Kristianne WargoOlder episodes
- 494152 The Woman in the MirrorThere's a moment — and if you're honest, you know exactly the one I'm talking about — where you catch your reflection and the first thing that crosses your mind isn't kind. It's not always about what you look like physically, although sometimes it is. More often, it's deeper than that. It's the look in your own eyes that says, I thought I'd be further along by now. It's the quiet measuring of the woman in the mirror that happens when you compare who you are today against who you imagined you'd be at this point. And just like that, the woman staring back at you becomes not enough. 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 But here's what I want you to sit with today — right here in the middle of your week, right in the thick of whatever you're carrying — that woman in the mirror isn't behind. She isn't falling short. She isn't the rough draft of someone better. She's the real version. The one doing the work. And she deserves more than your criticism. She deserves your compassion. We do this thing where we hold two versions of ourselves in tension. There's the woman we are, and then there's the woman we think we're supposed to be. The problem isn't aspiration. Dreaming and growing and reaching — that's beautiful. The problem is when the future version of ourselves becomes the standard we use to beat up the current one. You wouldn't look at a garden in the middle of its growing season and say, Why aren't you blooming yet? You'd tend it. You'd water it. You'd trust the process because you understand that growth takes time and the right conditions. So why don't we offer ourselves that same grace? Psalm 139:14 says, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." And notice — it doesn't say will be wonderfully made. It doesn't say once I get it together I'll be wonderful. It's present tense. Right now. As you are. In the middle of the mess and the growth and the not-quite-there-yet, you are already a finished work in progress. That's not a contradiction. That's the beauty of how God operates — complete in His eyes and still becoming in yours. Maya Angelou once said, "We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty." And I think that's the piece we forget when we look in the mirror. We want the butterfly. We want the wings. But we dismiss the season we're actually in, as if the cocoon stage doesn't count. It counts. Every single layer you're peeling back right now counts. Every hard conversation you've had with yourself this week counts. Every time you chose to keep going even when you didn't feel ready — that counts. So let me ask you this: when was the last time you looked at yourself — really looked — and simply said, I see you, and you're doing a good job? The K.I.S.S. ~ See her and say so! What are you saying to yourself now? How's that working for you? You need to see yourself and acknowledge that you are doing a good job. So what does that look like in real life? Stand in the mirror for sixty seconds — not to fix, but to notice. Before you reach for the critique, just look. Look at the woman who showed up today. The one who got out of bed, who carried things no one else can see, who is still standing in the middle of her week. Let that be enough for sixty seconds. Write down one thing you've grown through this year — and thank yourself for it. Not something you accomplished. Something you grew through. A hard season, a tough conversation, a shift in how you think. Put it on paper and let it remind you that progress doesn't always come with a trophy. Sometimes it comes with quiet survival. Replace one "I should be" statement with an "I am" statement. The next time you hear yourself say I should be more patient or I should be further along, stop. Rewrite it. I am learning patience. I am exactly where I need to be for this season. Words shape how we see ourselves, so speak to your reflection the way God already sees it. As Paul wrote in Philippians 1:6, "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." That means the work isn't yours to finish alone. Your job is to stay in it. To keep showing up. To stop demanding perfection from a woman who was only ever asked to be faithful. The woman in the mirror isn't finished yet. And that's not a flaw — it's the whole point. You're becoming. And becoming is holy ground. "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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 504151 Design Your DayWhy is it that we can pour ourselves into everyone else's schedule, everyone else's crisis, everyone else's to-do list, but when it comes to our own day, we just… wing it? We wake up, already behind before our feet hit the floor, and we spend the next twelve or sixteen hours reacting. Putting out fires. Managing the chaos. Surviving until we can collapse back into bed and do it all over again tomorrow. And somewhere in the middle of all that surviving, we forget the most important thing. Our own day. The one God gave us. The one we will never, ever get back. So design your day! Psalm 118:24 says, "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." 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 can I be honest with you? It's really hard to rejoice in a day you never actually showed up for. It's hard to be glad about something that happened to you instead of something you walked into on purpose. So here's what I want you to sit with today. Are you designing your day, or is your day designing you? And before you get nervous, let me be clear about what I mean. Designing your day does not mean you have all the answers. It does not mean you wake up with a color-coded planner and a perfectly mapped-out timeline from sunrise to sunset. Some of you just exhaled, and I'm glad. Because that's not what this is about. Designing your day is about intentionality. It's about being thoughtful with the who, what, how, where, when, and why of your hours. It's asking yourself before the noise starts, what matters most today? Who needs my attention? Where is my energy best spent? And honestly, what do I need to protect myself from so that I can actually be present for the things that count? Because here's what happens when we skip that step. When we don't design our day, somebody else will. Your inbox will design it. Your coworker's emergency will design it. Social media will design it. That one text message that sends your whole mood sideways before 9 a.m. will design it. And before you know it, you're standing on the side of the road wondering how you got there, feeling like a passenger in your own life. That's no way to live. And it's certainly not what you were created for. Think about how your days work right now. Be real with yourself. Is there a rhythm? Is there any kind of structure that gives your hours a sense of purpose? Or are you flying by the seat of your pants most of the time, hoping things just somehow work out? Ephesians 5:15-16 tells us: "Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity." Making the most. That's an active phrase. That's not sitting back and letting the current carry you wherever it wants to go. That's choosing. That's steering. That's designing. And here's the thing about time that I need you to really hear. Time is the one thing you cannot get back. You can earn more money. You can rebuild a relationship. You can start a new career, move to a new city, try again in a hundred different areas of your life. But you cannot get back a single second of a day that has already passed. Not one. So why would we treat our days like they're disposable? Why would we hand them over to whatever happens to show up? The K.I.S.S. ~ Design your day! You are worth more than a life lived on autopilot. Your calling is worth more than leftover hours and scraped-together minutes. The people you love are worth more than the distracted, depleted version of you that shows up because you never took the time to be intentional about how your day would unfold. Benjamin Franklin once said, "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail." And I don't share that to pile on guilt. I share it because it's an invitation. Planning is not a burden. It's a gift you give yourself. It's you looking at the day ahead and saying, I'm going to show up for this. On purpose. With purpose. Start small if you need to. Five minutes in the morning before the house wakes up. A prayer. A deep breath. A simple question: God, what do You have for me today? That's designing your day. That's putting your hands on the wheel instead of riding in the back seat with your eyes closed. Proverbs 16:3 promises us, "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans." Did you catch that? He will establish your plans. Not your chaos. Not your scramble. Your plans. The ones you brought to Him with intention and surrender. He honors that. He meets you in that. So design your day. Not because you're trying to control everything. Not because you think you have to have it all figured out. But because the life you're living right now is the only one you've got, and it deserves more than your leftovers. Your day is waiting for you to step into it. Not stumble through it. Not endure it. Step into it, fully present, fully aware, fully committed to making it count. Design your day. Create your now! Here's Your Challenge: Tomorrow morning, before you check your phone, before you open your email, before you respond to anyone else's agenda, take five minutes. Just five. Sit down with a pen and a blank page and answer these six questions: Who needs my presence today? What matters most? How do I want to show up? Where will my energy go? When will I pause to reset? And why does this day matter? Write your answers down. Pray over them. Then walk into your day on purpose. Do this for one week straight and watch what shifts. You were not made to drift through your days. You were made to design your day. "One step at a time leads to miles of greatness." ~ Kristianne Wargo "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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 514150 Stop Going BackHave you ever made a decision, felt good about it for a moment, and then spent the next three days replaying it in your mind like a movie you can't turn off? You made the call. You weighed your options. You moved. And then — almost out of nowhere — the doubt crept in. Did I really think that through? What if I'm wrong? Maybe I should have waited. Stop going back! When we make a decision and clarity stalls, something uncomfortable starts to bubble up. It's the fear of being stuck. Not stuck because the decision was wrong, but stuck because we won't let go of it long enough to see where it leads. We hold on to the rearview mirror so tightly that we forget we're supposed to be looking through the windshield. 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 And the truth is, most of us aren't struggling with bad decisions. We're struggling with trusting the ones we've already made. Think about it. You did the work. You prayed about it. You thought it through. You considered the people it would affect. And then you chose. That wasn't reckless — that was courageous. But courage doesn't always feel like courage in the quiet moments afterward. Sometimes courage feels like anxiety wearing a different outfit. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Self-trust is the first secret of success." And he was right. Not because trusting yourself means you'll never make a mistake — you will. But because trusting yourself means you believe you are capable of navigating whatever comes next, even if "next" looks different than what you planned. If all we do is keep going back on ourselves, where is the room for moving forward? There isn't any. You can't walk into a new season if your feet keep dragging you back to the last one. At some point — and that point is now — you have to learn to stand up for your decisions with yourself. Not with your critics. Not with the people who don't understand your journey. With yourself. Because you are the one who has to live with the choices you make. And you are the one who gets to build something beautiful from them. So let me ask you this: What decision have you been second-guessing that you already know, deep down, was the right call? The K.I.S.S. ~ Trust the decision you already made! Because if you don't, where will you end up? Really! Think about where you would do if you got caught in the loop. So what does it look like in real life to trust the decision and yourself? Name the decision and release the replay. Write down the decision you've been going back and forth on. Then write one sentence about why you made it. When the mental replay starts, read that sentence out loud. You made it for a reason — remind yourself of that reason instead of rehearsing the doubt. Give yourself a 24-hour rule before revisiting any decision. Not every second thought deserves a seat at the table. Before you reopen something you've already settled, wait 24 hours. If the concern is still pressing after a full day, address it. If it faded, it was just fear talking — and fear doesn't get the final word. Speak to yourself the way you'd speak to someone you love. If your best friend came to you and said, "I made this decision but I don't know if it was right," you wouldn't tear them apart. You'd encourage them. You'd remind them of their strength. Do that for yourself. You deserve the same grace you give everyone else. You were not designed to live in a loop. You were not created to make a decision and then spend the rest of your week — or your month, or your year — wondering if you should have chosen differently. That loop isn't wisdom. It's a trap. And it will keep you standing in the same spot while the life you're building waits for you to show up. The decisions you've made brought you here. Right here. And "here" is not a dead end — it's a starting line. But you'll never see it that way if you keep turning around to stare at the road behind you. So today, I want you to do something that might feel uncomfortable but is absolutely necessary: I want you to take your own side. Not because you're perfect. Not because every call you've ever made was flawless. But because you are someone worth believing in. And the moment you start believing that — truly believing it — is the moment everything begins to shift. Stop going back. Start standing up. The decision has been made. Now trust the person who made it. YOU!!! "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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 524149 Overflow with HopeWhen you feel like all you're doing is running away from or toward all the things, it's hard to find joy and peace in life. You can get down and out about your circumstances, and all hope feels lost. But as Paul says in Romans 15:13, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Have you ever had one of those seasons where it feels like you're just running? Running toward the next thing on your list. Running away from the thing you don't want to face. Running in circles because you're not even sure which direction you're supposed to go anymore. Your feet are moving, your heart is pounding, and somewhere in the middle of all that motion, joy and peace slipped out the back door without you even noticing. 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 It happens to the best of us. Life has a way of piling on — one circumstance after another — until you look around and think, Where did my hope go? Maybe your circumstances aren't what you asked for. Maybe they're not even close to what you wanted. The job didn't come through. The relationship didn't heal the way you prayed it would. The doctor's report wasn't what you expected. The bills keep stacking up, and so does the weight on your shoulders. When you're buried under all of that, hope can feel like a luxury you just can't afford. But here's the thing. Hope was never meant to come from your circumstances in the first place. Paul wrote something in his letter to the Romans that Christ-followers have been holding onto for centuries, and it's just as alive today as it was then. "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13). Read that again slowly. God doesn't just hand you a little sliver of hope to get you through the afternoon. He fills you — all joy, all peace — so that you overflow. That's not a trickle. That's an abundance that spills over the edges of everything you're walking through. And notice where it starts. It starts with trust. Not with having it all figured out. Not with the circumstances changing. Not with finally getting to a place where life feels manageable. It starts with trusting Him right in the middle of the mess. That's where the filling happens. That's where the joy sneaks back in, not because things got easier, but because the God of hope met you exactly where you are. The K.I.S.S. ~ Overflow with hope! The psalmist understood this kind of trust. "When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy" (Psalm 94:19). There it is — anxiety and joy in the same sentence. Because they can coexist when God is the source of one and the world is the source of the other. Your anxiety doesn't disqualify you from joy. Your hard season doesn't lock you out of peace. God's consolation — His comfort, His nearness, His steady hand — brings joy right into the anxious places. And peace? That's not the absence of chaos. It never has been. Paul told the Philippians, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6–7). Peace that transcends understanding means it doesn't have to make sense to everyone around you. People might look at your situation and wonder how you're still standing, still smiling, still pressing forward. And the answer is that the peace guarding your heart didn't come from logic. It came from the throne room. So what does it actually look like to overflow with hope? It looks like waking up on the hard morning and still whispering, "God, I trust You." It looks like choosing gratitude when your flesh wants to choose bitterness. It looks like being honest about the struggle and still believing that God is working all things together for your good, because Romans 8:28 isn't just a bumper sticker — it's a promise. It looks like letting the Holy Spirit do what only He can do, which is fill you with a hope that has absolutely nothing to do with what's happening around you and everything to do with who is living within you. The prophet Jeremiah recorded God's words to a people who were in the middle of exile — not at the end of it, not looking back on it, but right smack in the thick of it — and God said, "For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11). Hope and a future. Not when things settle down. Not when it all makes sense. Right now, in the middle of the exile, in the middle of the running, in the middle of the circumstances you didn't ask for. You don't have to manufacture hope on your own. You were never meant to. The God of hope — not the God of "figure it out yourself" — wants to fill you so completely that it overflows. Not by your own strength, not by your own willpower, but by the power of the Holy Spirit working in you and through you. So if you're in that season of running, stop for just a moment. Take a breath. Open your hands. And let the God of hope do what He does best. He fills. He restores. He overflows. And your circumstances? They don't get the final word. He does. "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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 534148 Look For Something To Work WithThere's a moment in every marriage where you have to make a choice. You can stand there replaying every missed pass — every time your spouse came up short, every promise that got fumbled, every "we'll get to it" that never got to anything. Or you can do what the good ones do when the clock is running out. You can look for something to work with. Think about what you do now. Are you one who focuses on what doesn't work? Or are you willing to see what's possible? 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 I was watching the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game between the Panthers and Cardinals a couple of nights ago. It came down to the final 23 seconds. Two plays run, then two seconds left on the clock. The Panthers' quarterback, King, called the play — throw it to the right corner of the end zone, easy touchdown. But the defense read it. They shut the door on what should have worked. And here's what got me: King didn't stand there and give up on the play. He didn't throw his hands up and say "well, that's over." He took off running — six, seven steps — extended the ball across the goal line, and won the game. No hesitation. He looked for something to work with. That's marriage. That's every relationship worth having, honestly. The play you drew up in your head — the way you thought your spouse would show up, the way you pictured this season of your life going — sometimes the defense reads it. Sometimes it doesn't work the way you planned. And you have two choices: stand there mourning the broken play, or extend what you've got and cross the line anyway. Ecclesiastes puts it plainly: "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up" (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10). That's the whole point of two people. You're not there to keep score of the other person's incompletions. You're there to help each other up when the play breaks down. If you only train your eyes on what's missing, you will miss every single yard your spouse has already given you. 1 Corinthians 13 doesn't say love keeps a stat sheet. It says love "keeps no record of wrongs" (1 Corinthians 13:5). That's not weakness — that's strategy. A coach who only reviews the interceptions never builds a winning team. He looks at what worked, and he calls the next play from there. You are allowed to be honest about what isn't working in your marriage. But honesty without a search for possibility just leaves you standing in the end zone with the clock at zero, wondering what happened. So the question becomes: what does it actually look like, in the day-to-day of your marriage, to look for something to work with? The K.I.S.S. ~ Stop scanning and start extending! Stop scanning for what's missing, and start extending what's still there. That's the whole shift. Not pretending problems don't exist. Not ignoring what genuinely needs to change. Just refusing to let the incompletions be the only thing you see — and choosing, instead, to run the extra few steps before you give up on the play. Here's where you start. 