We tell our kids something all the time without realizing it. We say, "You'll get there— one day," painting the picture of a summit: gleaming, golden, way up high, as if that's the only place where victory lives. But what if we've been pointing our children in the wrong direction? What if the moment we've been telling them to wait for is already happening right where they are? Your child's mountaintop in the valley doesn't happen at the top; it happens in the climb.

School is back in session. Backpacks are loaded. Schedules are pinned to refrigerators. And your child is walking into a season full of unknowns — new teachers, new expectations, new social dynamics, and the quiet pressure to perform. Some of them are excited. Some are dragging their feet. And some are carrying things they haven't told you about yet.

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#ConfessionsOfAnUpsetMama #CreateYourNow #TodaysParent

Here's what I want you to hear as a parent: the valley is not a punishment. It's a classroom.

We've been conditioned to think of valleys as something to survive and mountaintops as something to celebrate. But Scripture flips that. Psalm 23:4 says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me." Notice — God didn't say He'd airlift David out of the valley. He said He'd walk through it with him. The valley is where the presence of God becomes personal.

Your child's valley might look like a subject that doesn't come easy. It might look like a friendship that fell apart over the summer. It might look like the anxiety of not knowing where they fit. And in those moments, they don't need you to fix it. They need you to sit in it with them — and remind them that the hard stuff isn't a sign they're failing. It's a sign they're growing.

Think about every person in the Bible who did something extraordinary. Moses stuttered. David was the runt of his family. Esther was an orphan. Gideon was hiding in a winepress. Not one of them started on a mountaintop. They started in the low place — and God met them there. He didn't wait until they had it together. He came to them in the middle of the mess and said, "You're the one I'm going to use."

That's the word for your child this season. They don't have to have it all figured out. They don't need straight A's to have a straight path. They need to know that the valley isn't the end of their story — it's the setting for their breakthrough.

Romans 5:3-4 lays it out plainly: "We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." Perseverance. Character. Hope. That's a mountaintop built from valley materials. That's the kind of strength no shortcut can manufacture.

So what does this look like practically? How do we help our children find their footing when the ground feels uneven?

We have to encourage them to keep climbing.

The K.I.S.S. ~ Keep climbing!

When you look at what you're doing now, how are you handling these tough moments?

Being a mom is not an easy road. You'll have bumps and potholes along the way. But that doesn't mean you have failed.

You get to help your child climb from where they are. So what does it look like in real life?

1. Name the valley out loud.

Don't let your child struggle in silence. Create space for honest conversation — not to solve, but to see. Ask them what feels hard right now. Ask them what they wish you knew.

When a child hears, "I see you, and what you're going through matters," that alone shifts the ground beneath them.

You're not rescuing them from the valley. You're lighting a torch so they can see where they're walking.

2. Celebrate the climb, not just the summit.

We are so quick to celebrate the A on the test, the win at the game, the award at the assembly. And those things deserve applause.

But what about the night they studied when they didn't want to? The day they chose to sit with someone who was alone at lunch? The moment they tried again after getting it wrong?

Celebrate the effort. Celebrate the character. When you honor the process, your child learns that growth doesn't need a trophy to be real.

3. Speak the peak over them before they reach it.

Proverbs 18:21 tells us, "The tongue has the power of life and death."

Your words plant seeds in your child's heart that will bloom long after this school year ends. Don't wait until they've made it to tell them they're capable. Speak it now. Speak it in the valley. Tell them, "You are brave. You are growing. God is not done with you."

Because the mountaintop isn't a place — it's a perspective. And you get to shape the lens through which your child sees every season they walk through.

Here's the beautiful thing about all of this — your child doesn't have to reach the top to experience the view. The view changes with every step upward. Every hard conversation they push through, every fear they face instead of run from, every morning they choose to show up even when they don't feel like it — that's altitude. That's elevation. That's the climb, a mountaintop moment disguised as an ordinary day.

And Mama, the same is true for you. You're in the valley too sometimes — juggling schedules, carrying concerns, praying prayers that feel like they're bouncing off the ceiling.

But you're climbing. And your kids are watching you do it. They're learning what it looks like to keep going when the path is steep. You are their first and most powerful example of what it means to find God in the low places and trust Him with the next step.

"One step at a time leads to miles of greatness." ~ Kristianne Wargo

Deuteronomy 31:8 promises, "The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."

God goes before your child into every classroom, every hallway, every hard moment. And He goes before you into every parenting decision that keeps you up at night.

So let the valley be what it was always meant to be — not a dead end, but a doorway. Not a defeat, but a development. Your child's mountaintop isn't waiting for them somewhere in the distance. It's being built right now, one valley lesson at a time.

"Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!"

🔔 Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com

TAKE A.I.M. ~ Action Ignites Motivation - This is a complimentary (FREE) coaching call with me. You will discuss your specific situation while gaining tools and strategies to move you forward. (https://form.jotform.com/62988215824163)

🙏 Create Your Now TV on Pray.com (https://pray.com)

🎥 Create Your Now on YouTube (https://youtube.com/createyournow)

🎧 Create Your Now on Spotify, Pandora, and Audible.

🎶 Create Your Now on iHeart Radio (http://www.iheart.com/show/263-Create-Your-Now-Your-Best/)

✍️ [email protected]

Instagram @CreateYourNow @KristianneWargo

Twitter @KristianneWargo @CreateYourNow

Facebook www.facebook.com/TheKISSCoach www.facebook.com/CreateYourNow

Cover Art by Jenny Hamson

Photo by Canva.com

Music by Mandisa - Overcomer

http://www.mandisaofficial.com

Song ID: 68209 Song Title: Overcomer Writer(s): Ben Glover, Chris Stevens, David Garcia Copyright © 2013 Meaux Mercy (BMI) Moody Producer Music (BMI) One Songs (ASCAP) Ariose Music (ASCAP) Universal Music - Brentwood Benson Publ. (ASCAP) D Soul Music (ASCAP) (adm. at CapitolCMGPublishing.com) All rights reserved. Used by permission.

You've probably heard someone say it before — maybe a parent, maybe a mentor, maybe someone who just knew they were right and wanted you to remember it later. Mark my words. It's a phrase loaded with conviction, a verbal stake in the ground. But here's what I want you to sit with today: what if you turned that phrase inward? What if, instead of waiting for someone else to speak with that kind of certainty over your life, you learned to mark your words — the ones you speak, the ones you whisper to yourself when nobody else is listening, and the ones you let fall carelessly because you didn't think they mattered?

Because your words matter. Every single one.

Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com

#Inspiration #CreateYourNow #DailyMotivation

We live in a world that's noisy. Opinions fly at us from every direction, and somewhere in all that noise, we started treating our own voice like background music — always playing but rarely worth paying attention to.

