How to Build a Life That Can Hold Abundance

So last week we talked a lot about your season and knowing where you are and understanding how important it is for you to, um, honor the season that you're in. And, um, because this week I want to talk to you about building, I just need to restate this. You have to know where you are. You've got to know where you are. So if you have not done the work to really identify, like you got to be able to say, I'm in a season of building. I'm in a season of discovery. I'm in a season of raising small kids. I'm in a season of serving. I'm in a season of learning. I'm in a season of acquiring information and education. I'm in a season of, of, of being unseen. Go ahead and identify the season. God can change it if he wants to change it. If you identify it wrongly, he can correct it. But I need you to think about your life in seasons. Like, I, I can tell you my season is shifting for a lot of reasons. It's not just because I have a senior that's going to go to high school or go to his senior year in high school next year. It's also because my husband isn't well. So there are shifts in my life where it's like, okay, I'm freer to do some things and less free to do other things. Um, my season is shifting because we've been organized as a team in a certain way. And I was working early this morning on some retitling and reshifting of some things. I am in a season of shifting because some things with my body and my health are non-negotiable. So what's going to have to change in my schedule? Because what I am doing to deal with those things is not handling those things. And so I've got to make more room to do what I need to do to make sure that that's handled. There's some things have to shift. And I recognize my season. I recognize my shift, but I've got to know where I am. I've got to— you can't even find when you're lost on the road. You don't even know where to start with getting back on the road in the right direction if you don't even know why you're here. Which is why when you go to a mall, they have a little red dot that says, you are here. Because what good does the map do if you don't even know where you're standing? So we talked about a season. We talked about what that means and how that should affect where you're going. But you can't say you want overflow. You can't say that you want God to pour out more. You can't say you want more of all the things without starting with where you are and then engaging with God to build it. Your container has to be built in a way that it can hold what God wants to place in your hands. And your container has to do with your schedules. Has to do with your boundaries, it has to do with your attention, it has to do with your money, it has to do with your energy, your emotions, your home, your— the rhythms that you have with your people, with work. Because God is not just interested in giving you more, he's interested in helping you become a woman who can actually steward more. Because he has more to give and he can give it to anybody. And there are billions of people on the planet who he could give it to. So for him to give you what is your apportioned amount, You have to be able to hold it. So we've already talked about, you know, a leaky bucket. So my son that moved out into a new apartment, he has come home every weekend for two reasons. Number one, he was like, he wouldn't say he needed to eat, but that was one of the reasons why, because he had a leak in his sink and he couldn't wash dishes. And I told him to get a dishpan, how to do it. He didn't want to do that. And then because his dryer wouldn't dry well, so he's coming home and I'm like, sure, you can wash. Because literally I'm like, That means I can look at you. I want to see you. I want to lay eyes on you, and I want to hug you real good. And yes, I want to feed you real good. But he told me I can't wash dishes because my sink has a hole in it, in the plumbing underneath it. So every time I wash dishes, I'm creating a mess. So he said, I'm gonna stop washing dishes right here. That's what God does. Until you— until we fix the leak, I'm not going to wash dishes here. I'm not going to fully plant here. Because you're not prepared for what needs to be done in this place. So what do we do? We have to build a life in cooperation with God so that he can pour into the container of our life and know that there won't be leaks. It's an invitation. We're not supposed to be perfect. His apartment is not perfect. It's a starter apartment. You know, it's a beginning situation. But God doesn't mind beginning situations because he can build on that. If we are willing to build with him, he can build on us. Let me walk you through this acronym. I've talked so much about the widow in 2 Kings 4 and about being willing to pour out what you have. Like, these are all things that we've talked about. God can pour, but you have to prepare. Overflow needs a container. And if you want abundance, but you are not willing to be a steward, you're just going to leak because God is not trying to just bless you. He's trying to build something in you for his