🌿 STEWARDSHIP: THE THREAD THAT HOLDS IT TOGETHER

If you’ve followed me for very long, you may have noticed that I use the word stewardship a lot.

I talk about stewarding our health, time, relationships, resources, work, gifts, influence—and really, our whole lives.

When I use that word, I mean something bigger than simply managing money or taking good care of things.

At the center of it, I believe, is this:

✝️ Jesus is the center.
🙏 God is the Source.
✨ Our lives are His—created to bring Him glory.

Stewardship is using what God has entrusted to us in a way that honors Him. And sometimes, stewardship itself is the assignment.  

Stewarding:

➡️ Our bodies.
➡️ Our relationships.
➡️ Our time, attention, and focus.
➡️ Our resources.
➡️ Our gifts and opportunities.
➡️ The particular assignments God gives us in each season.

It is one of the ways we love God—with our whole lives.

For me, stewardship has increasingly become a way of asking:

❓What has God entrusted to me—and what would faithfulness look like here?

Not comparison.

Not looking at someone else’s life to decide what mine should look like.

Not assuming that bigger always means better.

Just faithfully tending what God has placed in front of me.

One of the most freeing truths I’ve been learning is this:

✨ Faithfulness is my responsibility. The outcome belongs to God.

But trusting God with the outcome does not mean becoming passive about the assignment. Biblical stewardship is wholehearted. We pursue what God places before us with the wisdom, strength, skill, resources, ingenuity, and tenacity He supplies. We prepare, practice, persevere, measure fruit, learn, and continually adjust when necessary.

Wisdom gives us influence over outcomes; it does not give us sovereignty over them.

Paul depended completely upon the grace of God, yet he also labored, struggled, planned, taught, traveled, endured, and poured himself into the work God had given him.

Grace did not replace exertion. Grace fueled it.
(1 Corinthians 15:10; Colossians 1:29)

So we can build faithfully, work diligently, love people well, pursue excellence, and make wise use of every resource—while remaining open-handed about what God ultimately chooses to produce.

That changes the question from:

❓ “Why hasn’t more happened yet?”

to:

🙏 “Lord, am I wholeheartedly stewarding what You’ve already placed in my hands?”

And this is also why you’ll probably see me talk more about some areas than others.

There are areas where I have spent years walking, wrestling, practicing, and being formed. There are other places where I’m still growing—and some where I’m only beginning to understand what faithful stewardship looks like.

I’m not equally far along in every area, and I certainly don’t have a perfectly stewarded life to present.

What I do hope is that much of what I share comes from real life behind the words—from what I have lived through, learned, practiced, or am honestly working through.

Faith is one of those places. I have been walking with Christ and pursuing Him for more than five decades—and I am still learning to trust, surrender, and follow Him.

Peace with Food is another. I spent more than four decades searching for freedom—learning, failing, growing, and practicing along the way—before eventually experiencing a kind of peace I once wasn’t sure was possible.

That is why these are two of the areas you will hear me talk about most. They are places where I can share from years of lived experience.

That doesn’t mean we can only speak about things we’ve mastered. None of us would have much to say if that were the standard.

But I do want to be honest about the difference between sharing from tested depth, sharing from active practice, and sharing from a place where I am still near the beginning.

So sometimes I’ll talk about Scripture and discipleship.

Sometimes I’ll talk about food and our bodies.

And sometimes I’ll share what I’m learning as I practice stewardship in other domains of life.

These are not all areas in which I claim equal experience or expertise. They are simply different places where the larger framework of stewardship touches real life.

Because beneath all of them is the same question:

How do I faithfully steward the life God has entrusted to me?

I don’t live this perfectly. I’m learning right alongside you.

But increasingly, I believe stewardship is part of how we love God, love people, remain faithful for the long haul—and ultimately…

f i n i s h   w e l l.

📌 Because these ideas belong together, I’m doing something a little different this week: sharing four connected posts over four days. This is the first—and I’m grateful to have you here for the journey. 🌿

When Faith Wrestles

Over the past few years, I have wrestled honestly with God.

