that the same God who led you there will lead you through. Pull up a chair, grab your Bible, and lean in with us.

Got a question about today’s episode or something else you’d like to hear us talk about on the show? Let us know! 

• Intro (00:00)
• Write this down: Proverbs 19:21, "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand." (00:07)
• Cara shares that her whole world got turned upside down two days before recording, this episode is the verse she's living right now (04:57)
• The idea of detaching from outcomes, what it really means to surrender your plans without letting your mind race to the what-if (05:36)
• Dot walks through Palm Sunday and Good Friday: the crowd went from "Hosanna" to "Crucify him," but Jesus was still King either way (11:17)
• When you're following God and everything still falls apart, Cara gets honest about how painful it is to do everything right and still end up in the deepest hurt of your life (16:03)
• Dot: "The only person God ever forsook was Jesus, so that we never would be," a word for anyone who feels like they're on the cross right now (15:21)
• The same God who led you there will lead you through, just like He led the Israelites out of Egypt (19:25)
• Living with "what is" instead of "what if," why the what-if always comes packaged with anxiety, and how staying in today is the way through (22:00)
• Dot closes with a challenge: go before God, give Him your tears and your expectations, and let God be God (35:08)

Are you interested in having Dot come and speak to your community? Email us at [email protected].

Watch Write this Down! on YouTube

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Proverbs 19:21 (ESV) – "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand."

What does it look like to actually build your life on Jesus, not just hear about it? Dot and Cara wrap up the Sermon on the Mount with the parable of the wise and foolish builders, and this one lands close to home. The storm is coming either way. The question is whether you've been laying bricks before it gets here, or scrambling to build a foundation in the middle of the rain. Pull up a chair, grab your Bible, and lean in with us.

Got a question about today’s episode or something else you’d like to hear us talk about on the show? Let us know! 

• Intro (00:00)
• Write this down: Matthew 7:24-27, the parable of the wise man and the foolish man (00:06)
• Real-life illustration: million-dollar Nantucket homes built knowing they'd fall into the ocean (01:46)
• Jesus isn't talking about literal houses, he's talking about your life and what you're building it on (03:04)
• "God doesn't give you more than you can handle" isn't quite right. He gives you more than you can handle so you rely on Him (04:08)
• The difference between hearing God's words and actually doing them, and why doing is what builds the foundation (06:29)
• Cara shares what it felt like during a Nashville ice storm, hearing trees fall all around her, and what that image shows us about focusing on the storm instead of the foundation (09:09)
• You don't build your house in a storm. You build it for the storm. And yet most of us wait for a crisis before we start (13:40)
• Don't put yourself on the front lines of the battle. Wisdom means knowing your weaknesses and not walking toward them (20:08)
• Building your house isn't all at once. God cleans out one thing at a time. Start with what's already on your heart and lay one brick (23:01)

Are you interested in having Dot come and speak to your community? Email us at [email protected].

Watch Write this Down! on YouTube

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Resources Mentioned

• Pete Greig
• 24/7 Prayer

It is so much easier to spot what someone else is doing wrong than to take a hard look in the mirror. In this episode, Dot and Cara work through one of the most quoted and most misunderstood passages in all of Scripture, Matthew 7:1-5, and push past the casual “judge not” bumper sticker to find what Jesus was really getting at. They talk about the difference between judging someone’s actions and pronouncing judgment on their heart, why humility is the only lens that makes us useful to the people we love, and what it looks like to go to God first before you go to anyone else. Pull up a chair, grab your Bible, and lean in with us.

Got a question about today’s episode or something else you’d like to hear us talk about on the show? Let us know! 