purposes and for other people. So what container are you building? So let's walk it through. Now I'm gonna step on some toes for real because I'm— I, I sit— sat there and was like, I need— I want to make sure you can hear yourself in this. I want to make sure you can see yourself in this. And I want to challenge you, and this will involve a little bit of homework if you want to take on the assignment, because it is super important that where it stings you— because remember we talked about conviction last week and obedience last week. Where this stings you, that's where you take action. So let's, let's dive into this practical framework. If we're going to build, B-U-I-L-D, we've got to have boundaries, understanding of our assignments, investing intentionally in our lives, living by rhythms, not reaction, and doing the next right thing. Boundaries. Let's protect what God is building. Proverbs 4:23, keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life. Your heart. Keep vigilant watch over your heart, 'cause that's where life starts. If God is gonna build something in your life, you have to protect it. Boundaries are not punishment for the people you love. Boundaries is not you pushing people away. Boundaries is protection. Boundary is not about being mean. Boundaries are about being mature. Boundaries are going to help you protect the room that God is making in your life. Boundaries are protection. If everything has access to you, nothing receives your best. Now we have, for those of y'all who are Community Coffee and Connection, in the growth part of the Inner Circle, there is a boundaries course. It's 21 days. You can start at any time. It's available to you at any time. Okay, Inner Circle club girls, If you are like, well, I really want that, but I really just can't commit to the subscription level, that's okay. It is in the store and you can just buy it. Just buy it outright and it's just yours. Take time with it. And then it's a one-time deal, okay? In our courses section. So anybody can have it. It's just a matter of how you get it. So if you need to walk it through, just know that that's there for you. But we are lacking, y'all, peace. And we say we want peace, but everything has access to us. And we can say we want spiritual depth, but we are hurrying our lives to fit everything in. We say we want better health, but sleep is the first thing we sacrifice. We say we want focus, but our phone trains us to be available to everybody all the time. We say we want overflow, but we live with open gates. So you can't overflow because nothing has the chance to build up steam in you. If you've never read a book by John Mark Comer, go just get the John Mark Comer books. He has done a lot of teaching around hurry and what it means to be spiritually formed around Sabbath, around silence, around solitude, around slowing down. And it is a helpful thing in his work because he reminds us in very practical ways not to hurry. And hurrying is not just about scheduling, it's a soul issue. It's about having a hurried life and being addicted to a hurried life because a hurried life is an unguarded life and an unguarded life will always leak. So when we talk about boundaries, we're not just talking about saying no to people. We're talking about protecting the conditions that allow your heart and soul to stay available to God so he can fill it. Okay, so what does this look like in real life? And a lot of these things I've talked about in detail in other episodes. I'm gathering things together so you can have a checklist of what you're doing. First of all, time boundaries, time boundaries. So this is gonna look like no meetings before a certain day or a certain a certain time in your day. It may look like this is a day where I'm off limits. Definitely looks like Sabbath. No work calls after dinner. Maybe it looks like planning the week before the week starts. Hello, time. I've had people tell me, and again, this is not the only thing on the planet, but I've had people tell me, I just don't use it. You know what that's code for? If, if when you use it, it works for you, it's code for I didn't make planning time. And planning does take time, but my week goes so much better when I sit down and think about it in advance. Planning the week before it starts, Sunday afternoon, Sunday night, blocking time for focused work. You cannot, um, do good work if you're constantly being interrupted every 5 minutes. So blocking time where it's no interruption, where your phone is off, where your office door is closed, maybe where you go to a coffee shop, focused work, creating office hours for people who need access to you. It means refusing to let everyone else's urgency become your important schedule interruptions. So instead of saying, call me anytime, you can say, I'm available to talk between 2 and 4 on Thursday, because that's still loving. It's just structured and ordered. Okay. Another place where boundaries need to exist, your energy. So that may look like not scheduling emotionally heavy conversations back to back. If you know that this conversation with Susie Q is going to suck your