1. Name one thing that worked. Before you list what your spouse got wrong today, find one thing — however small — that they got right, and say it out loud to them. Your spouse may not communicate the way you wish they did, but maybe they show love by fixing what's broken before you even ask. Maybe they're not romantic with words, but they're steady. They stay. Philippians 4:8 tells us to think about such things: "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely" — this is a discipline. What you look for, you'll find more of. 2. Extend instead of retreat. The next time a conversation with your spouse breaks down the way you feared it would, don't shut the door. Take the extra step — ask one more question, offer one more ounce of patience — before you walk away from the play. This is what King did with the ball in his hands. He didn't have the play he wanted, so he found the one still available to him. Proverbs 15:1 reminds us "a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." One more gentle step, instead of one more retreat, is often the difference between a broken play and a win. 3. Pray for eyes that see possibility. Ask God, specifically today, to open your eyes to what's still working in your marriage instead of only what's still broken. This isn't wishful thinking — it's a scriptural pattern. Elisha prayed for his servant's eyes to be opened so he could see what was already there but invisible to him (2 Kings 6:17). Sometimes the possibility isn't missing. It's just unseen. Ask God to open your eyes to it. Know this: it takes one to start, and two to finish. You don't need your spouse to go first. You need to be the one willing to extend the ball when the play breaks down — to look for the opening nobody else sees yet. Be the one the Coach (your Heavenly Father) can use. Not because your marriage is easy, but because you decided it was worth fighting the last two seconds for. "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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 544147 Never Miss A BeatParenting is a never-ending, rhythmic song that plays over and over again. Some of the melodies are soothing to the heart — a sleepy child curled into your shoulder, a shared laugh over something silly at the dinner table, a "thank you, Mom" that comes out of nowhere and undoes you a little. But many more of the notes disrupt the nervous system. The 2 a.m. cries. The slammed doors of the teenage years. The days when you've given everything and it still doesn't feel like enough. However you hear it, you can't run from the most important responsibility in your life. Never miss a beat. Parents, especially moms, work so hard in and outside the home. We show up to jobs that pay the bills and then we show up again to the job that pays in something far less tangible but far more eternal. 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 through all of it, what really matters to us isn't a perfectly kept house or a flawless schedule. What matters is that our children are getting the best for their lives, even while we're fulfilling our own obligation to raise children who will grow up and impact the world they touch. That's the real assignment. Not perfection. Impact. So how do you actually do that? How do you stay in step with a rhythm that never stops, that changes tempo without warning, that sometimes feels like it's playing faster than you can keep up with? It comes down to a willingness to never miss a beat. The K.I.S.S. ~ Never miss a beat! That's a decision you make over and over, sometimes daily, sometimes hourly. You gotta keep going no matter. You are all in with your commitment and intention. Keep going when you're tired. Not the kind of tired a nap fixes, but the bone-deep, soul-level tired that comes from pouring out more than you feel like you have left. Galatians 6:9 promises that if we don't grow weary in doing good, we'll reap in due season. The exhaustion isn't the end of the story — it's the middle of it, and you're still in the story. Keep going when stress is your middle name. When the to-do list has a to-do list, when you're managing school schedules and meltdowns and your own unraveling all in the same afternoon, hand it over. Isaiah 40:31 promises that those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength, mount up with wings like eagles, run and not be weary. That's an invitation to hand your stress to Someone bigger than the chaos you're standing in. Keep going when life seems too perfect — when everything's in place and it's tempting to believe you did this all on your own. Stay just as dependent on God in the calm as you are in the storm. Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us to trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding, in every season, not just the desperate ones. That's it. Three simple commitments, repeated daily, are what keep you in step with the song. None of this requires you to be flawless. It just requires you to stay in motion — tired, stressed, or steady; showing up is the whole assignment. The days will blend together sometimes, and other days will feel like a hundred years in twenty-four hours. Either way, the rhythm keeps going, and so do you. Never miss a beat in your child's life by being present and knowing you are doing your best. You don't have to hit every note perfectly. You just have to stay in the song. One step at a time leads to miles of greatness, and your children are watching you take every single one. "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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 554146 The Circle Isn't WastedThere is a particular kind of tired that comes from walking in circles. You look up and realize you have passed this same tree, this same doubt, this same conversation with yourself, more times than you can count. You are moving; your legs ache to prove it, but the scenery refuses to change. And somewhere in that repetition, you hope that the circle isn't wasted. Because the real question, the one that keeps you up at night, is "does any of this matter if I don't even know where I am?" 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 Not knowing your destination has never been proof that you are lost to purpose. It is only proof that you are human, walking through a story you cannot read from the inside. Abraham left his home "not knowing whither he went" (Hebrews 11:8), and that single sentence has quietly carried more weight than most maps ever could. He did not have GPS coordinates for the promise. He had a voice worth trusting and feet willing to move. The going, not the knowing, was the obedience. Think about how a seed spends its first season. It does not sprout upward the moment it is planted. It goes down first, into darkness, into what looks for all the world like nowhere. If you dug it up on day three to check its progress, you would call it a failure. You would see dirt and a stubborn little shell and nothing that resembles growth. But underground is not the same as unmoving. Roots are not lost; they are being placed exactly where they need to be so that whatever grows up can actually stand. Your circling season may be root work. The repeated conversations, the false starts, the plans that quietly dissolved, the years that felt like treading water while everyone else appeared to be swimming laps — none of it was neutral. You were being shaped in ways that don't show up on a resume or a five-year plan. Patience was being built in you. Discernment was being sharpened. Compassion for other people's circles was being deepened, because you now know from the inside what it costs to keep walking without a map. The K.I.S.S. ~ The circle isn't wasted! Proverbs 4:18 says, "The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, growing brighter and brighter until full day." It says brighter and brighter — a gradual unveiling, one increment of light at a time, exactly enough to take the next step and no more. If you are only getting today's portion of light, you are not behind. You are precisely where the design intends you to be. Impact rarely announces itself in the moment it happens. The word you spoke without thinking twice, the patience you showed on a hard morning, the way you kept showing up even while confused about your own direction — these things land in other people's lives whether or not you ever see the fruit. A woman plants a garden and moves away before the tree ever bears. Does that mean the tree does not grow? Does that mean her hands never mattered? Influence is often like that. It outlives our awareness of it. So if today you are circling — if you are doing the same work, having the same struggle, praying the same prayer you prayed last year — let this be the moment you release yourself from the lie that confusion cancels contribution. God has never required a person to see the whole picture before He uses the piece they are currently holding. Jeremiah 29:11 was not spoken to a people who already understood their plans. It was spoken to a people in exile, disoriented, far from anything that looked like home, who needed to hear that the plans existed before they could see them. You are allowed to not know. You are allowed to still be circling. What you are not allowed to believe — not for one more day — is that the not-knowing empties your life of meaning. It doesn't. It never has. Keep walking. Keep showing up. The clarity will come in its portion, and the impact was never waiting on your permission to begin. "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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 564145 Just Because Life Takes An Unexpected TurnLife doesn't always unfold the way we planned. One day the road looks clear, and the next, it curves somewhere we never saw coming. Unexpected turns can leave us feeling disappointed, confused, or uncertain about what is happening in our world and what God is doing in the middle of it. But here is what remains true even when everything else feels shaky: God is never surprised by the path ahead. Just because life takes an unexpected turn, God was not caught off guard, and He is not scrambling to figure out what to do next. "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord in Jeremiah 29:11, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." 