The questions had been building for much longer, but during what I now call my “perfect storm,” I could no longer keep neatly shelving them.

I wrestled with…

➡️ disappointment
➡️ theology
➡️ unanswered prayer
➡️ things I had believed and been taught that I could no longer reconcile
➡️ things I believed God had promised me decades ago—and was still waiting to see fulfilled
➡️ and some of what I had seen and experienced in the church, especially harmful, unhealthy, or deeply disappointing behavior from Christian leaders

At times, the wrestling was scary.

It felt like my foundation was crumbling.

Not my belief in God Himself—but some of the framework I had built around Him.

I found myself asking hard questions:

❓What had I actually been taught?
❓What had I assumed?
❓And what did Scripture actually say?

I was trying to find firmer ground beneath my faith.

And somewhere along the way, I began to realize something:

Wrestling is not foreign to Scripture.

The Bible is filled with people who wrestled.

Jacob.
David.
Jeremiah.
Job.
Elijah.

And a desperate father who prayed:

“I believe; help my unbelief.”

The Bible does not give us a picture of faith that never struggles.

It gives us people who keep turning toward God even when they are confused, disappointed, grieving, afraid, or waiting.

And God has met me there.

Not by answering every question exactly the way I wanted.

➡️ Exposing shaky foundations.
➡️ Correcting assumptions.
➡️ Deepening my trust.
➡️ Teaching me to distinguish between God Himself and everything people may have said about Him.

In the months ahead, I plan to begin sharing some of what I’ve learned.

Not because I have everything figured out.

Because I 💯 definitely do not. 

But I especially want to say something to the person who may be somewhere in the middle of it right now.

Maybe…

🌫️ God once felt incredibly close, and now He feels strangely quiet.

📖 Scripture used to come alive, and now you read the same pages and feel almost nothing.

🙏 You’ve prayed for clarity for months—or years—or decades—and the answers still haven’t come.

⏳ You’re still waiting on something you believed God had promised, and the waiting has stretched far longer than you ever imagined.

🧱 Things you once felt absolutely certain about are being dismantled, and you’re wondering what will be left when the dust settles.

🚶‍♀️ You are still showing up.

Still praying.
Still opening your Bible.
Still trying to follow Jesus.

And yet somewhere underneath all of that, you are quietly wondering:

Where are You, God?

You are not alone.

If so…

When you look at believers who have walked with God over a lifetime, you discover that seasons of wrestling, waiting, dryness, confusion, and deep refining are not unusual in a life of faith.

So please…

Don’t assume the silence means God has left you.

Don’t assume the questions mean your faith is failing.

And don’t assume that because the season has lasted far longer than you expected, nothing meaningful is happening in you.

Some of the deepest formation in a life of faith happens very slow.

Painfully slowwwwwwwww. 😩

In the meantime…

🙏 Keep turning toward Him.
💬 Keep being honest with Him.
📖 Keep opening His Word.
👥 Keep staying in fellowship with other believers.
🚶‍♀️ Keep walking.

You do not have to understand the season in order to remain faithful in it.

And you do not have to see the whole road ahead in order to keep trusting the One you are walking with.

The road may feel dark.

It may feel long.

But He is still God.

He is still faithful.

And this season is not wasted.

🎯 THE TIP OF THE SPEAR

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about Pareto’s Principle—the 80/20 Rule—and the idea of identifying the vital few.

But the principle doesn’t stop at identifying the 20%.

Within that vital few, there is often ONE THING carrying disproportionate leverage.

🎯 The tip of the spear—

the point that leads the rest.

The thing with the greatest leverage and impact.

So instead of asking:

❌ What are all the things I could improve here?

Ask:

✅ What is the ONE thing I need to nail in this area right now?

Not forever.

Not the only thing that matters.

But the thing that is most upstream—the one concrete action that makes a whole string of other good outcomes more likely.

Your tip of the spear should be specific enough that you know:

I did it.
Or I didn’t.