life Don't then schedule another conversation with the suck your life person named Nicole. That should be on different days. It means leaving a space like after ministry or speaking and planning in recovery time. So my dad would preach on Sundays and then he would always have a day off on Mondays. We grew up knowing Mondays was his day off. I went to speak somewhere and one of my favorite assistants, Ke'Andrea, before I spoke, we were talking about something and she said, I want to give you some time before you speak. And I was like, girl, I'm good. I promise I'm good. And we were talking and she said, "I'm so sorry, I feel so uncomfortable." And she said, "And if you don't have some space before you teach, before you speak, you should." She said, "I'm going to excuse myself." And she taught me that even if I don't feel like I need it, the quiet is good for me. So even now when I go speak, a part of my contract says, "Before she speaks, give her space. Give her a little bit of space." So I can connect with the Lord clearly before I step on the stage. So planning your life with a little margin is important. Travel. When my husband used to travel, we used to call the chaos upon his departure takeoff. And we would call the chaos once he got home the landing, because him getting ready to go was packing and getting off the rhythm. And him coming home was him unpacking and sleeping a lot. And it was— he needed that as a buffer to travel for work. You gotta notice what drains you and not pretend that your capacity is unlimited, cuz it's not. So if you speak or lead or host or serve or pour out heavily on Sunday or Monday, plan a day to not be a high-demand day. It's not about being weak, it's about stewarding your energy. Okay, another area of boundaries, sleep. This is practical and spiritual, 'cause some women are trying to fully discern God's will for your life on 4 hours of sleep. Let me tell you, what you think is the Holy Spirit leading is pizza. It's pizza and no sleep. And sometimes you don't need a prophetic word, you don't need anybody to speak into your life, you just need to go to bed. So how do you protect your bedtime? Your phone can be outside of your bedroom. Now listen, I, my little pastime, I don't watch TV, but my little pastime is in the bed scrolling through my fake little Instagram, my secret Instagram channel. Now I don't have a problem going to sleep, but the phone does keep me up longer than it should. Maybe you set a reminder on your phone and I have one. It says time to get ready for bed. Maybe you make a decision. I'm not scrolling after 9:30. Maybe you reduce late night emotional conversations. Maybe you stop using Nighttime is the only time you get to yourself, but you cannot build from overflow while you're consistently robbing your body of restoration. Okay, let's talk about another boundary, social media. This may look like I'm not gonna look at my phone before I pray in the morning. I'm not gonna check in with people before I check in with the God who made me. I'm not gonna get power drained from me from my phone before I get power imputed to me from the God who loves me. It looks like certain apps you need to delete off your phone. It looks like unfollowing certain people. That stir up comparison in your life. It doesn't— it looks like not scrolling when you're emotionally vulnerable, or putting your creating time before your consuming time. So before opening up Instagram in the morning, you can say, have I heard from God before I've heard from everybody else? Okay, last one: downtime boundaries. It doesn't mean you're asleep, but it means you're resting. It means not feel— feeling guilty for having time scheduled on the calendar for nothing. Nothing. Rest is a part of your rhythm. Downtime is not wasted time if it restores you for your assignment. So Sunday naps, quiet morning, a walk without headphones, Sabbath block, 30 minutes of no input. So you can ask yourself, if you wanna audit your boundary life, what am I most accessible, uh, to? And when am I least peaceful? Because that will show you where you're most accessible and where you're experiencing the most conflict based on that accessibility. Who or what has too much access to me? What boundary would protect my sleep? What boundary would protect my attention? What boundary would protect my energy? What boundary would protect my spiritual life? What boundary would protect what God is building? Your boundaries protect what God is building. And remember, God is building a container to hold overflow. Your blessed life will include boundaries because it needs guarding to be blessed. And if you're going to access what God has for you, you have to do that with order. And boundaries create the order that you need to keep you from exhaustion. Now, once boundaries— I feel like that was a whole teaching by itself. Once boundaries protect the room, we need clarity about what actually belongs in the room. So that means that you have to understand your assignment. John 21:21-22, Peter said, "Lord, what about this man?" And Jesus said, "What is this to you?" Like, worry about yourself. You