You'll catch yourself mid-sentence, backtracking. Well, I don't really know, but… or This probably sounds silly, but… You qualify. You shrink. You speak and then immediately un-speak, as if your words need permission from someone else before they're allowed to land.

But here's the thing that might sting a little: other people are already taking you at your word.

Your kids hear what you say and file it away. Your spouse builds expectations around what you commit to. Your coworkers, your friends, your community — they listen, and they remember. The question isn't whether your words carry weight. They do. The question is whether you believe they do.

Proverbs tells us that the power of life and death is in the tongue. That's the reality. And it doesn't just apply to what you say to others. It applies to what you say to yourself and about yourself.

When you tell yourself you'll never get it together, you're marking those words. When you promise yourself you'll start and then don't, you're teaching yourself that your own voice isn't trustworthy. And slowly, quietly, you stop believing you're someone worth listening to — even though you are worthy to be heard.

So how do you start marking your words on purpose?

The K.I.S.S. ~ Mark your words!

You begin by paying attention. Not with perfection — we're not aiming for a life where you never misspeak or never say something you regret. That's not real, and it's not grace.

But you start noticing.

• You notice when you undercut yourself.
• You notice when you make a commitment and let it dissolve because it was only to yourself and nobody else was keeping score.
• You notice when the words you speak over your own life sound nothing like the words God speaks over you — words of hope, of purpose, of a future that isn't finished yet.

And then you make a shift.

• You start speaking to yourself the way you'd speak to someone you love.
• You start following through on the small promises — the ones nobody sees — because those are the ones that rebuild trust between you and your own reflection.
• You stop apologizing for having an opinion.
• You stop waiting for someone else to validate what you already know in your gut to be true.

Because when you mark your words — when you treat your own voice as something worth honoring — you're not being arrogant. You're being faithful. You're agreeing with the God who already said you are fearfully and wonderfully made, and that He knew the plans He had for you before you ever opened your mouth. Speaking with intention and integrity isn't pride. It's stewardship of the voice you've been given.

So today, right now, I want you to take yourself at your own word. If you said you would, then do. If you believe it, then say it — out loud, without the apology, without the qualifier.

Let your yes be yes. Let your no be no. Let your words be something you're proud to stand behind, not because you'll always get it right, but because you've decided that your voice deserves the same respect you so freely give to everyone else's.

You are worth listening to. So start with listening to yourself.

The next time you're tempted to brush off something you said or felt or believed, pause. Mark it. Write it down if you have to. Hold it up and look at it and ask yourself, Do I believe this enough to live it?

Because the woman who marks her words is the woman who starts walking in the fullness of who she was created to be. And that journey — that beautiful, messy, always-worth-it journey — it starts right here, with the very next word you choose to speak.

"Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!"

🔔 Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com

TAKE A.I.M. ~ Action Ignites Motivation - This is a complimentary (FREE) coaching call with me. You will discuss your specific situation while gaining tools and strategies to move you forward. (https://form.jotform.com/62988215824163)

🙏 Create Your Now TV on Pray.com (https://pray.com)

🎥 Create Your Now on YouTube (https://youtube.com/createyournow)

🎧 Create Your Now on Spotify, Pandora, and Audible.

🎶 Create Your Now on iHeart Radio (http://www.iheart.com/show/263-Create-Your-Now-Your-Best/)

✍️ [email protected]

Instagram @CreateYourNow @KristianneWargo

Twitter @KristianneWargo @CreateYourNow

Facebook www.facebook.com/TheKISSCoach www.facebook.com/CreateYourNow

Cover Art by Jenny Hamson

Photo by Canva.com

Music by Mandisa - Overcomer

http://www.mandisaofficial.com

Song ID: 68209 Song Title: Overcomer Writer(s): Ben Glover, Chris Stevens, David Garcia Copyright © 2013 Meaux Mercy (BMI) Moody Producer Music (BMI) One Songs (ASCAP) Ariose Music (ASCAP) Universal Music - Brentwood Benson Publ. (ASCAP) D Soul Music (ASCAP) (adm. at CapitolCMGPublishing.com) All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Here you are, standing on ground you didn't choose, in a season you didn't plan, holding a life that looks nothing like the one you sketched out in your heart. And if we're going to talk about loving the reflection that stares back at you, then we have to start right here. Not with who you want to become, but with where you actually are. Because today, you get to be honest about the ground beneath your feet, the real ground, not the version you edited for your prayers or dressed up in your journal.

You probably didn't close your eyes as a little girl and imagine yourself standing in the middle of a season that felt barren, stuck, or just plain hard. You pictured the meadow — the wide-open, sun-drenched, wildflower-covered meadow. You pictured the mountaintop. You pictured arrival.

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#WellspringWednesday #CreateYourNow #HealthAndWellness

But you cannot grow from ground you refuse to stand on. You can't bloom in a place you're constantly trying to escape. You can't put down roots when your feet are already halfway out the door. And you certainly can't love the reflection staring back at you in the mirror when you won't even acknowledge where she's standing.

So many of us resist our own "here." We wake up every morning with a quiet protest running underneath everything we do. This isn't what I planned. This isn't what I prayed for. This isn't the life I was supposed to have by now. And that protest, the low hum of refusal, doesn't motivate us forward. It keeps us frozen. It keeps us bitter. It keeps us blind to every seed God is trying to plant right where we are.

I've been there. I've stood on ground I didn't choose and spent more energy arguing with the soil than I ever spent learning from it. I've looked at my life and said, "God, are You sure?" as if the Creator of the universe accidentally dropped me in the wrong zip code of my story.

He didn't.

Psalm 139:16 tells us, "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

All the days. Not just the pretty ones. Not just the ones that photograph well. The hard days. The confusing days. The "I have no idea what I'm doing" days. They were written, too. And if God ordained the day, He also ordained the ground you'd be standing on when it arrived.

That doesn't mean the ground is comfortable. It means it's purposeful.

There's a difference.

Think about a seed for a moment. A seed doesn't get to pick its soil. It doesn't fill out a preference form. It lands where it lands — and sometimes that's in rich, dark earth, and sometimes that's in a crack in the sidewalk.

But the seed doesn't argue. It doesn't spend weeks lamenting the concrete around it. It just starts becoming what it was always meant to be, right there, in whatever ground received it.

You and I could learn something from that seed.

Because the ground beneath your feet — yes, that ground, the one that feels too hard, too dry, too nothing-like-what-you-expected — that ground is not your punishment. It's your starting place. And starting places are sacred, not because they're beautiful, but because they're honest. They tell the truth about where you are so that God can tell the truth about where He's taking you.

But He can't take you anywhere if you won't first stand still.

And I really think that's the part we miss. We're so busy running from "here" that we never actually arrive anywhere. We stay in this exhausting in-between — not fully present where we are, not able to get to where we want to be — and we wonder why we feel so tired all the time. We wonder why growth feels impossible. We wonder why the mirror feels like an enemy instead of a friend.