For example:

SPIRITUAL
Maybe it’s opening your Bible before you open your phone.

PERSONAL
Maybe it’s writing down your top three priorities before the day begins.

PHYSICAL
Maybe it’s scheduling your workouts for the week before the week begins.

FAMILY
Maybe it’s putting your phone away from 6–8 p.m. every evening.

PROFESSIONAL
Maybe it’s doing your highest-value work before opening your email.

FINANCIAL
Maybe it’s automating a transfer to savings every payday.

REST & RECHARGE
Maybe it’s protecting Sunday afternoon—no work, no errands, no catching up. You completely unplug.

PEOPLE
Maybe it’s putting your phone down when someone is talking to you.

None of these is the only thing that matters in that area.

That’s not the point.

The point is to identify the thing with the greatest leverage.

The most upstream action.

The one thing that, if you consistently get it right, makes a lot of the downstream things easier—or more likely to fall into place.

There may be twenty things you could work on.

But what is the one thing you need to nail right now?

Find the tip of the spear.

Put your energy there.

Because that’s where you’ll often get the greatest leverage—the biggest bang for your buck.

One well-chosen action, consistently executed, can move far more than twenty scattered efforts ever will.

Come to the Well and Drink

August has been full.

A lot of good things. A lot of moving pieces. A lot of go, go, go.

And somewhere in the middle of all of it, my quiet time with God slipped.

Not intentionally. I didn’t decide I didn’t need it anymore. Actually, I could feel the lack of it.

And I missed it.

But that’s one of the realities of really busy seasons. Our brains can lock onto the next task, the next thing that needs to happen, the next finish line.

Even when we can feel the lack, we can become so focused on finishing what’s in front of us that we keep postponing what we know we need.

After that particularly packed stretch of August was finally behind me, I woke up in the wee hours of the next morning.

It was around 3:00 a.m.

The house was completely quiet. No one needed anything. There was nowhere I had to be.

And I remember thinking…

F I N A L L Y.

I could just sit down. Rest. Be still. And simply be with God.

As I sat there, out of the blue a really fond memory came flooding back.

Forty years ago (whoa—40 years! 🤯), at this exact time of year, I was starting my senior year of high school and would have been in two-a-day basketball practices before school started. Back then in South Dakota, we played girls basketball in the fall, and this was before everyone carried water bottles everywhere.

Our water break was the school water fountain.

And our school had the coldest water fountain. 🧊💧😌

After doing sprints and killers and sweating in a hot gym, I remember standing at that fountain and just drinking and drinking and drinking.

That cold water was unbelievably refreshing.

And that is exactly what that morning with God felt like.

I already knew I was thirsty.

But there is a big difference between knowing you’re thirsty and finally getting a drink.

That morning was the drink.

There was no condemnation. No dramatic moment.

Just this deep sense of relief and refreshment.

Oh, how I missed being here.

There is something deeply satisfying about simply being with Jesus.

And I think sometimes the pace of life—even when it is filled with good things—can keep so much of our attention on what has to be done that our thirst gets pushed into the background.

We still feel it. We still know something is missing.

But the demands in front of us keep getting the loudest voice.

August was another reminder of how easily even something I value the most can get crowded out.

But it also reminded me of something even better:

➡️ Nothing refreshes like His presence.

➡️ Nothing restores like His presence.

➡️ Nothing satisfies like His presence.

There is a thirst in us that nothing we achieve, acquire, or accomplish can quench.

And the good news is, the invitation is always there.

Come to the well and drink.

🎯 THE 80/20 RULE

🎯 THE 80/20 RULE

A Simple Principle for Wise Stewardship

There’s a fascinating principle that shows up all over life—in our relationships, health, finances, work, personal growth, spiritual lives, and the way we use our time and energy.

A relatively small number of things account for a surprisingly large share of the results.