follow me. You do what you're supposed to do. Now, this is a grown-up, grown woman scripture because Peter is asking about somebody else. And Jesus says, "He's none of your business." And many of us are tired because we are managing assignments or paying attention to the assignments of other people and not paying attention to our own. Other people's growth, other people's choices, other people's emotions, other people's expectations. Other people's emergencies, other people's opinions. And when you have clarity about your assignment, you can say, that doesn't belong to me. So you may be assigned to love your adult child, but you don't have to be assigned to rescue them from every consequence. Your assignment may be love. Listen, you gonna learn how to burn out that carpet on your knees when you have young adult children. Your assignment may be counsel when you're invited. Your assignment may be healthy boundaries and honest conversation, but their assignment is now decision-making. And responsibility and follow through with their growth. God's part is to convict them. You not God. It is transforming them. You are not God. It is giving them God's timing for their life. You are not God. It is provision. You are not God. And if you are providing for them, you are getting in the way of God. So when we think about understanding your assignment, let's look at work and leadership. You may be assigned to lead a team. Um, you may not be assigned to do everyone's job. So then when you step out of delegating and giving direction and you start doing people's jobs for them, what are they getting paid to do if you doing they stuff for them? Your part may be clarity and setting clear expectations and making sure that you hold people accountable. And listen, holding people accountable is work. It may be supporting people or giving direction. Their part may be execution, their own communication. If they didn't do it, why couldn't they do it? They should have said something. Their part is ownership. And God's part may be to show them what the fruit is that he can do in them when they're committed. God's part may be to show them favor because they've actually shown up to do a good job. God's part may be the development that you shortcut when you step in to help too much. Okay, let's talk about ministry in church. Your assignment may be to serve, but you may not be assigned to save. You can be assigned to show up faithfully, but you may not be assigned to be the only person who cares. And some of us are burning ourselves out because You're the only person, and everybody— nobody says that they're gonna help you because you look like you got it and you're not asking for help. Okay, let's talk about home. You may be assigned to steward your home, but you are not necessarily assigned to maintain an impossible standard. Stop worrying about the perfect house and make sure you have a peaceful home. Make sure your home is safe for your people, for your spouse, for your kids. Make sure your home is built on regular rhythm so you don't have to be stressed out all the time. Make sure your people are loved well. So here's a filter for assignment. What has God clearly assigned me to in this season? I know that I'm assigned to y'all. There's not a question in my mind about that right now. How I do that assignment, how I share that assignment with the team, what my responsibility is, how frequently I'm doing it. I know that I'm assigned to women who can't pay. Which is why all week last week I went live. But I'm not assigned to them in the same way that I'm assigned to you, because I need to pour out in places where there is a reciprocal investment in this season. Right now I'm assigned to 4 levels of the Inner Circle. It might not always be that way, but I know that I'm assigned to you in the season. What has God clearly assigned you to? And what are you carrying because you care about it, but God did not assign it to you? Now listen, this is the hard thing for me. When I did my little ChatGPT experiment and my chat said, Chanel said, you have got to simplify. And that means you cannot be fully accessible to everybody all the time. Because y'all know me. I want to have a deep conversation with everybody I meet. I can't do that and get dinner on the table. I can't do that and be available for my coaching clients. I can't do that and be free to take my husband to all his doctor's appointments. I've got to pick and choose because I have limited time. So what are you carrying that God, uh, has not assigned to you, but you care about it? And what keeps distracting you from your actual assignment? What are you doing out of fear or guilt or people pleasing? Because you've got to ask yourself, what is yours to steward and what is yours to release? Some things are yours to pray over, but it's not for you to control. Your clarity in your assignment will make obedience easier, and you cannot actively and fully steward an assignment that's not yours. Not everything you notice is yours to nurture. Okay, moving on. So once you protect the container, you understand what it is to have the boundaries. Once