March '26 Reflections
first full month of marriage, hosting, struggling to serve
Hello friends, and welcome to my reflections of March 2026.
I usually externally process my month in my journal, but I think it’d be nice to have a place to share some of it with you. Writing stuff out helps me to piece together what God is doing in my life, instead of just cruising and letting my days pass by me.
Here’s how I plan to structure my monthly reflections:
Happenings: What happened?
Hard Things: What stretched me?
Highlights: What brought me joy / gratitude / delight?
Hopes: What am I hoping to see in the next month?
Let me begin!
Happenings: What happened?
I’ve always said that March is my least favorite month of the year.
The newness of winter and holiday joy is long gone, and by now, I wait impatiently for spring to come.
While that is how I usually feel, I actually really enjoyed this March.
Work was busy with records for a new project in production. I also hosted a lot which requires planning and preparation in advance.
But the biggest happening of this month was that it marked my first month as a wife!
Hard Things: What stretched me?
1. Merging Lives
The beginning of marriage means the merging of two lives—and for us, that’s meant learning how to truly live together.
Kevin and I are similar in many ways. Our hobbies, our heart for God, even our likes and dislikes. But one difference has always stood out. I’m very organized, whereas he is naturally spontaneous.
Dating helps you get to know each other, but marriage has a way of magnifying what’s already there. Nothing new was revealed, but everything felt 5x more pronounced. Left unchecked, his spontaneity for me would look like unpreparedness or disengagement, while my desire for organization would look like rigidity and control.
The first weeks of marriage felt like a mirror revealing my childhood wounds and the reason I live the way that I do. So merging our lives has looked like: sitting down again and again to apologize, be honest with each other, build rhythms, and also incorporate times of connection. We both agreed that the first couple of months would be a lot of trial and error.
It was really hard! But I’m so incredibly proud of us. In just (over) a month, we’ve grown so much as the Hongs! More than anything, Kevin truly feels like my partner in life. Together, we can do anything!
2. Getting back into serving
I stepped down from college ministry for the year that I was engaged and was not nearly doing as much as I have usually, in terms of ministry as a lay leader.
It was helpful for the what was, but now I want to be able to be ready for whatever is next.
However, when it comes time to act, it’s been specifically hard to position my heart in a way that says, “Yes, Lord.” To be honest, I find myself just saying I don’t want to serve. 😭
I’m not burned out, but I think I fear the impending exhaustion, overcommitment, and a loss of control over my time for when I do say “yes.” There's a balance to it all… but I’ve lived on a pendulum of extremes.
As I’m still navigating this, please pray that God would reveal Himself to me!
Highlights: What brought me joy / gratitude / delight?
1. Hosting
When Kevin and I were looking for our apartment, our first prayer was that it would be a host-able space. We are so so so happy that God answered!
My favorite hosting day was having my work friends to make shrinky dinks. They are all the sweetest people ever. I was glad they got to see a bigger part of me and get to know Kevin as a person!
We love the idea of people coming to rest and be rejuvenated by our home.
2. Going on walks with Kevin
You might’ve noticed that “Parking Included” was left unchecked in our housing prayer.
And if you know anything about Boston, you know—parking here SUCKS. Our street is especially bad; after 5PM, finding a spot feels nearly impossible.
But somehow, we’ve been making the most of it!
We’ve started taking the train and walking more, whether it’s to church, to work, or even just for our dates. And surprisingly, it’s been really refreshing. It forces us to build in buffer time, to slow down a little, to not rush from one thing to the next.
We’re grateful that we have a car when we need it. But this small inconvenience has unassumingly reshaped our days. We’re walking more, noticing more, and having some of our best conversations side by side on the sidewalk.
Maybe this is our version of going analog. 😗
3. Project Hail Mary
The one movie I watched this month in theater was Project Hail Mary. Kevin and I watched it in IMAX 70mm Film, and we absolutely fell in love with it.
Neither of us have read the book, so we had no idea what we were getting into. We just vaguely knew it was a sci-fi movie, and we’re both fans of Interstellar.
I don’t want to spoil it too much, but this movie reminded me why I loved film in the first place. Much cheesier and simpler than Interstellar, the story brings a glimmer of hope, which especially needed right now in a our chaotic and restless world.
We laughed, we cried, and walked home pondering. Written in all of humanity’s hearts, is a longing for eternity:
For connection
To live for something beyond ourselves
Whether one counts themselves as a follower of Jesus, we all have an understanding that love requires sacrifice. (It all points to Him, don’t ya think?)
Once you watch it, I suggest looking up how the movie was filmed. All in all, it was amaze, amaze, amaze! 👎
4. Experiencing God Workbook
I have been going through a devotional book with my church titled, Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God, by Henry T. Blackaby, Richard Blackaby, and Claude V. King. I recommend this workbook to all.
Every year, we have a discipleship course using this book. It’s my third year participating.
In every season, I’m struck with how deeply rich it is with wisdom from scripture, how it encourages readers to get alone with Him, and how full it is of testimonies that will make you realize…
God is a BIG God who desires to reveal Himself every day to you and the world.