You can see it in some very ordinary places:
👚 You wear a relatively small percentage of your clothes most of the time.
🚗 A relatively small number of roads carry the majority of traffic in a community.
🏀 A few players account for the majority of a team’s points.
🎵 You listen to a small number of favorite songs or artists far more than the rest.
🍽️ You tend to eat the same small number of foods over and over, even though you have far more choices available.

But the principle also shows up in things that matter much more:
🌿 A few moments in your day carry far more meaning than all the others.
❤️ A few relational habits—such as listening well, showing up, keeping your word, and being fully present—carry enormous weight in a relationship.
🙏 A few truths you truly believe and live will shape you more than volumes of information you merely consume, repeat, or proclaim.
🏋️‍♀️ A small number of foundational practices account for the majority of your fitness results.
💰 A few key decisions account for the majority of your financial outcomes.

This pattern has a name:

Pareto’s Principle—also known as the 80/20 Rule.

The basic idea is that roughly 80% of results come from 20% of the inputs.

Or, to say it simply:

20% of what you do gives you 80% of your results.

The numbers won’t always divide perfectly into 80 and 20. The point is disproportionate impact:

Not everything contributes equally to the result.

Joseph Juran, who helped popularize the principle, referred to that high-impact minority as “the vital few.”

And that has huge implications for how we steward our lives.

Instead of trying to give equal attention and effort to everything, we can begin asking:

🎯 What result am I actually after?

Once you know the answer, then ask:

⚡ What few actions—the 20%—would produce the greatest share of that result?

Then put more of your time, energy, and attention there.

Sometimes wise stewardship is simply learning to identify the vital few—and investing where your investment will bear the most fruit.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Here’s why this matters so much…

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Life is only becoming busier.

We keep adding activities, responsibilities, subscriptions, possessions, information, opportunities, and expectations until nearly every bit of margin has been squeezed out.

And often, we are not overwhelmed because everything is equally important.

We are overwhelmed because we are giving equal weight to unequal things.

Sometimes we put enormous effort into doing something perfectly when wise stewardship calls for a simpler approach—one that accomplishes what matters most without unnecessary cost.

Ephesians 5:15–17 calls us to live wisely and make the most of our time—to redeem it by understanding and doing what matters most in light of God’s will.

So what might it look like to apply the 80/20 Rule intentionally across the different areas of our lives?

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Some ideas…

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

🙏 SPIRITUAL

What do you really want?

To know God, obey Him, and become more like Christ.

⚠️ What can happen?

We can turn spiritual growth into an ever-expanding list of Bible plans, devotionals, podcasts, books, journaling, memorization, and information.

🎯 What might your 20% be?

Perhaps it is deeply believing and living the truth God is putting in front of you right now.

One passage that becomes life in you can shape you far more deeply than twenty passages you quickly consume but never practice.

The goal is not merely to know more Scripture.

The goal is to allow Scripture to renew your mind, shape your character, and change the way you live.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

🧠 PERSONAL

What do you really want?

To feel less scattered and steward your life with greater intention.

⚠️ What can happen?

We build complicated productivity systems, trackers, planners, lists, and routines that create even more cognitive load.

🎯 What might your 20% be?

Identify the few practices that create the greatest amount of clarity and direction.

That might be setting aside time each week to look ahead, deciding what matters most for the next day, or reviewing your priorities before the day begins pulling at you.

A few intentional minutes of planning can prevent hours of scattered attention.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

🏋️‍♀️ PHYSICAL

What do you really want?

To steward your body well—to become healthier, stronger, and better able to do the things your life and assignments require.

⚠️ What can happen?

A simple health goal becomes strength training, cardio, macros, intervals, mobility, supplements, tracking, recovery protocols, and an ever-growing list of things we “should” be doing.

🎯 What might your 20% be?

Identify the one or two foundational practices creating the greatest return—and protect those first.

For one person, that might be completing three strength-training sessions each week.

For another, it may be consistently hitting a protein target.

This does not mean everything else has no value.

It means we stop assuming that every additional benefit is worth its cost.

A practice can be good and still not be necessary for this season.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 FAMILY

What do you really want?

Strong, connected relationships with the people you love most.