you understand your assignment, we want to invest intentionally. So you want to put your resources where fruit matters. I'm not going to pour water on a plant that's dead. I am not going to cultivate the soil for a plant that clearly is rotting out. I want to look for where something is growing, where God is doing something, which is why you have to abide in the vine. So that you know what he's doing. And then Matthew 6:21 says, where your treasure is, that's where your heart will be. I wanna pour into the thing that is worth my investment and treasure, cuz I want my heart to be there. And I want my heart to lead where my investment needs to go. Investment is not just about money. It's about your time, your attention, your energy, your focus, your emotion, your prayer, and your skill, your relationships. Cuz what you invest in will grow. Many of us want our businesses to take off, but we're not investing in relationship.. And a lot of business is relationship. It's who you know. It's all about people. And if you want abundance, you've gotta look at where are your resources going. So many women will say, I wanna grow, but they know they don't make the time to go back to school. Their time is invested in things that they love, but they're getting in the way of the thing that would actually catapult them forward. Their money is invested in impulse on whatever bag is the flavor of the month. Their attention is invested in comparison with other people cuz they're spending all their time on the phone instead of putting the nose in the book where you can actually invest and get something in return. The investment is, um, in resentment, because you're going to just stew on your frustration and your anger and your bitterness all day long because it's their fault. And if they hadn't done this, then you wouldn't be in the position that you're at. Instead of investing in prayer and, Lord, help me to forgive, you're investing your emotions and things you can't even control. So you're focusing on everything except the thing that actually matters. So you got to grow up, girl, and you can't harvest where you refuse to plant. So many people right now are blaming, and I'm not saying it's not a bad thing, but they're blaming the economy and money on, on the areas of their life that are super, super stressful. But a significant number of families are navigating this season well. They have adjusted. They have battened down the hatches. People have moved back home. They have cut out the subscriptions. They have done what it takes to navigate the season well. So when we talk about investment, it's not just a theoretical thing. It's like, when times are hard, how are you managing and investing your time, energy, and resources? And some of us, the biggest investment that we're gonna make right now in this season is redoing our budget, relooking at our groceries. That's why there's the meal planning workshop. It's the fastest way for you to control your budget immediately. Looking at your bills, reevaluating your family support, your adult children, your medical costs, business expenses, ministry giving, your savings, your debt reduction plan. Retirement, your home needs. Abundance needs wisdom. And you don't panic when times get hard, but you do invest times in figuring things out. So you invest your time asking, where did my time go this week? This is why we review our week. Where did I intend for it to go? Where did it actually go? So if you say your health matters, but there's no time block for walking or working out, or if you, you know, for actually planning your week, if you don't know when you're gonna sleep, if your cadence in life is disrupted because you don't even know what you're doing every day. If you say your marriage matters, but you have not intentionally invested in conversation, intentionally invested in a date night, intentionally invested in time together, your calendar, what you're actually doing, is telling the truth. Not based on your intentions, but what you intentionally plan. If you say your calling matters, but there is no focused time for writing, learning, building, practicing, creating, being in the flow of what God is doing, if your calendar is telling the truth, what you actually do with your time, if your calendar is not what you say your life should look like, then your calendar is telling the truth and it's revealing that your intentions are not active. So you've got to invest the time in what you say matters. You've got to invest your money. It's not about just, you know, saving money and putting it under a mattress. Don't be ashamed if you haven't done it. Start now. Start today. Start right now. Today. Go to Fidelity. Go to Schwab. Go to Edward Jones if you want to talk to somebody in person. There is absolutely no reason why on this planet you should not be invested. And unless you're 70, if you have time to invest for retirement, there's no reason why you should not be making more money than what is in your bank account. And I'm glad you have a high yield savings. Great. Go invest. If you've got 5 to 10 years towards a major goal, you should