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 Even when your life takes an unexpected turn, you can trust God with every chapter of your story — the ones you would have written yourself, and the ones you never saw coming. The question is what you do while you're standing in the middle of that turn, before the next chapter reveals itself. And answering that question honestly means peeling back a few layers — because what's on the surface is rarely what's really going on underneath. The busy hiding place The first layer is the easiest to spot in other people and the hardest to admit in ourselves. Chaos and busyness can be traps we set up for ourselves to escape what really needs to be attended to. It's easier to fill a calendar than to face a wound. It's easier to stay in motion than to sit still with a question you're afraid to ask God — or yourself. Just because life takes an unexpected turn doesn't mean you give up and run and hide behind a full schedule and a racing mind. Running from stillness doesn't make the unresolved thing disappear. It just buries it a little deeper, where it will keep pulling at you until you finally turn around and face it. Peeling back this layer starts with a simple, uncomfortable question: what am I staying busy to avoid feeling? Self-control, where nothing is guaranteed Underneath the busyness is usually a scramble for control. Uncertainty makes us feel like we've lost the wheel entirely, and when we feel like we've lost the wheel, self-control is often the first thing to go. We reach for whatever gives us the illusion of control back — overworking, overeating, scrolling, snapping at the people closest to us, or shutting down altogether. Galatians 5:22-23 lists self-control among the fruit of the Spirit, right alongside love, joy, and peace — which tells us something important: self-control isn't a personality trait some people have, and others don't. It's a fruit. It grows. And it grows specifically in the soil of uncertain seasons, if we let it. The K.I.S.S. ~ Grow in uncertain soil! So what does that growth actually look like when nothing is guaranteed? 1. Name what's happening instead of numbing it. Self-control doesn't start with gritting your teeth — it starts with honesty. Psalm 46:10 says, "Be still, and know that I am God." Stillness isn't passive; it's an act of courage. It means sitting with the disappointment or fear long enough to actually look at it, instead of drowning it out with noise. You can't have self-control over something you refuse to acknowledge. 2. Anchor your trust in God's character, not in the outcome you wanted. Proverbs 3:5-6 instructs us to "trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." Your understanding is limited to what you can see from here. His isn't. Self-control gets a lot steadier when it's tied to who God is rather than to how you wish the situation had gone. 2 Timothy 1:7 reminds us, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." A sound mind — self-control — is something God actively supplies, not something you have to manufacture out of willpower alone. 3. Take the next faithful step instead of demanding the whole map. "You don't need to see the entire road to walk it well." ~ Kristianne Wargo Self-control in uncertainty often just looks like doing the next right thing — showing up, praying, following through on today's responsibilities — without insisting on clarity for next month before you'll move at all. But what's actually hidden underneath it all? Keep peeling the layers, because self-control alone isn't the bottom layer either. This is where we go deeper and address what is hidden within — the real thing the busyness and the loss of control were pointing to all along. You can't move forward when you don't address what is holding you back. Maybe it's unforgiveness. Maybe it's fear disguised as productivity. Maybe it's grief you never let finish its work. Whatever it is, God is not asking you to perform your way past it — He's inviting you to bring it into the light, where healing actually happens. The Core: Becoming who God called you to be At the very center of all this peeling is the real invitation of the unexpected turn. It was never really about managing the chaos or gritting through the uncertainty. It's about becoming. Galatians 5:22-23 doesn't stop at self-control — it names love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness too. That whole list is the fruit of one Spirit, growing in one life, and it doesn't grow in the seasons that go according to plan nearly as much as it grows in the seasons that don't. An unexpected turn is often the exact soil God uses to grow in you what a comfortable, predictable life never could. This is the layer under the layer under the layer: you are not just trying to survive the turn. You are being formed by it. God is not surprised by your detour — He's using it to shape you into who He has called you to be. An unexpected turn in your story isn't a sign that God has lost His grip on the plan. It's an invitation to slow down, tell the truth about what you're facing, and trust Him one step at a time. One step at a time leads to miles of greatness — even on the road you never planned to walk. "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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 574144 Keep Walking When the Miles Feel LongThere is a particular kind of tired that has nothing to do with sleep. It's the tired that comes from carrying a dream for longer than you expected to carry it, from praying the same prayer for the hundredth time, from showing up to the same unfinished work day after day and wondering if today is any different from yesterday. If you're in that kind of tired right now, know that you are not stalled. You are in the middle. And the middle is where most of life actually happens. So keep walking when the miles feel long. We tend to picture progress as a straight, visible line — one clear step after another, each one obviously better than the last. 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 real growth rarely looks like that. It looks like another day. Ordinary, ungarnished, ten steps from any finish line, no one clapping. Galatians 6:9 says, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Notice what that verse doesn't promise. It doesn't promise the harvest today. It promises it at the proper time — which means the waiting itself is part of the plan, not a delay in the plan. Isaiah 40:31 often: "Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, that they will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." Look how it doesn't skip straight to soaring. It moves through running, and moves through walking. There is no shame in the walking pace. Some seasons are for soaring, and some seasons are simply for putting one foot down after the other, faithfully, unglamorously, again. Both are movement. Both count. The K.I.S.S. ~ Keep walking when the miles feel long! Maybe you started this year with a vision for your marriage, your family, your health, your work, or your walk with God, and here you are, still standing in what feels like the same spot. Remember this: standing still and staying faithful are not the same thing. You can be exactly where you were three months ago on the outside and be an entirely different person on the inside — steadier, softer, more surrendered, more sure of who's holding you. That is not stagnation. That is sanctification, and it is slow by design. Philippians 1:6 says, "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion..." Carry it on — present tense, ongoing, right now, even on the day it doesn't feel like it. Your job was never to finish the work. It was only ever to keep showing up to it. The finishing is His. So today, let this be your permission slip to keep going without needing proof yet that it was worth it. Keep showing up to the marriage even on the day it feels one-sided. Keep showing up to the healing even on the day it feels undone. Keep showing up to the calling even on the day nobody sees it but you and God. "One step at a time leads to miles of greatness." ~ Kristianne Wargo And every mile starts exactly where you're standing right now — tired, faithful, and still moving. You were built for this pace. Don't quit on the mile you're in. "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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 584143 You Didn't Come This Far to Come This FarA journey lasts a lifetime. It requires a chosen mindset, intentional thoughts, and actions that put an exclamation point to movement. Not a comma. Not a question mark. An exclamation point—a declaration that you meant to keep going. As you travel the various paths set before you, let this settle into your spirit: you didn't come this far to come this far. You kept what was valuable in front of you. You pivoted where necessary. You became consistent as time moved on, even when consistency cost you something. 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 That isn't an accident. That's the fruit of a decision made over and over again, quietly, on ordinary days nobody was watching. Take a moment and think about how far you've actually come. Not in a passing way—really let yourself go back. Reflect on what that looks like in full color. Remember the version of you who didn't know what you know now, who hadn't survived what you've since survived. See how you handled change. See how you handled challenges that, at the time, felt like they might undo you. Could things have been handled better? For most of us, yes. And that's not condemnation—that's growth admitting itself out loud. Philippians 1:6 reminds us that "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion." You were never meant to arrive fully formed. You were meant to keep being carried, keep being shaped, keep becoming. So many changes have moved through your life. Relationships shifted. Seasons closed. Identities you once wore no longer fit. And in the middle of all that change, lessons were learned—some gently, some the hard way. So ask yourself honestly: where are you today, standing in the wreckage or the wonder of all that? What have you left behind that actually needs to be brought back to the forefront? Maybe it's a discipline you dropped. Maybe it's a version of faith that was simpler and truer before life complicated it. Maybe it's a hope you buried because disappointment felt safer than expectation. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says "there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens." Leaving something behind for a season doesn't mean it was meant to stay buried forever. You didn't come this far to come this far. Read that again. Let it stop being a clever phrase and start being a mirror. You did not survive what you survived, learn what you learned, release what you released, just to plateau here. Just to coast. Just to let the momentum die quietly while you tell yourself you're content with "far enough." Far enough was never the destination. It was a mile marker. Rise up. This is not the time to numb out and just let the mundane things in life lead. You get to set the tone for your mind, body, and spirit. The K.I.S.S. ~ Set the tone for your mind, body, and spirit! So what can a person actually do to keep moving? Let this phrase set the tone for your mind, your body, and your spirit. MIND — Let your mind reject the lie that you've peaked. Every day begins with a decision about what you'll believe about yourself before you've proven anything. Renew your thinking on purpose, before the day has a chance to hand you a reason to doubt. Romans 12:2 calls this being "transformed by the renewing of your mind"—not once, but daily, deliberately, until the old ceiling you built for yourself stops feeling true. BODY — Let your body carry out what your mind has decided, one faithful action at a time. Belief that never becomes movement is just a feeling. The body is where intention gets proven—the phone call you make, the boundary you hold, the habit you repeat even when it's small and unremarkable. James 2:17 puts it plainly: faith without action "is dead." Let your actions be the exclamation point your mind can't put there alone. SPIRIT — Let