🌿 SCRIPTURES, ART & JOURNALING PROMPTS for A Winter-Rooting Season

Here is a set of scriptures, journaling prompts, and art prompts designed specifically for this “winter-rooting” season i described in my previous post. They move gently from lament → grounding → identity → healing → hope.

🌿 SCRIPTURES for Your Winter-Rooting Season

1. Renewal & Seasons

Ecclesiastes 3:1 – “To everything there is a season…”
Psalm 1:3 – “He… is like a tree planted by streams of water… whose leaf does not wither.”

2. God’s Compassion

Psalm 103:9–10 – “He will not always accuse… He does not treat us as our sins deserve.”
Psalm 34:18 – “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.”

3. Identity & Worth

Isaiah 43:1 – “I have called you by name; you are mine.”
Psalm 139:5 – “You hem me in, behind and before.”

4. Healing & Rebuilding

Isaiah 61:3 – “Beauty for ashes… the planting of the Lord.”
Jeremiah 17:7–8 – “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord… they will be like a tree that never fails to bear fruit.”

5. Hope & Future Growth

Hosea 6:1–3 – “He will bind us up… He will revive us.”
Isaiah 43:19 – “See, I am doing a new thing… I am making a way in the wilderness.”

📓 JOURNALING PROMPTS

Designed to draw you into self-understanding, grief release, and hopeful expectation.

1. Understanding the “Falling Leaves”

  • What were the moments, relationships, or accusations that felt like leaves being stripped away?

  • How did each “leaf fall” affect how you see yourself today?

  • What emotions am I finally allowing myself to feel about these losses?

2. Naming the Season

  • What parts of my life feel like winter right now?

  • Where do I feel God inviting me to rest rather than strive?

  • How do I know I am not actually “empty,” but being prepared for renewal?

3. Root Work

  • What am I learning about my needs, boundaries, and identity in this quiet season?

  • What nourishment do my roots need: rest, truth, gentleness, structure, companionship, silence?

  • How can I mother myself kindly today?

4. Identity Untangled From Others’ Accusations

  • What lies or accusations have I internalized that God is asking me to lay down?

  • Who was I before those voices shaped me?

  • What does God say about me that contradicts those accusations?

5. Preparing for Spring

  • What signs of new growth (even tiny ones) can I see already?

  • What am I longing for in my next season?

  • What would “new leaves” look like for me emotionally, spiritually, or creatively?

🎨 ART PROMPTS

These can be done in a journal, sketchbook, collage, digital art app, or watercolor pad. They are symbolic and healing.

1. “Fall Leaves Inventory”

Draw or paint several autumn leaves.
Inside each leaf, write a word or phrase naming a loss, accusation, misunderstanding, or disappointment.
Then, beneath them, draw roots spreading deep — write truths God is planting there.

2. “My Winter Tree”

Draw a bare tree.
Do not decorate it.
Sit with it.
Add only what feels true: knots, broken branches, or strong trunk lines.
Then write around the page:
“I am still alive here.”

3. “Root System Self-Portrait”

Draw yourself not as a face, but as roots.
Thick, thin, tangled, spreading.
Add words or colors to show what nourishes you: rest, boundary-setting, silence, scripture, tears, solitude.

4. “The Accusation vs. God’s Voice”

Fold a page vertically.
On one side, illustrate or write the words others used to accuse or diminish you.
On the other, illustrate God’s voice from Psalm 103:9 and other scriptures—gentle, freeing, compassionate.

5. “My Future Leaves”

Sketch a branch with no leaves.
Leave space for 6–12 leaves.
In each leaf, write a dream, a desire, or a characteristic you hope will grow in your “spring” season.
(Examples: confidence, peace, creativity, friendships, purpose, courage.)

6. “The Mothering Moment”

Create an image of you nurturing your own heart.
Maybe it’s a figure holding a glowing seed, or a woman sheltering a small sapling, or hands cupped around new roots.
Let it be symbolic, not literal.

7. “Winter Light”

Paint or draw the moment when light still touches the tree in winter—a sunrise, moon glow, lamp through a window.
Let it represent God’s presence during the coldest moments.

🤲 A Prayer to Begin Your Journaling Time

Lord, sit with me as I go beneath the surface of my own soul.
Help me not rush through my winter.
Show me what needs letting go, what needs honoring, and what needs healing.
Speak to me in the quiet places where roots grow strong.
Prepare me gently for the spring You are already shaping.
Amen.

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