be invested. Where is your money going? Where's your spending aligned with your values? What is your budget telling you? And are you spending from a place of desire? From peace or from flesh? I want this and I want this right now. Are you buying for relief, like shopping therapy? Are you taking that same money on a purse that will be old in 3 years? And are you investing it so that you have triple the money that you started with? Are you avoiding financial truth that you need to face? So if a woman says she wants financial peace, but she has not looked at her bank account all week, the first step may be just a 20-minute money check-in. Writing down your bills, canceling one unused subscription, delaying one impulse purchase, creating a grocery plan, so that you can have an honest conversation about what you're going to eat. You got to plan for it. You got to invest your attention. So attention is your most valuable resource. And you want to know how we know that? Because they spend so much time and energy making sure we stay connected here. Your attention is the asset. It's the product. It's everything. So what has your attention had access to? Because that will influence the formation of your mind and your soul. If the first hour of your day belongs to news, text, and social media, don't be surprised when your soul feels scattered. So before you do all that, try the Bible before you open your browser, or prayer before you open your phone, or create something before you consume something. Um, take a quiet drive, go on a drive, go on a walk with nothing in your ears. Okay, we got to invest energy. So I've done a lot of work to think about what my body needs. I get my blood work done. I know where my D is. I know what I need for B. I know that I want to keep my magnesium up, and so I take supplements and drink and eat accordingly. Okay? So you've got to invest in your energy, literally your physical energy. You also have to think about that online because you got strangers online that are following you or strangers that you're following and they are taking energy even though they're not in your life. So if work gets your excellence and your body gets neglect, something is leaking. If the crisis, what you got to fix for this person or show up and address for this person, if that gets your attention, then your purpose is going to get leftovers. So where you're investing, it matters. You want to invest in what will last, and you will last. So getting counseling at church, or coaching if you need it, wise counsel from your wisdom date, therapy, finding a spiritual director, developing your skills, financial planning, health habits, relationship repair, learning, growing, community, rest. Because some investments don't look like they're urgent, but they are foundational. So Here's some questions that you can ask yourself. Where is my time going? Where is my money going? What keeps my mind captured? What keeps draining me or strengthening me? And then you gotta say, what needs less of my investment and what needs more? What investment would result in overflow? What investment would strengthen my future? What investment would bring my life into alignment? Because what you invest in, what you feed, what you nurture, it grows. So do you see how this is not new, but I'm giving you a framework? So first you got to set some boundaries. Next, you got to understand your assignment in your home, in your church, at work, in your life. Then we have to invest, intentionally grow, girl, intentionally grow. What's next? What's next? Ask the Lord, Lord, how do you want me to grow? How do you want me to grow what you've given me to steward? Okay, now here we go. L, life rhythms. Life rhythms. Living by rhythm and not reaction. Psalm 90:12, teach us to number our days. You heard me talk about that because overflow, you can't sustain that in your life by emergency energy. Everything in life can't be an emergency. Everything in life can't be right now yesterday. And if you are living like that, then you are living in adrenaline, which also isn't good for you. The cortisol is flowing, which also isn't good for you. You're reacting to texts, reacting to bills, reacting to emotions, reacting to other people's needs, reacting to deadlines, reacting to what they forgot, reacting to what they avoided, reacting to what never got planned. And then you're just trying to fix it at the last minute. Rhythm in your life. And y'all know I believe in rhythm. Create a rhythm for your days, create a rhythm for your week. And then if you really wanna be extra, create a rhythm for your year. Twice a year, you get your filter change in your house. Like, Literally build your life on rhythms because the more that can be handled by the rhythm in your life, the less reactive energy you need to give out, which keeps you sane. It's not about being rigid. It's about being supportive to the life that God has given you. So Michelle and I are very different. Michelle is very spontaneous, but even she has rhythm in her life. She'll come home and say, "Now I got to get ready for the week and plan my meals for the