your spirit remember that this was never a solo journey to begin with. You were not designed to sustain forward motion on willpower alone. Isaiah 41:10 promises, "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you." Your spirit is the part of you that keeps hoping when your mind is tired and your body is worn out—tend to it daily, the same way you'd tend to anything you actually intend to keep alive. Nothing left to chance will ever change on its own. Chance doesn't build a life. Intention does. Intentionality is the key component to continuing on your path—not intensity, not perfection, just steady, chosen, repeated intention. And here is where hope lives in all of this: hope is not naive about how far you've fallen or how many times you've had to start again. Hope simply insists that the story isn't finished. Romans 5:4-5 says perseverance produces character, and character produces hope—"and hope does not put us to shame." Your setbacks were never disqualifying. They were curriculum. Every pivot, every season you thought you'd wasted, every lesson that cost you more than you wanted to pay—it was building the exact resilience that hope requires to keep speaking. "One step at a time leads to miles of greatness." ~ Kristianne Wargo That's not a throwaway line. That's the entire mechanism of this journey. You don't leap into a transformed life. You take one honest step, then another, then another, until one day you turn around and realize the ground you've covered was miles, not inches. You didn't come this far to come this far. You came this far to keep going. "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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 594142 Satisfy Us in the MorningThere's a moment right before your feet hit the floor. The alarm has gone off, the day is waiting, and for just a second you get to choose what you reach for first. Most of us reach for the phone. We reach for the to-do list already running in our heads. We reach for yesterday's leftover worry and let it become this morning's starting point. But there's another way to open your eyes. Psalm 90:14 says, "Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days." Moses wrote those words — the same Moses who spent forty years watching a generation wander, who knew what it was to carry people who complained more than they trusted. 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 And still, this is the prayer he lands on. Not "fix my circumstances." Not "make today easier." Just — satisfy us. Fill us up before anything else has a chance to. Sarah Young captures this so simply in her devotional writing when she describes God's love as immensely satisfying — the kind that reminds you that you're treasured, that you're significant, and that together, you and God can handle whatever the day holds. Not that the day will be easy. Just that you won't be facing it alone, and you won't be facing it empty. That's the whole shift, isn't it? We keep looking for something in this world to satisfy us — the right schedule, the right relationship, the right season of life where everything finally clicks into place. And every single time, it runs out. It was never built to fill you. It's not the job. It's not the applause. It's not even having your act together. What satisfies is whose you are. What the Words Actually Mean It's worth slowing down on two words in this verse, because in the original Hebrew they carry more weight than the English lets on. "Sing for joy" comes from the Hebrew word ranan. It doesn't describe a quiet, contained feeling — it's the word for a ringing cry, a shout, an audible burst of praise that can't stay inside you. It's the sound a person makes when something in them overflows and has to come out. That's not a stretch of the word — it's the actual picture Moses chose. Joy, in this verse, is loud. It's a response too full to whisper. "Be glad" comes from samach, and this one is different — it's a settled gladness, a rejoicing that lives underneath the surface even when the surface is choppy. This is the word used again and again in scripture for people who rejoice not because their situation is good, but because something deeper than their situation is secure. It's gladness with roots, not gladness with conditions. Put those two together and the verse stops sounding like a wish and starts sounding like a promise. God isn't asking us to manufacture a good mood. He's saying: when My unfailing love satisfies you first, the overflow and the rootedness both follow. The shout and the settledness. Both. The K.I.S.S. ~ Satisfy us in the morning! We Don't Earn This. We Receive It. Here's the part that trips people up: satisfaction doesn't come from doing more, praying longer, or finally becoming the version of yourself you keep trying to be. Chesed — the unfailing love in this verse — is covenant love. Steadfast. Given, not earned. It's already there in the morning, waiting, whether or not you've done anything to deserve it. That's grace working before breakfast. Before your inbox. Before you've had a chance to prove anything. So the invitation isn't to try harder to feel joyful. It's to receive, first thing, the love that was already reaching for you before your eyes opened. Let that be what you're full of before the day starts filling you with everything else. Not Because Everything Is Fine None of this is about pretending the hard things aren't hard. Bills are still due. Relationships are still complicated. Bodies still get tired and plans still fall through. Singing for joy and being glad all our days was never a promise that all our days would be good days. It's a promise about where the joy comes from when they're not. You are not what your circumstances say about you. You are what God says about you — treasured, significant, held. That identity doesn't shift with the weather of your week. So tomorrow morning, before the list, before the noise, before you decide how the day is going to go — try the prayer instead. Satisfy me first. Let that be enough to sing about, and enough to stay glad about, long before you know how the day turns out. "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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 604141 Keep Your Clothes OnMarriage was designed for intimacy. God built it that way on purpose — physical closeness is part of the gift. So why in the world would I tell you to keep your clothes on? Because there's a kind of intimacy that has to come first. And if you don't have it, the physical stuff becomes a bandage on a wound that keeps reopening. If you don't have the heart of your spouse, maybe you should keep your clothes on. Cordial Isn't the Same as Connected Think about how you actually interact with your spouse right now — not how you wish you did, not how you did on your wedding day. Right now, today. 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 Are you cordial with each other? Or are you putting up with each other? There's a real difference. Cordial can look like connection from the outside — you're polite, you say good morning, you don't fight in front of the kids. But underneath, you might just be tolerating a season. Waiting it out. Coexisting instead of building. And I want to push you even further than that question, because "cordial" isn't the finish line either. Does your cordiality go all the way to serving your spouse unconditionally, the way God calls you to? Or are you serving from a lens of convenience — doing the loving thing only when it costs you nothing, and rewarding yourself with what you want the rest of the time? That's a hard question. Sit with it before you answer it. Marriage Is a Two-Way Street If you're the spouse who requires the other person to go down only your one-way road, you will hit struggles. You will hit trouble. It's not a matter of if — it's a matter of when. Ephesians 5:21 says believers are to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. One another. Not one to the other. Marriage was never meant to be a one-way street with your spouse doing all the yielding. It takes communication. It takes compromise. It takes compassion. And all three of those are wrapped up in one bigger thing: unconditional love. The kind that doesn't keep score. The kind that shows up on the hard days, not just the easy ones. Yes, it takes one person to start that shift. But it takes two to finish it. One spouse can plant the seed of change, but a marriage doesn't get rebuilt by one person carrying the whole thing alone forever. And to get there, you have to be honest — really honest — about where you are, what you're actually contributing, and where you want this marriage to go. Not where you assume it's headed. Where you want it to go. The K.I.S.S. ~ Keep your clothes on! Three Ways to Keep Your Clothes On So what does it actually look like to pump the brakes on the physical and pursue the heart first? Here are three places to start. 1. Ask before you assume. Stop guessing what your spouse needs and start asking. "How are you really doing?" "What's been hard for you this week?" "What do you need from me right now?" Assumption is where distance quietly grows. Curiosity is where it starts to close. 2. Serve without a scoreboard. Notice if you're keeping a mental tally — I did this, so they owe me that. Unconditional love, the kind Scripture calls us to, doesn't run on a ledger. Try serving your spouse one time this week with zero expectation of anything back. Just watch what it does to your own heart, let alone theirs. 3. Get honest out loud. Say the true thing. Not the version that makes you look good, and not the version that only blames them. Tell your spouse where you actually are — your frustrations, your fears, your part in the disconnect. Honesty spoken in love is the doorway to real intimacy. Everything else is just proximity. The Heart Comes First Marriage is a beautiful gift. But gifts don't stay beautiful on their own — they have to be tended to, on purpose, day after day. So before you rush to close the physical distance, ask yourself if you've closed the heart distance first. Because you can share a bed and still be strangers. And you can keep your clothes on and still be closer than you've been in years. One step at a time leads to miles of greatness — and sometimes the first step is simply choosing to know your spouse's heart before anything else. "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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 614140 The GIft that Keeps on GivingParents have it rough sometimes. The struggle is real. We want to give our kids everything. The newest shoes. The latest gadget. The experience everyone else is posting about. We work extra shifts, stretch the budget, and say yes to one more thing—all because we want them to have what matters. But here's what we don't say out loud enough: the one thing only you can give them, you already have. It's you. Your presence. The gift that keeps on giving. A lot of times, we convince ourselves that if we just buy this or get that, our kids will know they're loved. And materially, maybe they'll have plenty. Closets full. Shelves full. Screens full. 