It's because we skipped the first step. We skipped acceptance.

Now, acceptance is not agreement. Accepting your ground doesn't mean you love every detail of your current season. It doesn't mean you stop praying for change or stop working toward something different.

What it does mean is that you stop punishing yourself for being where you are. It means you stop treating your "here" like a failure and start treating it like a foundation.

Because that's what it is.

Every building that has ever stood — every cathedral, every skyscraper, every little house on the corner that's weathered a hundred storms — started with the ground. Not the dream. Not the blueprint. The ground. The builders had to assess it, accept it, and build according to what it could hold. They didn't curse the dirt. They worked with it.

God is building something in you. But He's not building from your fantasy of where you should be. He's building from the reality of where you are. And until you let Him have that — until you hand Him the real coordinates of your life instead of the ones you wish were true — the building can't begin.

Isaiah 43:19 says, "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."

Did you get that? Streams in the wasteland. Not streams in the garden. Not streams in the place that already had everything it needed. Streams in the dry, cracked, barren ground that looked like nothing could ever come from it.

That's where God does His most stunning work; that's where masterpieces are made — in the places we've already written off.

Stand where you are!

The K.I.S.S. ~ Stand where you are!

So what does this look like practically? How do you stop fighting the ground and start standing on it?

1. Name the season you're actually in — not the one you wish you were in — and say it out loud without apology. Stop performing a version of your life that isn't real. Say it plainly: "I'm in a season of waiting." "I'm in a season of rebuilding." "I'm in a season of not knowing." When you name it, you take away its power to shame you. You bring it into the light, and light is where growth begins.
2. Thank God for one thing about your current ground, even if it's simply, "I'm still here." Gratitude doesn't ignore pain — it refuses to let pain have the last word. Find one thing, just one, about this season that you can bring to God with an open hand. Maybe it's the lesson you're learning. Maybe it's the people who've shown up. Maybe it's just the fact that you're still breathing and still believing. That's enough. Start there.
3. Stop rehearsing the story of how you got here and start asking, "What can grow from here?" You've told yourself the backstory a thousand times. You know how you ended up on this ground. But replaying the route doesn't change the destination. It just keeps you stuck at the trailhead. Shift the question. Instead of "Why am I here?" try "What is here for me?" Instead of "How did this happen?" try "What can God do with this?" The answer might surprise you.

The ground beneath your feet might not look like much right now. It might feel hard and unfamiliar and nothing like the life you drew in your heart.

But some of the most beautiful things ever seen grew out of ground that nobody believed in.

And that includes you and me.

So plant your feet, not because the ground is perfect. But because God is — and He's already at work in it.

"Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!"

🔔 Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com

TAKE A.I.M. ~ Action Ignites Motivation - This is a complimentary (FREE) coaching call with me. You will discuss your specific situation while gaining tools and strategies to move you forward. (https://form.jotform.com/62988215824163)

🙏 Create Your Now TV on Pray.com (https://pray.com)

🎥 Create Your Now on YouTube (https://youtube.com/createyournow)

🎧 Create Your Now on Spotify, Pandora, and Audible.

🎶 Create Your Now on iHeart Radio (http://www.iheart.com/show/263-Create-Your-Now-Your-Best/)

✍️ [email protected]

Instagram @CreateYourNow @KristianneWargo

Twitter @KristianneWargo @CreateYourNow

Facebook www.facebook.com/TheKISSCoach www.facebook.com/CreateYourNow

Cover Art by Jenny Hamson

Photo by Canva.com

Music by Mandisa - Overcomer

http://www.mandisaofficial.com

Song ID: 68209 Song Title: Overcomer Writer(s): Ben Glover, Chris Stevens, David Garcia Copyright © 2013 Meaux Mercy (BMI) Moody Producer Music (BMI) One Songs (ASCAP) Ariose Music (ASCAP) Universal Music - Brentwood Benson Publ. (ASCAP) D Soul Music (ASCAP) (adm. at CapitolCMGPublishing.com) All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Nobody wakes up in the morning hoping someone will hold their feet to the fire. We don't naturally gravitate toward the hard conversations, the honest mirrors, or the questions that make us squirm a little. And yet, if you and I are serious about becoming who God created us to be, then it's time to embrace true accountability — not as a punishment or judgment, but as one of the greatest gifts we've been given.

Think about your life for a second. Really think about it. Accountability has been woven into the fabric of your story since the very beginning. Your teachers held you accountable for your homework, your learning, your growth — even when you didn't feel like growing.

Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com

#Inspiration #CreateYourNow #DailyMotivation

Your parents held you accountable for your choices, your words, your character. Your boss holds you accountable for showing up, doing the work, and following through. Your spouse, your friends, even strangers on the road who remind you that the speed limit exists for a reason — accountability is everywhere. It is not the exception in your life. It is the rule.

And then there's God. The One who sees every hidden corner of your heart and still says, "I'm not going anywhere, but we need to talk about this." His accountability doesn't come with condemnation. It comes with love. It comes with purpose. He doesn't hold you accountable to crush you. He holds you accountable because He refuses to let you stay stuck when He's already prepared the next chapter of your life.

So why do we resist it so much? Because somewhere along the way, we started confusing accountability with judgment. We hear "you need to do better" and we translate it into "you're not enough."

But those are two very different sentences. One is an invitation to rise. The other is a lie meant to keep you sitting down.

Accountability, real accountability, isn't someone standing over you with a clipboard and a frown. It's someone standing beside you saying, "I believe you can, and I'm not going to let you talk yourself out of it."

The K.I.S.S. ~ Embrace true accountability!

You cannot move to the next step until you complete the step you are on. Not the step behind you that you keep revisiting. Not the step three miles ahead that you keep daydreaming about. The present step. The one right underneath your feet. That's the one that matters right now.

Accountability keeps your eyes on that step. It keeps you from drifting backward into regret or leaping forward into anxiety. It grounds you in the now, in the work, in the becoming to create your now.

And understand, becoming takes time. It takes honesty. It takes people in your life who care enough to say, "Hey, how's that thing going that you said you were going to do?" Not to embarrass you. Not to shame you. But to remind you that your words and your actions are supposed to walk in the same direction.

Proverbs 27:17 tells us that iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens another. That sharpening doesn't always feel comfortable, but it always produces something stronger.

Stop running from the people and the moments that call you higher. Stop viewing accountability through the lens of judgment and start seeing it for what it truly is — a lifeline. A compass. A holy nudge from a God who is far too invested in your future to let you sleepwalk through your present.

Every time someone speaks truth into your life, every time the Holy Spirit tugs at your conscience, every time a circumstance forces you to face something you've been avoiding — that is accountability doing its sacred work.