week." But she will in a second be like, "Let's drive to Oklahoma." But she also has rhythms in her life that work for you. Your rhythms need to work for you. So you've got to have a way to return to a baseline, return and have a reset, and have anchors that hold you. Okay? So what does this look like? A morning rhythm. Doesn't have to take 2 hours for you to get dressed and get ready for work. It may be 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15, where you wake up, get some water, pray, read a scripture, uh, look at your calendar quickly and choose or review your top 3 priorities for the day. So if you have small children, This could look like a Bible audio while you're getting dressed or prayer in the car on the way to school, or one verse on a sticky note that you post right before in the spot where you wash dishes. 'Cause the point is not it being perfect. The point is just doing it in a way that works for you. Weekly rhythm can look like pick a day. For me, it's like Sunday evening where I go over my week and say, what is coming this week? We don't, I don't just do that for myself. We do that as a family. What's happening this week? So we have an idea of who's going and coming and what's happening. What matters most? What meals are needed? When are they needed? What appointments are happening? Where do I need margin? What is one step of obedience? Money rhythms look like your Friday finance check-in, or when my kids were small, it was Wednesday night when they went to Awana. It's a weekly grocery plan. It's looking at your upcoming bills. It's reviewing the subscriptions that you have monthly. Y'all, I got slammed in the thousands of dollars with a bill that was on repeat, that I knew was on repeat. And last year I said, we need to look at whether or not we still need that service. Ask me, did I remember? And then when we remembered, when we looked at it, and I still don't quite know how we missed it, but when we looked at it, we had 30 days to call and say, never mind, it was day 40. Your budget can hurt you personally, but man, that hurt business, Chrystal Hurst, too. You've got to track and pay attention to your spending, especially emotional spending, because take the drama out of money and just understand that when you could better control your money, you better control what God can use, the tool in your life. Rest has got to be planned. How much sleep do you need? When's your Sabbath? What's your no work evening? Do you ever take a nap? Do you have a phone-free hour? Do you go on quiet walks? What's your bedtime boundary? Read John Mark Comer, because a hurried life forms a hurried soul. If you want to be formed like Jesus, you need to have rhythms that work for Jesus. And he wasn't hurrying nowhere. And then your home rhythms, laundry days, recurring grocery lists, Your family calendar check-in, having a 15-minute evening tidy, um, Sunday prep. It's not about being perfect, but it is about creating the support that you need. And of course, living by spiritual rhythms, daily prayer, scripture before the phone, weekly Sabbath, silent solitude and Sabbath rest, worship, journaling, community, the spiritual disciplines. We're not trying to earn God's love, but we want to put ourselves in the flow of the waterfall. And that happens best by rhythm, not reaction. It's reaction. When you pray because your life is blowing up. So here are your questions for your check-in. What area feels most reactive in my life? What simple rhythm would best support what God is doing in my life? What rhythm would best support my peace? And when am I going to practice it? What could interrupt it? How can I make it easier? Is it a 10-minute nightly reset? Is it a 20-minute Sabbath planning on a Sunday? Is it a Friday money check? No phone for the first 30 minutes of the day? Is it a bedtime alarm? Is it weekly— a weekly walk or prayer? Because rhythm is how you etch out the container for overflow. When you're reacting, you're just denting it all over the place. You don't need perfect routines, but you do want a faithful rhythm so that life has tracks for God to run on. Hurry is expensive. It's expensive to your soul, and a rhythm will give you a way to return to something that is more easy. Okay. Boundaries. Understand your assignment. Invest intentionally. Live with rhythms. And then D, this is my favorite. This is my favorite. Do the next thing. You want to turn the insights that you have into obedience. And you'll know because as you go through these lists of things, there are only certain things that are going to stir and go ping. Ping, that is the Holy Spirit talking to you. That's where you need to get obedient. Be doers of the word, not just hearers only. Don't fool yourself into thinking that just because you showed up this morning and listened to me, then now you are more spiritual. You're not. You are a hearer. What makes you more spiritual, what makes you more in alignment, what makes you carved out and ready for overflow is obedience. So this is where growing up, girl, gets super practical because we don't need more information. We need better