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 But ask any kid, years down the road, what they remember most — it's rarely the toy. It's the tickle fights on the living room floor. It's the car ride where you turned the radio down because they finally started talking. It's the way you showed up to the game even when you were exhausted. What kids really want is the heart of their parent. Not the trending thing. Not the thing that lit up their eyes for a week and then got forgotten in a drawer. They want you — showing up in their world, giving your time and your energy to conversations, playful interactions, creative excursions, and yes, a little snuggle time. Hugs go a long way in today's world. Don't underestimate what your arms around your child can heal. The Scroll and the Silence Here's where it gets uncomfortable. We tend to scroll and numb out on what's easy. It's easier to hand over a tablet than to sit through the fortieth "watch me!" of the day. It's easier to answer one more work email than to answer the question your child has been working up the courage to ask you all afternoon. Why do you think there are more dinners eaten in cars or at restaurants than around the table at home? Everyone is so busy — especially us as parents — that no one has carved out time for real relationship. We're feeding bodies and starving hearts. This isn't a guilt trip. It's an invitation. A movement, even, to get in tune with your children on a heart-to-heart level. To stop caring so much about the stuff, and commit your heart instead. As I always say, one step at a time leads to miles of greatness. You don't have to overhaul your whole family life tonight. You just have to take the next small step toward presence. The K.I.S.S. ~ Be present! As you know, this is July. So why not begin celebrating the holidays early? Christmas in July Think of this as Christmas in July. What if, instead of wrapping up another gift, you wrapped up your heart to give to your children? No bow required. No receipt needed. Just you, fully there. 3 Things You Can Do to Be Present With Your Children 1. Put the phone down and get on their level. Not for a whole day. Just for the next ten minutes. Get down on the floor, look them in the eyes, and let them lead the conversation or the play. Kids know the difference between a parent who's in the room and a parent who's in the moment. 2. Bring back the table. Even one meal a week, eaten at home, at the table, no screens. Ask questions. Let the conversation wander. This is where kids learn they're safe to talk, and where you learn who they're becoming. 3. Give the hug before they ask for it. Don't wait for them to need it. Offer it. A hug at the door, a squeeze before bed, an arm around the shoulder after a hard day — these small physical moments of connection tell your child, without a single word, you matter to me. The Gift That Never Runs Out Toys break. Trends fade. Screens go dark. But your presence? That's the gift that keeps on giving, long after the wrapping paper is in the trash. This Christmas in July, give your children the one gift that never goes out of style — you. "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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 624139 Boost Your BestNot very often do we think about bettering ourselves to the extent of excellence. Yes, we want to do better, but sometimes that gets nullified by the busyness of life and the chaotic moments. So instead of letting go of what you need to grow, take the time to boost your best. You get to decide how you show up in everything that you do. Now, there will be times when you want something different than what you have, but that doesn't mean you slack off. 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 It's super duper easy to get lazy with our actions and use our energy toward stuff that doesn't matter. And then you wonder why you aren't moving the needle. Colossians 3:23 says: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." Not "whatever feels convenient." Not "whatever you have leftover energy for." Whatever you do. That's the standard. That's the boost. Boost your best with the intentional actions you decide so the changes you want to make become sticky in your everyday. That's when you move the needle and the GPS system says, "recalculating." Because that's what happens when you shift direction on purpose — everything around you has to catch up to the new you. The K.I.S.S. ~ Boost your best! Life is not always going to go the way you want it to. There are going to be those hamster wheel moments, reach for the stars celebrations, and sour patch seasons. However, you don't have to hang out with all of that forever. Take each day for what it's worth, and then be ready to take your next step forward as you boost your best with intentionality. "One step at a time leads to miles of greatness." ~ Kristianne Wargo You don't have to overhaul your whole life in a day. You just have to decide, today, that lazy isn't the plan anymore. That coasting isn't the goal. That excellence — your excellence, not someone else's highlight reel — is worth reaching for. You are amazing! Don't let the world scream at you differently, and be adaptable to a new season that deserves your attention. You've got this cause God's got you!! "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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 634138 When Trying Harder Isn't Always the AnswerThere's a moment we all reach eventually. You come to the end of yourself — done, done doing all the things that aren't working. Done pushing. Done grinding a little more, then a little more after that, trying to manage what, honestly, was never yours to control in the first place. And somehow, in the middle of that mess, you find one more ounce of grit. So you dig deeper. You reach further. You tell yourself the answer is just on the other side of one more push. But what happens when trying harder isn't always the answer? What if, for a moment — or a whole season — you let up on the gas? What if you put down the "try harder" fight and started living from a different place entirely? Not a place of striving, but a place of peace. 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 The Grind Isn't Always Growth Grit matters. There are seasons that genuinely require it — showing up when you don't feel like it, pushing through the middle when quitting would be easier. That kind of effort is real, and it's often necessary. But somewhere along the way, a lot of us confused trying harder with trusting God. We started believing that if we just gripped tighter, hustled longer, and controlled more, we'd finally arrive at peace. As if peace were a finish line you sprint toward instead of a posture you settle into. Here's the truth: peace was never on the other side of the grind. It's available right now, in the middle of it — if you're willing to loosen your grip long enough to receive it. What Peace Actually Looks Like Let's be clear about what peace is not. Peace is not the absence of activity. It's not a life where nothing is going wrong, no one needs anything from you, and every circumstance has resolved itself neatly. Peace is knowing you're doing what you can control, and then releasing the rest into God's hands as your next step. Peace is burying the worry instead of feeding it. Peace is pressing forward — not with force, but with ease, because you know God's got you. That distinction changes everything. Peace isn't passive. It's a decision, made again and again, to stop carrying what was never yours to carry alone. The K.I.S.S. ~ Live from a place of P.E.A.C.E.! Think about what would happen if you let up a little on the gas? Why not determine for a moment or two, stretching into a season, where you put down the "try harder" fight and live a life from a place of peace. So what does that look like in practice? Let's break it down. P.E.A.C.E. — A Different Way to Move Forward P — PRESENT It, Don't Carry It Whatever is weighing on you right now — the relationship, the finances, the diagnosis, the decision you keep circling — present it. Say it out loud. Bring it to God instead of hauling it around silently, hoping sheer willpower will make it lighter. You weren't built to carry it alone, and pretending otherwise is exhausting you for nothing. E — ENTRUST What You Can't Control There's a difference between giving up and letting go. Entrusting isn't quitting — it's recognizing the outcome was never in your hands to begin with. You can plan, prepare, and show up faithfully, and still not control how it unfolds. Entrusting means you release the ending and trust the One who already knows it. A — ACT Where You Have Influence Peace isn't an excuse to do nothing. There is always a next right step — the phone call, the boundary, the conversation, the small obedience in front of you today. Act there. Fully. Then stop trying to act everywhere else too. C — CEASE the Striving Somewhere it says, "Be still, and know." Not "strive harder, and know." Ceasing the striving means you stop white-knuckling your way through every outcome. It means you trade the grip for open hands, even when it feels counterintuitive, even when everything in you wants to push one more inch. E — EASE Into Who You're Becoming This is the shift. You stop performing your way toward a version of yourself who has it all figured out, and you start easing into who God is already shaping you to be. Not with force. With trust. One step, becoming, at a time. Grit Has Its Place — But It Isn't the Whole Answer None of this means effort doesn't matter. There are moments to dig in, to push through, to keep going when everything says stop. Grit has real value. But when grit becomes the only language you speak — when every problem gets met with "try harder" instead of "trust further" — you burn out chasing a peace that was never going to come from more effort. You make room for real peace the moment you stop trying to force your way into it. The peace that transcends understanding (Philippians 4:7) doesn't show up because you finally worked hard enough to earn it. It shows up when you stop trying to earn it at all. Who You're Becoming, Not Where You've Been Let this season be about that. Not about proving yourself through where you've already been, or how hard you've already fought — but about who you're being polished into becoming. That polishing rarely happens in the grind. It happens in the surrender. "One step at a time leads to miles of greatness." ~ Kristianne Wargo Sometimes that step isn't a harder push forward. Sometimes it's simply letting go. "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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 644137 Don't Be AfraidSometimes it's the littlest things that spark a thought that deepens the meaning. As I was sitting with my granddaughter reading a book, there was a point in the story where it talked about being scared. In her sweet, innocent voice, she sang, "Don't be afraid." Her confidence exploded from her heart, while her smile calmed the nerves in the room. And she is just a tot. But it's in those moments that remind us how important the littlest things can be when they're simplest. 