You were not designed to figure this out alone. You were not meant to wander through life unchecked, unchallenged, and unchanged.

You were created for growth, and growth requires honesty — with yourself, with others, and with God.

So instead of pulling away when accountability shows up at your door, open it wide. Invite it in. Let it sit at your table and do what it was always meant to do — move you forward.

The step you're standing on right now? Complete it. Own it. Be accountable for it. And when you do, watch how the next one appears with more clarity than you ever expected. That's how it works. That's how God works. One faithful, accountable step at a time.

"Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!"

🔔 Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com

TAKE A.I.M. ~ Action Ignites Motivation - This is a complimentary (FREE) coaching call with me. You will discuss your specific situation while gaining tools and strategies to move you forward. (https://form.jotform.com/62988215824163)

🙏 Create Your Now TV on Pray.com (https://pray.com)

🎥 Create Your Now on YouTube (https://youtube.com/createyournow)

🎧 Create Your Now on Spotify, Pandora, and Audible.

🎶 Create Your Now on iHeart Radio (http://www.iheart.com/show/263-Create-Your-Now-Your-Best/)

✍️ [email protected]

Instagram @CreateYourNow @KristianneWargo

Twitter @KristianneWargo @CreateYourNow

Facebook www.facebook.com/TheKISSCoach www.facebook.com/CreateYourNow

Cover Art by Jenny Hamson

Photo by Canva.com

Music by Mandisa - Overcomer

http://www.mandisaofficial.com

Song ID: 68209 Song Title: Overcomer Writer(s): Ben Glover, Chris Stevens, David Garcia Copyright © 2013 Meaux Mercy (BMI) Moody Producer Music (BMI) One Songs (ASCAP) Ariose Music (ASCAP) Universal Music - Brentwood Benson Publ. (ASCAP) D Soul Music (ASCAP) (adm. at CapitolCMGPublishing.com) All rights reserved. Used by permission.

There's something about this time of year that makes your soul sit up a little straighter. Maybe it's the smell of new school supplies or the way the morning air starts to shift just enough to remind you that change is coming. Whether you've got kids heading back to the classroom or not, this season carries an unmistakable invitation — and if you're paying attention, you can feel it. Fresh pages and open doors aren't just for the backpack friends. They're for you. The one who's been running on last season's fumes and quietly wondering if it's okay to want something new. It's more than okay. It's time to create your now.

Look at January. We treat January like the gold standard for fresh starts. We make resolutions, buy planners, and set alarms. And then by February, most of us have already made peace with the fact that the gym membership was aspirational at best.

Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com

#MindsetMonday #CreateYourNow #PersonalDevelopment

But now it's August into September. These months don't come with that kind of pressure. It slips in like a grace note — a quiet reset that says, you don't have to have it all figured out, but you do need to be willing to turn the page.

And that's the part that gets us: the turning of the page.

Because turning the page means you can't keep rereading the same chapter. It means the disappointments of last season, the routines that stopped serving you, the version of yourself that played it safe because safe felt easier — all of it has to be released if you're going to pick up what's next.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens."

God built seasons into the rhythm of life because He never intended for you to stay in one place forever. The trees know when to let go of their leaves. The question is — do you?

Here's what I've learned about new seasons: they don't ask you to be ready. They ask you to be willing. There's a difference.

Ready means you've got the plan, the answers, and the contingency folder.

Willing means you've got open hands and a heart that says, I don't know what's on the other side of this door, but I trust the One who opened it. And honestly, willing is where the Christ-centered miracles happen. Because when you stop needing to control the outcome, you finally create space for God to do what only He can do.

Think about it. A brand-new notebook doesn't know what story is going to be written on its pages. It just shows up — blank, open, available. That's the posture God is inviting you into right now. Not perfection. Not a five-year strategic plan. Just presence. Just willingness. Just you, showing up with a heart that says, Write something beautiful here, Lord.

And don't forget about those open doors for a minute, because I think we overcomplicate this. An open door doesn't always look like a massive career change or a cross-country move.

Sometimes it looks like a new morning routine that finally puts God first instead of your phone. Sometimes it's the courage to introduce yourself to someone at church you've been avoiding eye contact with for six months. Sometimes the open door is simply a new way of thinking — letting go of the narrative that says you're too far behind, too old, too set in your ways, or too anything to begin again.

Romans 12:2 says, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

Renewing. Not recycling. Not repackaging. Brand new.

"God is in the business of making things new, and that includes the way you see yourself, your season, and your possibilities." ~ Kristianne Wargo

So if you want to walk through this season with fresh pages and open doors, embrace the sacred reset.

The K.I.S.S. ~ Embrace the sacred reset!

If you know this is your "new year," no matter what the calendar says, you must be willing to lay down the old and embrace the new. And that becomes your reset.

1. Release the old chapter with gratitude, not guilt. You don't have to trash last season to honor this one. Thank God for what that chapter taught you — even the hard parts — and then close it gently.

Philippians 3:13–14 reminds us, "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal."

Pressing on doesn't mean pretending the past didn't happen. It means refusing to let it hold the pen for your next chapter. Today, choose one thing you've been carrying from a previous season — a grudge, a regret, a habit, a mindset — and hand it to God in prayer. Out loud. Let your own ears hear you release it.

2. Create one new rhythm that aligns with who you're becoming. Not who you were. Not who everyone expects you to be. Who God is shaping you into right now. Maybe that's a ten-minute morning devotional before the chaos starts. Maybe it's a weekly walk where you talk to God instead of scrolling through your phone. Maybe it's finally saying yes to that Bible study or that creative project you keep putting on the back burner.

Pick one new rhythm — just one — and protect it like it matters. Because it does. The woman you're becoming on the other side of this season is being built by the small, faithful choices you make today.

3. Walk through one open door this week — even if your knees are shaking. Here's the truth nobody puts on a motivational poster: courage and fear show up to the same party. You don't wait for the fear to leave before you move. You move, and you let faith lead.

Isaiah 43:19 says, "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?"

God is already doing the new thing. He's not waiting for your permission. But He is waiting for your participation.

So this week, walk through one door. Start one conversation. Begin one new habit. Take one step that the old you would have talked herself out of. Just one. That's all it takes to prove to yourself that you're not stuck — you're just getting started.

The most beautiful thing about this season is that you don't have to fabricate the newness. God's already prepared it. He's already laid out the fresh pages. He's already opened the doors. Your only responsibility — your sacred, simple, world-changing job — is to show up and walk through. Not perfectly. Not with a color-coded plan and matching accessories. Just with a willing heart and feet that are ready to move.

So as the backpacks get zipped and the schedules get set and the world shifts into its fall rhythm, let this be your moment too. Not because the calendar says so, but because your spirit knows. It's time for something new. And the God who makes all things new is already walking ahead of you, turning on the lights in every room you haven't entered yet.