• Intro (00:00)
• Write this down: Matthew 7:1-5, the speck and the log (00:00)
• What Jesus is really saying here — it is not that the speck does not exist, but that you cannot help someone if your own vision is clouded (01:24)
• “If I can see it, I can do it” — Dot on why the thing you notice most in others is often something worth examining in yourself (01:49)
• Cara asks for a real-life example, and they land on parenting judgment vs. actual sin — and why motive matters more than the behavior we see (03:33)
• The Pharisees as the original example: what it looks like when religious confidence becomes a log in your eye (12:03)
• The woman caught in adultery — one of the best pictures in Scripture of what it looks like when someone drops the stones and approaches with humility instead (13:42)
• You are probably capable of more than you think — why “I would never” is one of the most dangerous things a Christian can say (16:03)
• The relationship rule: you have to be invited in before you speak into someone’s life, and being invited once does not mean forever (21:42)
• Practical wisdom from Dot: take it to God first, ask him to show you your own heart, and trust him to do what only he can do in someone else’s (25:57)

Are you interested in having Dot come and speak to your community? Email us at [email protected].

Watch Write this Down! on YouTube

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Matthew 7:1-5 (ESV) — “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

You've asked. You've knocked. You've kept asking. And the door is still closed. Dot and Cara get real about the places where prayer feels hard, where persistent asking starts to feel pointless, and what Matthew 7 is actually saying about a God who doesn't hand you a stone when you ask for bread. This one is honest, a little vulnerable, and full of hope for anyone who has wrestled with why God keeps saying not yet. Pull up a chair, grab your Bible, and lean in with us.

Got a question about today’s episode or something else you’d like to hear us talk about on the show? Let us know! 

• Intro (00:00)
• Write this down: Matthew 7:7-11, a call to keep asking the God who gives good gifts to his children (00:13)
• Ask and it will be given to you, sure, but what about all the times it hasn't been? Dot and Cara get honest about the frustration of persistent prayer (01:21)
• What Luke's gospel adds to this passage, and why the Holy Spirit matters in how we read it (02:36)
• Unanswered prayer isn't always a no, and sometimes the no is the answer you'll be most grateful for (04:00)
• Cara opens up about where she is right now with asking, when you trust God's nos but you're just tired of bringing your heart to the door (08:00)
• Dot's aha moment: what if what I'm asking for is the stone? What we think is bread, God sometimes sees as a serpent (13:00)
• Dot shares a story about praying specifically for Cara and hearing her pray the exact same thing later that same day, a quiet wink from God that he's listening (18:49)
• The Israelites crossed the Red Sea and then complained about being thirsty. Dot on spiritual amnesia and why we keep forgetting what God has already done (21:38)
• Moses in Exodus 33: you can't see what God is doing right now, but when you look back, you'll see him (23:00)
• The closing truth: keep asking, because God is good, and he will not withhold what is best for his children (25:36)

Are you interested in having Dot come and speak to your community? Email us at [email protected].

Watch Write this Down! on YouTube

Find Dot Bowen on Instagram and Facebook 

Matthew 7:7-11 (ESV) — "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!"

What do you do when the "don't worry" in Scripture feels impossible to actually live? In this episode, Dot and Cara sit with Matthew 6:25-34 and get honest about the anxious thoughts that sneak in, the "what if" seeds that take root, and what it really looks like to keep your eyes on God when life feels out of control. This is a real, warm, and deeply practical conversation about faith as something you do, not just something you know. Pull up a chair, grab your Bible, and lean in with us.

Got a question about today’s episode or something else you’d like to hear us talk about on the show? Let us know! 

• Intro: Cara admits she's feeling the most anxious on the very morning they're recording about anxiety (00:00)
• Write this down: Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus telling his disciples not to be anxious (00:00)
• Why Jesus repeats "don't be anxious" more than once, and what that tells us about how well he knows us (01:40)
• Cara and Dot reflect on how anxiety can sneak up on you even when you don't think of yourself as an anxious person (02:00)
• How we know too much now, and how our hearts and souls were never meant to carry all of it (04:13)
• Keeping your eyes on God: what that actually looks like in practice, including prayer, truth-speaking, and remembering his names (07:19)
• The seed called "what if" and how it's really a control problem underneath (11:57)
• Living on Friday before Sunday comes: when darkness and people's choices look like they're winning (14:06)
• It's not a need problem, it's a faith problem, and how Dot reframes what anxiety is really telling us (17:06)
• Dot's insight: believing the truth only becomes real when you start living it. Faith is a verb. (24:40)
• The gentleness of Jesus in this passage, how he's not chastising us, he's just saying, remember me (27:33)

Are you interested in having Dot come and speak to your community? Email us at [email protected].