⚠️ What can happen?

“Be more present” sounds wonderful—but it is so broad that it can become one more impossible standard we feel we should meet all day long.

🎯 What might your 20% be?

Choose a few specific moments when you will give your family your full attention.

When my girls were younger, I called mine “Take Five”:

1️⃣ Be fully present when we first saw each other in the morning.
2️⃣ Be fully present at mealtimes.
3️⃣ Use everyday car rides for connection—no devices or radio.
4️⃣ Give full attention when we reunited after being apart.
5️⃣ Pray before bedtime.

Your five might look completely different.

The point is to turn an important value into a few concrete rhythms you can actually live.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

💼 PROFESSIONAL

What do you really want?

To make meaningful progress on your most important work.

⚠️ What can happen?

We give equal attention to email, meetings, small tasks, administrative work, projects, ideas, and requests—until everything feels equally urgent.

🎯 What might your 20% be?

Identify the few priorities that create the greatest amount of meaningful progress.

Put them in order.

Then protect your best time and energy for the work at the top before lower-leverage tasks consume it.

Your calendar can be full while your most important work remains untouched.

Busy and productive are not always the same thing.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

💰 FINANCIAL

What do you really want?

Greater financial stability and stewardship.

⚠️ What can happen?

We spend enormous mental energy scrutinizing small purchases while overlooking the few decisions shaping most of our financial life.

🎯 What might your 20% be?

Find the biggest financial lever in your life and address that first.

Maybe it is eliminating a high-interest debt.

Maybe it is automating savings.

Maybe it is finally knowing where your money is going.

The answer will vary.

But the principle remains:

Not every financial decision carries equal weight.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

🌿 REST & RECHARGE

What do you really want?

To actually feel restored.

⚠️ What can happen?

We fill our downtime with activities that distract us without replenishing us.

🎯 What might your 20% be?

Identify the one or two activities that consistently leave you feeling genuinely more restored—and make room for those first.

Not everything we do to escape helps us recover.

Learn the difference between what distracts you and what restores you.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

❤️ PEOPLE

What do you really want?

Meaningful relationships and a life characterized by love.

⚠️ What can happen?

We assume loving people means giving everyone equal time, access, and relational depth.

But our capacity is limited.

🎯 What might your 20% be?

Identify the relationships God has most clearly entrusted to you and make sure those relationships receive intentional investment.

The 80/20 Rule does not mean eliminating people or reducing relationships to percentages.

Love can be expansive while depth remains selective.

Strengthen your core relationships first.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

🏠 HOME & ORDER

What do you really want?

A home that feels peaceful, functional, and reasonably in order.

⚠️ What can happen?

We turn “getting the house back in order” into organizing every drawer, cleaning every corner, and completing every deferred project—while unintentionally neglecting the people and priorities the home is meant to serve.

🎯 What might your 20% be?

Ask:

What few things would make the entire space feel substantially better?

Maybe it is clearing the kitchen counters.

Maybe it is removing everything that needs to leave the house.

Maybe it is cleaning out the refrigerator, pantry, car, or garage.

Your 20% will not necessarily look like someone else’s.

The question is:

Which few actions restore the greatest amount of order?

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Protect the Vital Few

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Identifying the vital few is only part of wise stewardship.

Once you know what matters most, you have to protect it from being crowded out by everything else.

Because every “yes” carries a “no” with it.

Every yes to one use of your time, energy, attention, or resources is also a no to something else.

That is why wise stewardship requires more than asking:

“Is this good?”

It requires asking:

“Is this the best place for what God has entrusted to me right now?”

Some things deserve greater investment.

Some things can be simplified.

Some can be delegated, reduced, postponed, or released.

And some things may be genuinely good—but not valuable enough to carry in this season.

Pareto’s Principle is ultimately an invitation to pay attention:

👀 Notice what is actually working.
🔎 Recognize what is costing more than it is producing.
⚖️ Stop giving equal weight to unequal things.
🌱 Invest more intentionally in what bears the most fruit.