Pick up that pen. The page is fresh. The door is open. And you were made to create your now.

"Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!"

🔔 Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com

TAKE A.I.M. ~ Action Ignites Motivation - This is a complimentary (FREE) coaching call with me. You will discuss your specific situation while gaining tools and strategies to move you forward. (https://form.jotform.com/62988215824163)

🙏 Create Your Now TV on Pray.com (https://pray.com)

🎥 Create Your Now on YouTube (https://youtube.com/createyournow)

🎧 Create Your Now on Spotify, Pandora, and Audible.

🎶 Create Your Now on iHeart Radio (http://www.iheart.com/show/263-Create-Your-Now-Your-Best/)

✍️ [email protected]

Instagram @CreateYourNow @KristianneWargo

Twitter @KristianneWargo @CreateYourNow

Facebook www.facebook.com/TheKISSCoach www.facebook.com/CreateYourNow

Cover Art by Jenny Hamson

Photo by Canva.com

Music by Mandisa - Overcomer

http://www.mandisaofficial.com

Song ID: 68209 Song Title: Overcomer Writer(s): Ben Glover, Chris Stevens, David Garcia Copyright © 2013 Meaux Mercy (BMI) Moody Producer Music (BMI) One Songs (ASCAP) Ariose Music (ASCAP) Universal Music - Brentwood Benson Publ. (ASCAP) D Soul Music (ASCAP) (adm. at CapitolCMGPublishing.com) All rights reserved. Used by permission.

We all have moments when life stops asking politely and starts demanding. The diagnosis you did not see coming. The relationship that shifted overnight. The door that closed when you were sure — absolutely sure — it was the one God had opened. And in those moments, something inside you tightens. You grip harder. You plan faster. You try to engineer an outcome, because if you can just control one thing, maybe the rest will not fall apart. So there you sit with the prayer you're afraid to pray.

Oh, the holy discomfort of surrender. But surrender is not what happens after you have run out of options. Surrender is what God invites you into while you still think you have plenty.

Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com

#SweetSpirit #CreateYourNow #SoulfulSunday

Jesus modeled this in the garden of Gethsemane. Yet as the Son of God, fully divine, fully capable of calling down legions of angels, He knelt in the dirt with sweat like drops of blood falling from His face and prayed the prayer that changed everything.

"Father, if You are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but Yours be done" — Luke 22:42.

Jesus asked for the cup to be removed. He was honest about what He wanted. And then He surrendered anyway. That is the part we skip over when we talk about trust. We act as though surrender means you were never afraid, that you smiled through the storm and floated above the pain. But Jesus did not float. He agonized. He wept. He asked. And then He yielded.

That is the prayer you are afraid to pray. Not because you do not believe God is good. You do. Not because you do not trust His character. You do. You are afraid because saying "not my will, but Yours" means admitting that your plan — the one you have been building, protecting, white-knuckling — might not be His plan. And if it is not His plan, you have to let it go. That is what terrifies you. Not the surrender itself, but what comes after.

The apostle Paul understood this tension intimately. He had a thorn in his flesh — Scripture does not tell us exactly what it was, and maybe that is on purpose, because whatever your thorn is, it fits. He pleaded with God three times to take it away. Three times. This was not a casual request. This was a man on his knees begging. And God's answer was not removal. It was revelation.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" — 2 Corinthians 12:9.

And Paul responded, "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me" — 2 Corinthians 12:9b.

That is what surrender sounds like on the other side. It does not sound like defeat. It sounds like someone who found something stronger than their own strength.

The K.I.S.S. ~ Pray!

Maybe right now you are holding something so tightly that your hands and fingers ache. A timeline. A relationship. A version of your life that you were promised — or that you promised yourself.

And God is not asking you to pretend it does not matter. He is asking you to open your hands and trust that what He places in them will be better than what you are clutching. Not easier. Not painless. Better. Because His definition of better has always been different from ours.

His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts — Isaiah 55:9 reminds us of this, and it is both the most comforting and the most humbling truth in Scripture.

Surrender does not mean you stop caring. It means you stop carrying what was never yours to hold alone.

Peter wrote it plainly: "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you" — 1 Peter 5:6–7.

Look at the order. Humble yourself first. Then cast. You cannot throw something to God while you are still standing in your own pride, insisting you can handle it. Humility comes before the release. The kneeling comes before the freedom.

And if you're in a season of curveballs that keep coming and you are exhausted from dodging, God is not punishing you. He is not playing a cruel game of keep-away with your peace.

Romans 8:28 tells us, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."

All things. Not some things. Not the convenient things. All things — including the ones that brought you to your knees. Especially those.

The prayer you are afraid to pray is not a prayer of weakness. It is the most courageous act of faith. It is looking at God and saying, "I trust You more than I trust my own ability to figure this out."

It is choosing — and it is a choice, every single time — to believe that the One who holds the stars in place can hold your broken pieces too.

So pray it. Pray the prayer that makes your voice shake. Pray the prayer that feels like free-falling. Pray it with tears streaming down your face if that is what it takes, because on the other side of "not my will, but Yours" is a grace you cannot manufacture and a peace that passes all understanding.

You were never meant to carry it all. Open your hands. Bow your head. And let the God who loves you — fiercely, tenderly, relentlessly — show you what He can do with a surrendered heart.

"Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!"

🔔 Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com

TAKE A.I.M. ~ Action Ignites Motivation - This is a complimentary (FREE) coaching call with me. You will discuss your specific situation while gaining tools and strategies to move you forward. (https://form.jotform.com/62988215824163)

🙏 Create Your Now TV on Pray.com (https://pray.com)

🎥 Create Your Now on YouTube (https://youtube.com/createyournow)

🎧 Create Your Now on Spotify, Pandora, and Audible.

🎶 Create Your Now on iHeart Radio (http://www.iheart.com/show/263-Create-Your-Now-Your-Best/)

✍️ [email protected]

Instagram @CreateYourNow @KristianneWargo

Twitter @KristianneWargo @CreateYourNow

Facebook www.facebook.com/TheKISSCoach www.facebook.com/CreateYourNow

Cover Art by Jenny Hamson

Photo by Canva.com

Music by Mandisa - Overcomer

http://www.mandisaofficial.com

Song ID: 68209 Song Title: Overcomer Writer(s): Ben Glover, Chris Stevens, David Garcia Copyright © 2013 Meaux Mercy (BMI) Moody Producer Music (BMI) One Songs (ASCAP) Ariose Music (ASCAP) Universal Music - Brentwood Benson Publ. (ASCAP) D Soul Music (ASCAP) (adm. at CapitolCMGPublishing.com) All rights reserved. Used by permission.