I have a separate post coming up, more in depth talking about what God has been showing me through this workbook. It’s been taking long because God has stopped me in the midst of my writing to tell me that I don’t have the authority to preach what I have not yet obeyed.
While I hope to share more of my personal testimony soon, here are key takeaways from the book (not mine, strictly from Experiencing God and an article written by co-author Richard Blackaby):
God is always at work around you.
“At this very moment, God is working all around you, as well as in your life. One of the greatest tragedies among God’s people is that, although they deeply long to experience God, He is at work all around them day after day but they do not recognize Him.”
God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.
“God Himself pursues a love relationship with you. He takes the initiative to bring you into this relationship. He created you for fellowship with Himself. That is the purpose of your life. This love relationship can and should be real and personal to you.”
God invites you to become involved with Him in His work.
“The Bible reveals that God has always been working in the world. He has never been absent from it or indifferent to what was taking place in history. When we read the Bible, we are reading God’s redemptive activity in our world. We see that He chooses to take the initiative and involve His people in His work. He determines to work through people to accomplish His purposes.”
God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.
“A critical requirement for understanding and experiencing God is clearly knowing when He is speaking. If people don’t know when God is speaking, they are in trouble at the heart of their Christian lives. In this unit we will discover ways God speaks through the Holy Spirit to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways. We will also examine ways God speaks through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church or other believers.”
God’s invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.
“When God invites you to join Him in His work, He has a God-sized assignment for you. You will quickly realize you cannot do what He is asking on your own. If God doesn’t help you, you will fail. This is the crisis of belief when you must decide whether to believe God for what He wants to do through you.”
You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing.
“When God speaks to you to reveal what He is about to do, that revelation is your invitation to adjust your life to Him. Your faith will be most clearly demonstrated by your actions. Actions you will take include the adjustments you must make to be in a position to obey the Lord. Once you’ve adjusted your life to the Lord, you act in obedience. Then God accomplishes through you what He has purposed to do. Adjustments prepare you for obedience. You cannot continue life as usual or stay where you are and go with God at the same time.”
You come to know God by experience as you obey Him, and He accomplishes His work through you.
“After God has taken the initiative to involve you in His work, you believe Him and adjust your life to Him. Only then do you reach a place of obedience. You must obey Him first. Then He accomplishes His work through you. When God does a God-sized work through your life, you come to know Him intimately by experience.”
Though laid out in steps, the authors highly relay the importance of personal relationship and listening to God. The grander highlight for this month is the painful realization that I don’t have to dream up something for Him, but rather I should “watch to see where God is working and join Him.” (Richard Blackaby)
5. Doing my hair
I was never a biggg makeup girl, but even more than that, I was never a hair girl. I’ve always been very low-commitment when it comes to doing my hair. Honestly, I didn’t even blow dry it until Kevin nagged me saying it’s not the best for my scalp to leave it wet all the time. 😀
However… my sweetie mother-in-law gifted me a Dyson Airwrap for our wedding, and it has truly changed the game.
It’s probably something I would’ve never bought for myself (it’s so dang expensive), but it’s made doing my hair—especially curling it right after a shower—so easy and enjoyable! It’s such a small thing, but I wake up feeling put together, girly, and ready for the day!
You absolutely do not need an Airwrap, but I’ve found that doing my hair some times a week helps me feel ready to conquer the day.
6. My J. Crew Rollneck sweater
Lastly, I have to mention my beloved J.Crew rollneck sweater. The one I waited half a year on the waitlist for.
I may not be original, but I don’t even care. It’s 100% cotton, perfectly cozy, versatile, and I already know it’s something I’ll be wearing for years to come.
Hopes: What am I hoping to see in the next month?
1. A clutter-free and more furnished office room
We have the privilege of having two rooms in our apartment, and we use the second room as an office space. Right now, it’s still filled with clothes that we want to sell/donate.
I’m hoping to get rid of the clutter in April. Possibly find a cheap sofa bed? I’d love for it to be a room where guests from out-of-town can also rest. And when it’s just us, we can also use it as our worship and prayer room!
2. Time spent with my girl friends
I love my girl friends so much. However, we are all adults with lives that make hanging out hard to coordinate!
I have a short weekend trip to Philly planned with two of my best friends. I’m visiting my maid of honor, Hannah, where she currently is in grad school, and I’m so excited to be in the same city, even for a short bit.
I especially love doing life with seren 🩰 and Elizabeth Xiu (who were my past housemates turned sisters) and I’m hoping there’s a day that we just do nothing together.
3. A yielded spirit in me
Like I shared in my “Hard Things” section, I recognize that there’s probably a lie about God that I’ve been believing. Something in my belief has not allowed me to completely surrender my all to Him.
I hope that I can work through this with God and that I would be yielded to Him. I think that comes with an assurance that God’s will is best because He loves me and wants the best for me.
I will end with a quote I heard from this past month:
“The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to Him.”
(Henry Varley)
Goodbye for now!
Lord, I pray that this read would be an open door into my heart.
I pray that it would allow others to reflect on their past month.
Help me to respond to the ways that you have called me to respond to You.
In Jesus’ name, amen!