You do not have to do everything to steward your life well.

You need wisdom to recognize what matters most—and courage to let that receive your best, even when it means allowing other good things to remain undone.

Faithfulness is not giving everything your maximum effort.

It is giving the right things the attention, energy, and investment they deserve.

Strong & Courageous

One of my favorite verses has long been Joshua 1:9:

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged…”

I love those words.

And while it’s important to read Scripture in context—to understand:

👤 Who God was speaking to
📍 What was happening
🎯 What He was calling that person to do

✨ That doesn’t mean there is nothing there for us.

Romans 15:4 reminds us:

“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.”

Joshua had a very specific assignment.

So do we.

And while ours may look very different from his—and may feel incredibly ordinary, unexciting, or even mundane—faithfulness to our own assignment is still going to require courage.

Sometimes courage looks big.

But often, it looks surprisingly ordinary.

It can look like:

🌱 believing God is still at work when you cannot yet see what He is doing
🤝 admitting you were wrong and making it right
💬 having the difficult conversation you would rather avoid
🧭 doing the right thing when the easier thing would cost you less
🚫 refusing to let fear make your decisions for you
🏃 refusing to let discouragement convince you to quit
🌤️ holding on to hope in a world that can feel incredibly fragile
🔄 beginning again after disappointment
🪴 staying faithful when there is very little applause
🛑 saying no when pressure is telling you to say yes
➡️ saying yes when fear is telling you to stay small
🤲 continuing to love people without surrendering truth
🗣️ standing for truth when it would be easier to stay silent
👣 taking the next faithful step when you don’t get to see the whole road

The New Testament carries that same call:

“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.” — 1 Corinthians 16:13–14

I especially love that last part.

Courage and love belong together.

❌ Biblical courage isn’t swagger.
❌ It isn’t recklessness.
❌ It isn’t pretending we never feel afraid or discouraged.


✅ It is refusing to let fear or discouragement have the final word.
✅ It is trusting God enough to faithfully do what He has put in front of us—even when fear comes along for the ride.

It is trusting God enough to faithfully do what He has put in front of us—even when fear comes along for the ride.

Your assignment may never look dramatic.

It may look like a thousand small, ordinary acts of faithfulness.

But somewhere along the way, it will almost certainly ask you to be brave.

➡️ Be strong and courageous.
➡️ Do not be afraid.
➡️ Do not be discouraged.
➡️ Stand firm.
➡️ And do it all in love.

⚙️ Don’t Let the Process Hijack the Purpose

Have you ever spent so much time perfecting the process that you lost sight of why you were doing it in the first place?

Here’s something I’ve been learning that has been a genuine game changer for me.

I love creating systems.

✅ Checklists.
✅ Routines.
✅ Organizing.
✅ Finding better ways to do things.

I genuinely enjoy building tools that bring more order to life.

But this summer, while working through years of organizing my digital life, I noticed something.

Every so often I’d hit a wall.

I’d get stuck.

I’d start overthinking.

I’d feel that familiar paralysis analysis creeping in.

And that’s when I realized something…

Sometimes I spend so much time perfecting the system that I lose the very benefit the system was created to give me.

💡 Such an aha moment:

Don’t let the process hijack the purpose.

One of the biggest shifts in my thinking has been learning the difference between faithful stewardship and perfectionism.

🧭 Stewardship asks:
“What’s the wise next step?”

🔍 Perfectionism asks:
“How can I make this just a little more perfect?”

Perfectionism doesn’t know when enough is enough. Wisdom does.

At first, additional effort often adds value.

But eventually we reach the point of diminishing returns—where we’re investing significantly more time and energy for very little additional benefit.

That’s often the moment when the process quietly begins hijacking the purpose.

Maybe you’ve seen this in your own life…

🏡 You organized a room until you were obsessing over tiny details instead of enjoying the peace the room already brought.

💰 You tracked every penny until budgeting created more stress than financial peace.

🎉 You cleaned and decorated for guests until you were too exhausted to enjoy having them over.