We are wired to want to be right. It's part of being human — this deep pull toward controlling our circumstances, defending our perspective, and standing firm on the hill we've chosen. And in most areas of life, that drive can serve us well. But marriage isn't like most areas of life. Marriage is two people, two histories, two sets of emotions, and two very real desires to be right, all living under the same roof and loving the same God. So what happens when those desires collide? Things get loud. Things get heated. And in that moment, you have a choice. You can rise to the chaos, or you can refuse to meet it where it lives. Please don't match the madness.

Because the madness doesn't want resolution. It wants company. It wants you to raise your voice because your spouse raised theirs. It wants you to fire back with that thing you've been holding onto. It wants to pull you into a storm that neither of you started on purpose, but both of you are now fueling with everything you've got.

Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com

#RelationshipBuilders #CreateYourNow #LoveAndMarriage

And what that madness produces is nothing that matters.

• It doesn't grow trust.
• It doesn't build intimacy.
• It doesn't bring clarity.

What it does is bury the very things that need to come to the surface.

• The hurt beneath the anger
• The fear beneath the frustration
• The longing beneath the silence

When we match the madness, we cover up what's real with what's reactive. We trade depth for volume. And the stuff that actually needs to be revealed and refined — the places where God is trying to do His deepest work in us and between us — stays buried under the rubble of words we didn't mean and tones we can't take back.

Proverbs 15:1 tells us, "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger."

Notice it doesn't say a correct answer turns away wrath. It says a gentle one. You can be absolutely right in what you're saying and absolutely wrong in how you're saying it.

Gentleness isn't weakness. It's warfare, the kind that fights for your marriage instead of against your spouse.

So what does it look like, practically, to not match the madness?

It looks like a pause before a response. It looks like lowering your voice when everything inside you wants to raise it. It looks like choosing the person over the point.

James 1:19 reminds us to be "quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry."

That's one of the most intentional, powerful things you can do in the heat of a hard moment.

When you choose not to match the madness, you aren't losing. You're leading. You're saying, This marriage matters more than this moment. You're creating space for the Holy Spirit to move in a room where pride was trying to take up all the oxygen.

So the next time it gets a little crazy — and it will, because you're two imperfect people doing this beautifully imperfect thing together — ask yourself: Am I about to match the madness, or am I about to break the cycle?

Choose the cycle-breaker every time.

The K.I.S.S. ~ Break the cycle!

You've got to choose to break the cycle every time. Being truly humble and kind will take you further in your marriage than matching the madness.

1. Pause before you respond. Take a breath. Count to five. Walk to another room for two minutes if you need to. Refuse to let your first reaction become your final word.

"A pause isn't avoidance; it's wisdom wearing work boots. This gives your heart time to catch up with your mouth." ~ Kristianne Wargo

2. Speak to the person, not the problem. In the heat of a disagreement, shift your language from accusation to acknowledgment. Instead of "You always..." try "I feel..." Instead of proving your case, pursue your spouse. Remind them and yourself that you're on the same team, even when it doesn't feel like it.

3. Pray before you push. Before you push your point, pray. Even a silent, two-millisecond prayer — Lord, help me see my spouse the way You see them right now. That changes the temperature of the entire conversation.

"Humility doesn't come from trying harder; it comes from surrendering faster." ~ Kristianne Wargo

You don't have to win every argument to have a winning marriage. In fact, some of the strongest marriages are built by two people who consistently choose peace over proving a point. They choose each other!

Don't match the madness. Match the love that brought you together in the first place, and let God handle the rest. Let Him grow you and stretch you, because you're better together.

"Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!"

🔔 Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com

TAKE A.I.M. ~ Action Ignites Motivation - This is a complimentary (FREE) coaching call with me. You will discuss your specific situation while gaining tools and strategies to move you forward. (https://form.jotform.com/62988215824163)

🙏 Create Your Now TV on Pray.com (https://pray.com)

🎥 Create Your Now on YouTube (https://youtube.com/createyournow)

🎧 Create Your Now on Spotify, Pandora, and Audible.

🎶 Create Your Now on iHeart Radio (http://www.iheart.com/show/263-Create-Your-Now-Your-Best/)

✍️ [email protected]

Instagram @CreateYourNow @KristianneWargo

Twitter @KristianneWargo @CreateYourNow

Facebook www.facebook.com/TheKISSCoach www.facebook.com/CreateYourNow

Cover Art by Jenny Hamson

Photo by Canva.com

Music by Mandisa - Overcomer

http://www.mandisaofficial.com

Song ID: 68209 Song Title: Overcomer Writer(s): Ben Glover, Chris Stevens, David Garcia Copyright © 2013 Meaux Mercy (BMI) Moody Producer Music (BMI) One Songs (ASCAP) Ariose Music (ASCAP) Universal Music - Brentwood Benson Publ. (ASCAP) D Soul Music (ASCAP) (adm. at CapitolCMGPublishing.com) All rights reserved. Used by permission.

There's a shift that happens every year around this time. You can feel it coming. The backpacks come out. The schedules start stacking. The buses start appearing in droves. And before you know it, the days that once stretched long and slow are suddenly chopped into thirty-minute increments between drop-offs and deadlines. If you're a parent, you know exactly what I'm talking about — all the more reason why you know it matters to make time before there's no time.

Once school starts, calendars fill up fast. Between homework, activities, friends, and screens, meaningful conversations can easily get pushed aside. The noise of the schedule drowns out the quiet moments where trust actually gets built.

Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com

#ConfessionsOfAnUpsetMama #CreateYourNow #TodaysParent

And the thing is, it doesn't happen all at once. It's gradual. One skipped dinner conversation becomes two. One "we'll talk later" becomes a habit. And slowly, without anyone meaning for it to happen, distance creeps into the space where closeness used to live.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

Right now, you have an opportunity. The season hasn't fully taken over yet. Your kids are still in transition, still adjusting, still open. This is the window. Not next month. Not after things "settle down," because if you've been a parent for more than five minutes, you know things don't ever settle down. They just shift into a different kind of busy.

Proverbs 22:6 reminds us, "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."

Training doesn't just happen in the big moments — the lectures, the lessons, the corrections. It happens in the ordinary. At the breakfast table. In the car on the way to practice. In the ten minutes before bed when you sit on the edge of the mattress and simply ask, "How are you really doing?"

Those moments are the foundation. And foundations don't get poured in the middle of a storm. They get laid when the ground is still and the conditions are right. That's where you are right now. The ground is still. Don't waste it.

I think about how easy it is to confuse presence with connection. You can be in the same room as your child and still be miles apart. You can drive them to every activity, attend every game, sign every permission slip — and still miss them. Because connection isn't about logistics. It's about locking eyes, leaning in, and letting your child know that who they are matters more to you than what they do.

James 1:19 says, "Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger."