implementation, because insight is amazing, but your obedience is what's going to build it. You don't build overflow by wishing it into existence. You build it by doing the stewarding. And stewarding is small. You make the appointment, you block the time, you tell the truth, you create the budget, you say no, you go to bed, you take the walk, you send the email, you apologize, you ask for help, you start again. You make the plan, you delete the app, you have the conversation, and the next right thing is usually not glamorous, but it is very specific. And you should be hearing right now, and I want you to put in the chat if you are, what is the area of obedience? Which of those things— building, understanding assignment, investing with, living with rhythm— where are you sensing right now the next thing? And like Jesus's mother told those servants, do whatever he tells you to do. Do whatever he tells you to do. That's what happened with the wedding at Cana. He— they— Jesus gave them all these instructions that they were like, you know, this is not how it's done, right? But obedience resulted in a miracle. So sometimes you're going to want the whole plan. You're like, Lord, I want to know what you have for me, and then I'm going to XYZ. He said, nope, nope, nope. I need you to be the woman before I even show you what eyes have not seen and ears have not heard. God's going to give the next step. And growing up girl women, grown women, Learn to obey the light they already have. So what does this mean? Block your planning time, cancel one unnecessary commitment, set office hours, create a weekly reset. If your issue is money, look at your bank account every day, once a week, whatever the rhythm is that works for you. Cancel the subscriptions, plan your meals, delay the purchase, ask for help. If it's about your energy, then go to bed, take a walk, schedule rest. Stop overbooking yourself. Protect your recovery. If the leak is attention and what you're paying attention to, you want to remove the app, turn off notifications, say no phone before I pray, stop scrolling in bed. Ouch. That may have hit me. If the leak is your assignment confusion, then you just got to say, Lord, what's mine? What's mine to carry? What's theirs to carry? What is mine to keep? What's mine to release? You can open scripture, pray honestly, return to church, take a Sabbath back, sit in silence for 10 minutes. You want to ask, what is the one thing? Here's the question, y'all. And this is what I want to know. What is the one thing that you could do in the next 24 hours to build your container? Not someday, not eventually, in the next 24 hours. So here's the statement. My next right thing is what? I will do it by when? I may need support from who? My next right thing is what? I will do it when? And I need support from who? Who? Go ahead, start loading up the chat with that, because your small obedience is the beginning of building of a strong life. It's the beginning. Don't despise the day of small beginnings. You're not going to build overflow by wishing it into existence. You're going to build it through stewardship, and stewardship involves obedience. Obey the light that you already have. Are you asking God to pour into a life that has no container? Because why would he do that? God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think. But he also teaches us to steward the stuff he's given us. And maybe the next level of abundance is not only about what God wants to give you, maybe it's how God wants to grow you. What is one obedient step I can take in the next blank, whether it's 24 hours in the next week, because women who've decided to grow up are not about preparation. We're not about only inspiration. We are about activation and practical wisdom and structure and support is yours for the having if you choose to engage. And that's why it's so important when you get involved in a church, you're not just going to church on Sunday, you get involved during the week because it's one thing to just sit and soak and sour and receive. It's a whole nother thing to be in the work and put your hands on the plow. That not only shows God that you're committed, it also shows God that he can use you. So build a life that will last. If this video encouraged you today, can I ask you to do two things? First, take a second to like this video, subscribe to the channel, and leave a comment below. I'd love to hear what resonated with you. And the big number two, if you're looking for more than occasional encouragement, if you're looking for a place to keep growing consistently, I'd love to invite you to be a part of the Inner Circle. Every Monday morning, I show up with fresh teaching, practical tools, and conversations that are designed to help women grow in their faith, steward their lives well, and make meaningful progress in the areas that matter most. The truth is growth does not happen because we hear one good idea. Growth happens when we continue to show up. So if you'd like to do that alongside me and inside of a community of incredible women, go to thesistercircle.com/innercircle. And join us today.