📚 You kept researching because every decision still felt “not good enough.”

The simple tool that’s been helping me is this:

When I feel myself getting stuck, I stop and ask:

❓ What was the purpose of this in the first place?

❓ Is the process starting to hijack the purpose?

Those two questions usually tell me everything I need to know.

Now, this isn’t permission to be careless.

Some assignments require an extremely high degree of precision.

🌉 An architect designing a bridge.
💊 A pharmacist dispensing medication.
👨‍⚕️A surgeon preforming a procedure.

➡️ Not every task requires that same level of precision.

Wisdom asks, “What does this assignment require?”

The answer isn’t the same for every task.

The standard for launching a rocket isn’t the standard for cleaning a playroom.

The standard for filing taxes isn’t the standard for answering an email.

Wisdom knows the difference.

Anything designed to serve us becomes unhealthy when it begins to rule us.

📅 A calendar.
💵 A budget.
🧺 A cleaning routine.
🥗 A meal plan.
📋 A productivity system.

They’re wonderful servants.

They’re terrible masters.

The purpose of a system is to create freedom—not another form of bondage.

❤️ Don’t let the process hijack the purpose.

🚲 The Bicycle Principle

Years ago, I was sitting in a church service, trying to sing along with the worship team, when I noticed something interesting.

Some worship leaders seemed to instinctively lead at a pace the congregation could follow. Others weren’t doing anything “wrong,” but the tempo was either so slow that people struggled to stay together or so fast that it became difficult for everyone to participate.

That’s when a simple thought came to me:

A bicycle only stays upright within a certain range of motion.

🐢 Go too slowly, and it starts to wobble until it falls over.
🏎️ Go too fast, and you lose control.

I’ve come to believe that life often works the same way.

Sometimes we lose balance because we’re waiting…planning…researching…thinking…but never taking the next faithful step.

Other times we lose balance because we’ve said yes to too much. We mistake busyness for fruitfulness and outrun our ability to faithfully steward what God has entrusted to us.

The goal isn’t to go as fast as possible.

The goal is to find the pace where faithfulness flourishes.

I’ve also realized something else.

A bicycle doesn’t stay balanced because the rider finds the perfect position and never moves again.

It stays balanced through countless tiny adjustments.

The Christian life is much the same.

We don’t have to execute God’s will perfectly. We simply keep taking the next faithful step, listening to Him, making small course corrections along the way, and trusting that He is able to guide us.

Maybe today isn’t about pedaling harder.

Maybe it’s simply about finding the pace where you can faithfully keep moving forward in the assignment God has given you today.

🚲 One faithful pedal stroke at a time.

🧭 Consistency Over Perfection

📆 At the beginning of my health reset and transformation back in 2024 — after all the research I did on menopause and longevity — I decided that lifting weights 3x/week and getting at least 120 grams of protein were going to be two of my personal non-negotiables. 🏋️‍♀️

But a few months in, I was falling short.

I was consistently lifting 2x/week.

Sometimes 3x… but many weeks, only 2x.

I could have tried harder.

Recommitted.

Or beat myself up for not being “disciplined” enough.

But after decades of those approaches not working for me, I chose a different route.

Instead of simply trying harder, I asked a better question:

🤔 Why was I having such a hard time hitting my weekly lifting goal?

Here’s what I realized.

I was following a plan that had me doing 30 minutes of HIIT on Monday and Tuesday, then lifting on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

I’d be on track… 

And then the wheels just fell off.

🥵 By the end of the week, I was gutted.

One of the issues I had been dealing with in menopause was exhaustion, and I finally acknowledged it instead of continually fighting against it.

So I did something that felt totally uncharacteristic for me as a natural rule-follower.

Instead of following the schedule exactly as written, I adjusted it to fit what I could realistically sustain.

I moved my three most important workouts to the first three days of the week — Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

And just like that — voilà. 🗝️

Consistency stopped being a struggle.

I began hitting my lifting goal 3x/week consistently — and I’m still doing it today.

Such a lesson for me.