When you listen first — really listen, without fixing, without redirecting, without glancing at your phone — you're telling your child something words alone can never say. You're telling them they're worth your full attention.

So what does it look like to start today? How do you take the opportunity to strengthen your connection and create a foundation of trust that will serve your family throughout the year?

As you know, you've gotta make time before there's no time.

The K.I.S.S. ~ Make time before there's no time!

Think about how you've handled this in the past. Regardless of your kids' ages, how did you make sure that they knew they were a priority?

1. Start one daily conversation that has nothing to do with school. Ask your child about their dreams, their friendships, what made them laugh today. Get out of the information-gathering mode and into the knowing mode. You're not their manager. You're their parent.

2. Put your phone down for the first and last ten minutes. The first ten minutes after you see your child and the last ten minutes before they go to bed are sacred ground. Guard them. No scrolling. No multitasking. Just you, fully there.

3. Speak identity over them before the world speaks performance. Before the grades come in and the comparisons start, remind your child who they are — not what they produce. Tell them they are loved, they are seen, and they belong. Say it out loud. Say it often. Let it be the voice they hear above every other.

You don't need a perfect plan. You don't need to overhaul your entire routine. You just need to begin. One conversation. One moment of undivided attention. One declaration of who your child is in your eyes and in God's. That's enough to start building something the busy season can't tear down.

The calendar will fill up. The noise will come. But if you've already laid the foundation — if your child already knows they can come to you, that you see them, that you're not too busy for what matters most — then the chaos won't have the power to separate you. It'll just be noise. And your family will have something deeper than a schedule holding you together.

Start today. Not tomorrow. Not when things slow down. Go and create your now.

"Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!"

🔔 Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com

TAKE A.I.M. ~ Action Ignites Motivation - This is a complimentary (FREE) coaching call with me. You will discuss your specific situation while gaining tools and strategies to move you forward. (https://form.jotform.com/62988215824163)

🙏 Create Your Now TV on Pray.com (https://pray.com)

🎥 Create Your Now on YouTube (https://youtube.com/createyournow)

🎧 Create Your Now on Spotify, Pandora, and Audible.

🎶 Create Your Now on iHeart Radio (http://www.iheart.com/show/263-Create-Your-Now-Your-Best/)

✍️ [email protected]

Instagram @CreateYourNow @KristianneWargo

Twitter @KristianneWargo @CreateYourNow

Facebook www.facebook.com/TheKISSCoach www.facebook.com/CreateYourNow

Cover Art by Jenny Hamson

Photo by Canva.com

Music by Mandisa - Overcomer

http://www.mandisaofficial.com

Song ID: 68209 Song Title: Overcomer Writer(s): Ben Glover, Chris Stevens, David Garcia Copyright © 2013 Meaux Mercy (BMI) Moody Producer Music (BMI) One Songs (ASCAP) Ariose Music (ASCAP) Universal Music - Brentwood Benson Publ. (ASCAP) D Soul Music (ASCAP) (adm. at CapitolCMGPublishing.com) All rights reserved. Used by permission.

It can be one of the hardest things we ever do — keeping our hands unclenched when everything in us wants a tighter grip. Staying open when life has taught us that open means vulnerable, and vulnerable means hurt. But here's what I've learned, and what I'm reminded of in every new season: the moment we close ourselves off is the moment we stop becoming who God created us to be. So today, I'm asking you to stay open — open to His leading, open to growth, and open to the beautiful, unexpected things He has waiting on the other side of our yes.

We are creatures of self-protection. It's wired into us. When a relationship wounds us, we build a wall. When a dream falls apart, we stop dreaming. When a prayer seems to go unanswered, we quietly stop asking with the same boldness we once had. And none of that makes us bad people — it makes us human.

Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com

#Inspiration #CreateYourNow #DailyMotivation

But God didn't design us to live behind walls. He designed us for gardens. Open spaces. Expansive places where roots can stretch deep, and branches can reach wide without apology.

Proverbs 4:23 tells us, "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."

I think we sometimes misread that verse. We take "guard" and turn it into "barricade." We interpret protection as isolation.

But guarding your heart doesn't mean shutting it down. It means being intentional about what you let in — and equally intentional about not letting fear be the gatekeeper.

There's a world of difference between a guarded heart and a closed one. A guarded heart says, "I'm wise about where I walk." A closed heart says, "I'm not walking at all."

Think about the seasons in your life when the most growth happened. I'd be willing to bet they didn't come during the comfortable, predictable stretches. They came in the seasons when you were stretched beyond what felt safe. When you said yes before you had the full plan. When you stepped into something knowing you didn't have it all figured out but trusting that the One who called you would be faithful to complete it.

That's Philippians 1:6 in action — "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

He started it. He's not walking away from it. But He does ask us to stay open to how He finishes it, and that "how" rarely looks like what we expected.

Staying open requires a particular kind of courage — the kind that doesn't demand answers before it moves. It's the courage of Abraham leaving Ur without a destination pinned on a map. It's the courage of Mary saying, "I am the Lord's servant. May your word to me be fulfilled," when nothing about the angel's announcement made earthly sense.

These were not reckless people. They were surrendered people. And surrender is what staying open looks like when it puts on shoes and walks out the door.

The K.I.S.S. ~ Stay open!

I'll be honest with you — I've had seasons where I wanted to close the door on something God was clearly doing because it didn't fit my timeline or my comfort zone. Maybe you've been there too. Maybe you're there right now. You can feel Him nudging you toward a conversation you don't want to have, or a forgiveness you don't want to extend, or a new direction that feels too risky for this stage of life. And every fiber of your flesh is screaming, "Close the door. Lock it. Throw away the key." But the Spirit whispers something different. He whispers, Stay open.

Staying open doesn't mean staying naive. It doesn't mean you ignore red flags or abandon discernment. It means you refuse to let yesterday's disappointment write the rules for tomorrow's possibilities. It means you hold your plans loosely enough that God can rearrange them without having to pry them out of your white-knuckled grip.

As Corrie ten Boom once said, "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God."

That's the whole thing, isn't it? We don't have to know the future. We just have to know Him.

And when we know Him — when we really anchor ourselves in His character and His faithfulness — staying open stops feeling like a risk and starts feeling like the safest place we could possibly be.

Because closed hands can't receive. Closed hearts can't be transformed. And a closed mind will walk right past the blessing God set in its path because it didn't come in the packaging we were looking for.

So wherever you are today, I want to encourage you — stay open. Stay open to correction. Stay open to new mercies. Stay open to the relationships, the revelations, and the redirections that God is weaving into your story right now.

You don't have to have it all figured out. You just have to be willing. And willingness, my friend, is the fertile ground where God does His very best work.

"Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!"