Watch Write this Down! on YouTube

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What if the Sermon on the Mount is the New Testament's answer to the Ten Commandments, a standard not written to burden us, but to show us how to truly live? In this episode, Dot and Cara sit down for an honest conversation about one of Jesus' most sweeping teachings in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, and why it might be the most important thing He ever said. They talk about what it actually means to be set apart, why living like Jesus points people to God rather than away from Him, and the one thing that makes any of this possible at all. Pull up a chair, grab your Bible, and lean in with us.

Got a question about today’s episode or something else you’d like to hear us talk about on the show? Let us know! 

• Intro (00:00)
• Write this down: Matthew 5:1-2 (ESV) — Jesus goes up the mountain, sits down, and begins to teach His disciples (00:07)
• Why the Sermon on the Mount matters: Cara admits she never fully appreciated this passage before, and that’s kind of the point (00:32)
• Jesus taught with authority, not like the scribes or Pharisees, and the crowds were astonished (01:09)
• This teaching was for His followers: the Sermon on the Mount is God’s instruction to His people on how to live set apart (02:43)
• The New Testament parallel to the Ten Commandments: just as Moses gave Israel a standard, Jesus gives His followers one too (07:09)
• We’re not going to reach it on our own, and that is exactly why we need the Holy Spirit (14:45)
• Living like Jesus points people toward God, not because it makes us look good, but because it makes Him visible (10:23)
• Sanctification: what it means that God is always working in us to look more like Him, not as a checklist, but as a life (14:45)
• The spoiler Dot gives: we cannot live the Christian life in our own strength, and that is why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit (23:22)

This Episode’s Scripture Verse
Matthew 5:1-2 (ESV) — “Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them.”

Are you interested in having Dot come and speak to your community? Email us at [email protected].

Watch Write this Down! on YouTube

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How do you know if someone is the real deal, and what do you do with that once you do? In this episode, Dot and Cara open up Matthew 7 and talk through Jesus' principle of knowing people by their fruit. Not judging, not writing people off, but paying attention in the way a loving Father says you need to. They talk about what fruit of the spirit actually looks like, why we tend to excuse what we should just be noticing, and how this principle applies to the people in your life, the voices you follow, and the fruit you yourself are producing. Pull up a chair, grab your Bible, and lean in with us.

Got a question about today’s episode or something else you’d like to hear us talk about on the show? Let us know! 

Episode Recap

• Intro (00:00)

• Matthew 7:15-20, the warning about false prophets and knowing them by their fruit (00:02)

• Cara shares that this principle is one Dot has taught her, and that she already feels conflicted about it after just the last ten minutes (00:56)

• The difference between judging and recognizing: Jesus didn't say you can judge, he said you will know them (02:15)

• Fruit takes time. It starts from a seed, and whatever is in the heart will eventually produce it, no matter how long someone can pretend otherwise (03:38)

• What good fruit actually looks like: love, joy, peace, gentleness, self-control, the fruit of the Spirit (05:43)

• A moment is not a full-grown fruit, but it does tell you something is there (05:15)

• If you want to know whether a voice, a relationship, or a situation is leading you toward God or away from him, pay attention to the fruit it is producing in you (08:06)

• Dot draws the line between understanding why someone behaves the way they do and excusing it. You can have compassion and still notice the fruit (09:35)

• Isolation is a fruit worth paying attention to. Dot clarifies: alone time with God is not isolation. Isolation means no trusted voice is speaking into your life (11:25)

• Cara gives a real-world example of subtle false prophecy on social media, and why posts that claim to know what God will do for you should give you pause (16:01)

• Dot brings it home: God gave us this principle because he is a loving Father who could not take us out of the world, but he could tell us how to live in it. The fruit doesn't lie (25:39)

This Episode’s Scripture Verse

Matthew 7:15–20 (ESV) — “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”

Are you interested in having Dot come and speak to your community? Email us at [email protected].

Watch Write this Down! on YouTube

Find Dot Bowen on Instagram and Facebook