My old perfectionist self would have had a hard time allowing that. After all, it wasn’t exactly what the program prescribed.

And to be clear, it was a solid, research-based program.

Was lifting three days in a row necessarily the most ideal training schedule possible?

Maybe not.

And it may not be the best arrangement for every person, every body, or every program.

But at that point, with the knowledge and capacity I had, it was the best plan I knew how to follow consistently.

⌚️ For me to be what I call A.I.M. — Appropriate In the Moment — I had to know myself.

At that stage, consistently completing three manageable strength-training sessions mattered more than perfectly following a schedule that repeatedly resulted in me missing the third workout.

🎯 Sometimes you have to know your goal.

Know what matters most.

Know your current season and capacity.

And then prioritize that — even when the solution is not theoretically perfect.

Even when it feels like you are “breaking the rules.”

In this case, consistency mattered more than conformity to a plan.

The plan wasn’t wrong.

I simply needed to apply it with wisdom, humility, and honest self-awareness.

So I’ll ask you this:

👉 Is there an area where you may need to customize what you’re doing so you can consistently do what matters most?

In the future, I may adjust my training schedule again as my capacity, goals, and knowledge change.

But in that season, I knew my one thing — my most important priority — and that was what received my focus and faithfulness.

🌿 Low-Hanging Fruit in the Eight Domains

Have you ever known an area of your life needed attention—but felt unsure where to begin?

Sometimes we make the next step so big that we never take it.

That is where Low-Hanging Fruit comes in.

Low-Hanging Fruit is the smallest meaningful action that moves me in the right direction. 

🚫 Not the biggest action.
🚫 Not the most impressive action.
🚫 Not the action I would take if I had unlimited time, energy, money, and capacity.

✅ The faithful action that is actually available to me today.

When the idea for this framework first began taking shape, I wanted to practice it in my own life.

But I did not begin by choosing an action step for every domain. That would have felt like eight more things to do.

My Low-Hanging Fruit was simply this:

🙏 I prayed for wisdom in each of the Eight Domains and asked God to show me where He wanted my attention.

That was it.

I brought my spiritual life, personal growth, physical health, family, professional life, finances, rest, and relationships before Him.

I did not try to fix everything.
I did not create a plan for every area.
I simply prayed.

That small practice reflected the principle found in Proverbs 3:5–6:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to Him,
and He will make your paths straight.”

That was back in 2018.

It was a small action, but it was meaningful—and it became the beginning of a Low-Hanging Fruit habit I still practice today.

What began as one small seed has grown considerably across all Eight Domains. Over time, prayer led to greater clarity, specific action, stronger habits, and meaningful growth.

But it did not begin with a complete plan. It began with one faithful, doable step.

And that is what Low-Hanging Fruit looks like.

It doesn’t end there, but that’s where it starts. With a little seed you plant and then faithfully nourish.

Your Low-Hanging Fruit may look different. The key is that it is specific, meaningful, and doable—something you can complete.

Here are some more examples:

🙏 Spiritual
Read one verse and ask God to speak to your heart through it.

🌱 Personal
Make your bed upon waking.

🏋🏻‍♀️ Physical
Do twenty squats when you first wake up—or after you make your bed. 😉

🏡 Family
Tell your family members you love them when you say good night.

💼 Professional
Write down the most important task you need to complete today.

💰 Financial
Open your banking app and check your balance.

🔋 Rest & Recharge
Set a bedtime reminder on your phone.

🤝 People & Highest Contribution
Write down the name of one person you want to pray for today.

None of these actions may look impressive.

But they are doable—and doable matters when we are trying to get started, build consistency, and create momentum.

Low-Hanging Fruit is valuable in every season, but it becomes especially important when capacity is low.

We do not abandon stewardship; we simply adjust the size of the faithful step.

So instead of asking:

❓ “How do I fix my whole life?”

We can ask:

🌿 What is one small, meaningful action I can complete today?

The acorn does not need to become the oak tree today.

It simply needs to be stewarded faithfully.