🔔 Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com

TAKE A.I.M. ~ Action Ignites Motivation - This is a complimentary (FREE) coaching call with me. You will discuss your specific situation while gaining tools and strategies to move you forward. (https://form.jotform.com/62988215824163)

🙏 Create Your Now TV on Pray.com (https://pray.com)

🎥 Create Your Now on YouTube (https://youtube.com/createyournow)

🎧 Create Your Now on Spotify, Pandora, and Audible.

🎶 Create Your Now on iHeart Radio (http://www.iheart.com/show/263-Create-Your-Now-Your-Best/)

✍️ [email protected]

Instagram @CreateYourNow @KristianneWargo

Twitter @KristianneWargo @CreateYourNow

Facebook www.facebook.com/TheKISSCoach www.facebook.com/CreateYourNow

Cover Art by Jenny Hamson

Photo by Canva.com

Music by Mandisa - Overcomer

http://www.mandisaofficial.com

Song ID: 68209 Song Title: Overcomer Writer(s): Ben Glover, Chris Stevens, David Garcia Copyright © 2013 Meaux Mercy (BMI) Moody Producer Music (BMI) One Songs (ASCAP) Ariose Music (ASCAP) Universal Music - Brentwood Benson Publ. (ASCAP) D Soul Music (ASCAP) (adm. at CapitolCMGPublishing.com) All rights reserved. Used by permission.

When was the last time you looked at yourself, really looked and didn't flinch? It's not the quick glance in the rearview mirror to check your lipstick or the passing reflection in a storefront window where you tug at your shirt and keep walking. It's the kind of looking that requires stillness. The kind of seeing that asks you to stay. Because you, my friend, are the woman in the water, and the only reason you can't see her clearly is because you won't stop stirring.

We live stirred-up lives. We stir with busyness. We stir with worry. We stir with comparison, scrolling through someone else's highlight reel and wondering why our behind-the-scenes looks so different.

Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com

#WellspringWednesday #CreateYourNow #HealthAndWellness

We stir with control — trying to manage every outcome, plan every step, guarantee every result. And the more we stir, the more distorted our reflection becomes. We look down into the water of our own lives, and we can't make out the woman looking back at us. She's blurry. She's broken into fragments. She doesn't look like anyone we recognize — and certainly not anyone we love unconditionally.

But you see, the water isn't the problem. The woman isn't the problem. The stirring is.

Psalm 46:10 says, "Be still, and know that I am God"

— And I wonder if we've read that verse so many times that we've stopped hearing what it's actually asking of us. It's not a suggestion. It's not a gentle nudge toward a fifteen-minute quiet time.

It's an invitation to lay down every anxious thing you're holding and trust that God is God and you are not. Being still isn't passive. It's one of the bravest things a woman can do — because stillness means you stop performing, stop managing, and stop running from whatever you're afraid you'll see if you actually look.

And this is where becoming begins.

I believe with everything in me that we are entering a season of becoming — a season where God is inviting us to go deeper than the surface, past the routines and the roles, past the titles and the to-do lists, all the way down to the roots.

But before we can grow, before the budding and the blooming and the beautiful transformation that's ahead, we have to start here. Right here. At the water's edge. Willing to be still long enough to see who's actually looking back.

Here's what I've learned about reflections — they don't lie, but they do require the right conditions. If you throw a stone into a lake, the ripples shatter the image.

But if you wait — if you have the patience and the courage to let everything settle — the water becomes a mirror. Crystal clear. Every detail visible. That's what stillness does for us. It doesn't change who we are. It reveals who we are. And for a lot of us, that's exactly what we're afraid of.

We're afraid that if we stop long enough to see ourselves clearly, we won't like what we find. We'll see the doubts we've been hiding. The insecurities we've been covering. The tiredness we've been pretending isn't bone-deep. We'll see the gap between who we are and who we thought we'd be by now. And so we keep stirring. Keep moving. Keep filling every quiet moment with noise because silence feels too honest.

But here's what the enemy doesn't want you to know — the woman in the water is not your enemy. She is not your project. She is not a problem to be solved.

She is a daughter of the Most High God, and she is right where she's supposed to be. Not perfect. Not finished. Not polished and presentable in every area. But planted. Present. Breathing. Held by a God who sees her clearly even when she won't look at herself.

Isaiah 43:1 says, "I have called you by name; you are mine."

Not you will be mine when you get it together. Not you are mine when you look the way you think you should. You are mine. Present tense. As you are. In this season. In this stillness. With this reflection.

Did you ever think that when you refuse to see yourself the way God sees you — beloved, chosen, becoming — you're not being humble? You're disagreeing with Him. And I don't know about you, but I've spent too many years arguing with God about the value of His creation.

So what does it look like to let the water settle?

It looks like turning off the noise — not forever, but long enough to hear your own heartbeat again.

It looks like sitting with the Lord without an agenda, without a prayer list, without a devotional plan, and simply asking, "Who am I right now?" Not who was I. Not who will I be.

Who am I right now — in this season, in this skin, in this story?

It looks like refusing to compare your chapter three to someone else's chapter twelve. It looks like releasing the one thing you've been gripping so tightly — the worry, the expectation, the "what if" — and watching the ripples finally, finally go still.

It looks like becoming, one breath at a time. So be still and see.

The K.I.S.S. ~ Be still and see!

Be still so the water can settle, and then you can reflect.

1. Set aside ten minutes this week with no phone, no task list, and no noise — just you and the Lord — and ask Him, "Who do You say I am right now?"
2. Write down three truths about who you are today — not who you were, not who you hope to be — and read them aloud to yourself.
3. Release one thing you've been stirring up — one worry, one comparison, one "should" — and let the water settle.

My friend, we're beginning a journey: A season of becoming that will take us from the roots all the way to the bloom — through budding and stretching and opening and, yes, through the storms too. But it starts here. At the water's edge. With the courage to be still.

I want you to know that the woman in the water is worth seeing. She is worth knowing. She is worth loving — not the future version of her, not the cleaned-up, figured-out, fully-arrived version. This version. The one listening to the words right now. The one who showed up even though she's tired. The one who's still here even though the season has been long.

God is not waiting for you to become before He begins. He's already begun. And the first thing He's asking you to do is be still long enough to see it.

Let the water settle. Look at her. She's more beautiful than you know.

"Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!"

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Cover Art by Jenny Hamson

Photo by Canva.com

Music by Mandisa - Overcomer

http://www.mandisaofficial.com

Song ID: 68209 Song Title: Overcomer Writer(s): Ben Glover, Chris Stevens, David Garcia Copyright © 2013 Meaux Mercy (BMI) Moody Producer Music (BMI) One Songs (ASCAP) Ariose Music (ASCAP) Universal Music - Brentwood Benson Publ. (ASCAP) D Soul Music (ASCAP) (adm. at CapitolCMGPublishing.com) All rights reserved. Used by permission.