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 do not need to complicate our days any more than they already are. So why not lean into what we already know —something deeper than surface-level stuff? Don't be afraid. Maybe you're in a season where you're facing uncertainty and doubt. None of it feels good. In fact, sometimes it feels so cold, yet at the same time you feel warm and cozy. It's all because you know the feeling all too well. You've been here before, and somehow, you're still standing. So take a deep breath. Don't be afraid! You are created to soar on wings like eagles. The prophet Isaiah wrote it best: "But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint" (Isaiah 40:31). That's not just poetry. That's a promise for the exact moment you're in right now, whether you're weary from the running or just tired of standing still. You are created in the image of your Heavenly Father, God Himself. Genesis tells us, "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them" (Genesis 1:27). Read that again. Not a flawed copy. Not an afterthought. His image. Just because the world lets you down doesn't mean God does. Uncertainty and doubt melt in the face of confidence. You don't have to know all the answers, but you can lean on God. Paul reminded Timothy of this when he wrote, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7). That spirit of fear you're carrying? It was never handed to you by God. You picked it up somewhere along the way — and you're allowed to set it back down. The K.I.S.S. ~ Don't be afraid! Find comfort knowing that He knows. Does that make everything go away? Nope! But it does make space for your heart to breathe freely in God's knowing, not your own. That's greater than anything you could ever know on your own. There's something disarming about watching a toddler sing her way through fear. She hasn't lived long enough to build up walls of worry. She hasn't learned yet to overthink her way out of peace. She just knows, in her small, simple way, that she's safe. And she says so — out loud, with a smile. That's not naivety. That's faith in its purest form. Jesus said it Himself: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). Maybe that's the invitation today — not to know less, but to trust more simply. To stop dressing up our fear in the language of "being realistic" and instead sing our own quiet version of "don't be afraid." Have confidence because of your faith, knowing that uncertainty and doubt bow down to God, and you are not in this alone. One step at a time leads to miles of greatness. You don't have to solve the whole season today. You just have to take the next step without letting fear talk you out of it. Don't be afraid. Not because nothing is uncertain — but because you were never meant to carry it alone. "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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 654136 Why Presence Changes EverythingWe are masters at paying attention to the wrong things. The comment someone made three weeks ago. The comparison trap on social media. The "what if" that hasn't happened and might never happen. We hand our focus over to noise, and while we're distracted, the path meant for us — the one carved out specifically for our feet — starts to fade into the background. But it doesn't have to disappear all at once. Maybe now would be a good time to consider why presence changes everything. Because the loss of focus is more like a slow dimming. One day you look up, and you can't quite remember the last time you felt like you were headed somewhere. 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 Discouragement moves in. And discouragement is patient — it will wait as long as it needs to until you settle. Not because settling is what you want, but because you're standing in a sticky situation with no clear next step, and staying still feels safer than moving blindly. Here's the truth though: you were never meant to walk this path blindly. What If You Could See the Path Again? What if you had the foresight to actually walk the journey meant for you — not someone else's version of it, not the one you assumed you should want, but yours? What if you could check in with yourself the way you'd check a map — pause, look around, confirm you're still headed the right direction — and from that check-in, make small shifts before you've drifted too far off course? That's not a fantasy. That's presence. Presence is the difference between wandering and walking with intention. It's the quiet skill of noticing where you actually are, instead of where you assume you are or wish you were. And it's available to you right now, in this very moment, regardless of how far off the path you feel. "One step at a time leads to miles of greatness." ~ Kristianne Wargo That's not just an encouraging phrase — it's a strategy. Greatness isn't reached in leaps. It's reached one honest, present step after another. But you can only take an honest step if you know where your feet actually are. The Path Lights Up as You Walk It Proverbs 4:18 says, "The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day." Notice what this verse doesn't say. It doesn't say the path is fully lit from the start. It says the light grows — brighter and brighter — as you walk. You are not required to see the whole road today. You're only required to be present enough to see the next few feet in front of you, and take them. So let me ask you directly: Where are you headed today? Where do your actions — not your intentions, your actual actions — direct you? If you're honest, are they leading you toward the life you say you want? Or are they leading you toward comfort, distraction, or avoidance dressed up as busyness? Presence is the answer to your journey. Not perfection. Not certainty. Presence. The willingness to show up in your own life and actually look around. The K.I.S.S. ~ Stay present on your own path! So, where are you showing up in your own life? And where have you gone quietly missing? Three Things You Can Do to Stay Present on Your Path If you want your path to remain visible — if you want to catch the drift before it becomes a full detour — here are three things you can start doing today. 1. Do a daily location check. Before your day gets away from you, ask: Where am I right now — emotionally, mentally, spiritually? And does that match where I want to be headed? This isn't about judgment. It's about awareness. You can't correct a course you refuse to look at. 2. Let your calendar tell the truth. Look at how you actually spent yesterday. Not how you meant to spend it — how you did. Your calendar and your habits are the most honest journal you own. If they don't match your stated direction, that's not failure. That's information. Use it. 3. Create a checkpoint, not just a goal. Goals live far in the future. Checkpoints live this week. Set a small, specific marker — something you can look back on in seven days and ask, "Did I move toward my path, or away from it?" A checkpoint keeps you present because it's close enough to actually see. None of these require a total life overhaul. They require attention. And attention, sustained over time, is what presence actually looks like. You don't need to see the whole path today. You need to be present enough to see the next step — and brave enough to take it. CHALLENGE: Where in your life have you been present in appearance only — going through the motions — while your actual attention has drifted somewhere else? What would it look like to show up fully, starting today? "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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 664135 Taste and See Who God Wants You to BeSomewhere along the way, a lot of us picked up a quiet, exhausting belief: that heaven is a reward we earn. That if we pray enough, serve enough, show up enough, say the right things, avoid the wrong things — we'll have finally done enough to deserve a seat at the table. Here's the truth that changes everything: it was never about what you do. It's about what Jesus already did. Taste and see who God wants you to be. Read that first part again, because I think you needed it today. You are not the one who gets yourself to heaven. You never were. That job was finished on a cross, by someone who didn't need your help to do it. Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com Ephesians 2:8 says it plainly: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." Not from yourselves. Not earned. Not maintained by your good behavior or lost by your bad days. A gift. So many of us are walking around running an internal audit — did I pray long enough this morning? Did I read enough Scripture this week? Did I mess up too many times to still count? That's not faith. That's fear wearing faith's clothes. And it will wear you out, because you were never built to carry your own salvation. You were built to receive it. Deep Calls to Deep Psalm 42:7 says, "Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me." That's not a gentle image. That's an ocean calling to an ocean. It's God reaching past your surface — past the version of you that shows up put-together, past the résumé of good deeds you've been quietly compiling — and speaking to the deep place underneath it all. Transformation doesn't start on the outside. It doesn't start with fixing your habits or cleaning up your language or finally getting your act together. It starts when the deep in you responds to the deep in Him. When you stop managing your image and let Him actually reach the parts of you that you don't show anyone. You can't perform your way into that kind of change. You can only be met there. Taste and See Psalm 34:8 invites us with a phrase that's become one of the most quoted lines in Scripture for a reason: "Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him." Not "read about." Not "hear a sermon about." Taste. Experience it for yourself. God isn't asking for your theoretical belief — He's asking you to actually engage with Him and find out, firsthand, that He's good. And here's the part that matters for how you live this out with other people: God has something specific for you. Not a copy of someone else's calling, not a formula that worked for your friend, not a five-step plan you found online. Something specific. Made for you. Which means you don't get to decide someone else's specific isn't ready yet. The K.I.S.S. ~ Taste and see! Invite Anyway It is not your job to judge whether someone needs Christ. It's not your job to decide they're "not there yet," or too far gone, or too messy, or too resistant. Your job is simply to invite them anyway. You don't know what deep is calling to deep in someone else's life right now. You don't know what's happening underneath the surface they're showing you. So invite them. Let God do what only God can do with the invitation. Your role is the door, not the judge standing in front of it. Accept God the Way He Shows Up Here's the harder shift, though, and it might be the one you actually need most: maybe you need to be willing to accept God the way He shows up for you — not the way you think you have to show up for Him. We spend so much energy trying to perform our way into God's presence, when He's already shown up. In the waterfall. In the ordinary Tuesday. In the answered prayer you almost missed because you were too busy trying to earn it. He doesn't wait for your polished version. He meets the real one. Stop trying to be presentable enough for God and start letting Him be present with you as you are. There Is Power Here There is power in your prayers. Power in your worship. Power in what God will do in you — and then, through you, once you stop white-knuckling your own transformation and let Him actually do it. Jesus said it Himself: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). The way. Not a way you build. Not a way you earn. A way already made. So taste it. See it. Stop auditing yourself and start receiving Him. And then — invite someone else to do the same. "Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!" #SweetSpirit #CreateYourNow #SoulfulSunday 🔔 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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 674134 Blaze Your Trail TogetherWhen we get married, we bring dreams into the relationship. Some of those dreams we built as a couple, sitting across from each other at 2 a.m. talking about the life we wanted. Others we brought in on our own — dreams we had before we ever said "I do," goals we were chasing long before we had a ring on our finger. No matter where you are, you can still blaze your trail together. Here's what we tend to forget: marriage requires us to do life together. Not next to each other. Not around each other. Together. Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com But somewhere between the wedding and the routine of Tuesday, we get stuck thinking about ourselves. We chase our own goals, manage our own stress, carry our own dreams — and without meaning to, we leave our sweetheart standing a few steps behind us on the trail. Since you said "I do," it's time to blaze your trail together. A Question Worth Sitting With Think about what your marriage actually looks like right now. Not what you'd say it looks like if someone asked you at church. What it actually looks like on a Wednesday night. Are you the kind of couple who sits down and talks dreams — big ones and small ones? Do you know what your spouse is hoping for a year from now? Five years from now? Do they know yours? Or has it become something quieter than that. You do your thing, they do their thing, and you just come together for dinner. Two roommates who happen to love each other, running parallel lives instead of one shared life. There's no shame in landing on the second answer. Most marriages drift there at some point — not from a lack of love, but from a lack of intention. Life is loud. Kids, jobs, bills, exhaustion. Somewhere in the noise, "we" quietly became "me and you" instead of "us." But have no fear, you can still blaze your trail together. The K.I.S.S. ~ Blaze your trail together! Because the good news: A trail can always be re-blazed. It just takes a decision, and then a few practical steps. 3 Things a Spouse Can Do to Blaze a Trail Together 1. Talk Dreams Out Loud — On Purpose You cannot build a life with someone whose dreams you don't know. Set aside actual time — not "whenever we get a free minute," because that minute rarely comes on its own — to ask each other real questions. What do you want next year? What have you been afraid to say out loud? What would make you feel like this season was a win? This isn't a one-time conversation. Dreams shift. The dream you had at 25 isn't always the dream you have at 35. Keep asking. Keep updating the map. "Where there is no vision, the people perish." — Proverbs 29:18 A couple without shared vision isn't in danger of a dramatic ending. They're in danger of a slow drift. Talking dreams out loud is how you keep drifting from happening. 2. Make Room for Each Other's Trail, Not Just Your Own Blazing a trail together doesn't mean you have identical dreams. It means you make room for your spouse's path the same way you make room for your own. If they want to go back to school, change careers, start something new, or simply grow in a way that inconveniences your schedule — that's not competition. That's the assignment. This is where a lot of couples quietly fail each other. Not through betrayal, but through indifference. One person's growth gets sidelined because it's inconvenient, and eventually resentment moves in where partnership used to be. "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: if either of them falls down, one can help the other up." — Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 Being married means your spouse's dream is now your responsibility to help carry, not just tolerate. 3. Walk in Step — Even When the Pace Feels Different Trails aren't blazed at the exact same stride. One of you may move faster in a season — more energy, more clarity, more momentum. The goal isn't matching pace perfectly. The goal is staying connected while you move. That means checking in. Slowing down when your spouse needs you to. Speeding up when they need encouragement to catch a vision you already see. It means neither of you disappears so far ahead — or falls so far behind — that you lose sight of each other on the path. As the saying goes, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." Marriage was never designed for speed. It was designed for distance. The Trail Is Still Yours to Blaze Nobody hands a married couple a finished map. You cut the path as you go — through career changes, through kids, through hard years and easy ones. The question isn't whether you'll have to do the work of building a life together. You will. The question is whether you'll do it side by side, or as two people who happen to share an address. Since you said "I do," you already made the choice to walk this out together. Today is just another chance to actually live it. Sit down this week. Ask the questions. Make the room. Match the step. Blaze your trail together. "Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!" #RelationshipBuilders #CreateYourNow #LoveAndMarriage 🔔 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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 684133 Hear Me OutAs parents, it's easy to lose sight of the goal. We stress about how good we are at this — replaying conversations, grading ourselves on tone, wondering if we handled the moment the "right" way. Somewhere in that pressure, we start believing our job is to have it all put together. So when we're handing our children the lessons we think they need, all we can hear in our own head is: hear me out. Because the last thing you want is your child shutting down your wisdom. You've lived what you're teaching. You've got the scars, the hindsight, the answers. You want to be heard — and that want isn't wrong. It comes from love. It comes from not wanting them to learn the hard way what you already learned the hard way. Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com But here's the question worth sitting with: what if sometimes you're right, and sometimes there's a better resolution? What then? Do you dig in? Do you sit quietly, arms crossed, trying to convince yourself that you're right and your child will just have to deal with it? The goal was never to win the conversation. Somewhere along the way, parenting conversations started to feel like debates — like if we don't land our point, we've failed at something. But raising a child isn't a courtroom. Nobody needs a verdict. What they need is to feel like their voice matters in the room, even when they're young, even when they're wrong, even when their solution isn't as clean as yours. Proverbs 27:17 says, "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." Sharpening isn't one blade forcing itself onto another — it's friction that refines both edges. If we walk into every conversation as the only one who could possibly be sharpened, we've missed what the verse is actually describing. Being right isn't the same as being effective. You can be completely correct and still lose your child in the process — not because your logic failed, but because they felt unheard on the way to your conclusion. Kids don't remember the accuracy of your argument. They remember whether they felt safe enough to bring you the next hard thing. So when your child pushes back with an idea you didn't expect, the instinct might be to steamroll it, however gently, because you already know how the story ends. But pause there. Ask yourself: is this a hill, or is this a hallway? Some things are non-negotiable. Most things are just... a different way through the same door. Hear me out — but also, let me hear you out. The K.I.S.S. ~ Let me hear you out! That's the shift. Let me hear you (your child) out, too. Not abandoning your wisdom. Not softening the truth until it's unrecognizable. Just widening the room enough for two people to bring something to the table instead of one person delivering a verdict to another. James 1:19 says, "Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry." Notice the order. Listening comes first — not as a courtesy before you say your piece, but as the actual work. Sometimes the resolution your child lands on, clumsy as it sounds coming out of an eight-year-old or a defiant teenager, has a piece of wisdom you didn't consider. Not because they know more than you. Because they're closer to their own life than you are. What this looks like in practice It looks like saying, "I hear what you're saying — tell me more," and actually meaning it, even when your gut says you already know where this is headed. It looks like being willing to say, "You know what, that's actually a good point," out loud, in front of your kid, without it costing you your authority. Authority was never about always being right. It was about being trustworthy. It looks like holding your position when it truly matters, and releasing your grip when it doesn't — and knowing the difference takes humility, not certainty. As Maya Angelou once said, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." Your child won't remember the exact wording of the lecture. They'll remember whether the conversation felt like a wall or a door. Three ways to make it a two-way street If you want to be heard and actually hear your child, it takes more than good intentions in the moment. It takes a few habits you build on purpose. Say your piece, then ask a real question. Share your wisdom — that's still your job. But don't end on your conclusion. End on a question like, "What do you think we should do?" or "Does that make sense to you, or does it feel off somewhere?" A real question is one you're actually willing to sit with the answer to, not one designed to lead them back to your point. Repeat back what you heard before you respond to it. Before you correct, defend, or explain, try saying, "So what I'm hearing is..." and let your child confirm or correct you. This does two things: it slows you down before you react, and it proves to your child that their words landed somewhere before your words fly back at them. Decide in advance which hills are actually hills. Not every disagreement needs to be won. Before the conversation even starts — or in a calm moment afterward — get honest with yourself about what's truly non-negotiable (safety, character, values) versus what's just your preference for how something should be done. When you know the difference ahead of time, it's easier to hold firm where it matters and loosen your grip where it doesn't. None of this means abandoning your wisdom or pretending you don't know what you know. It means building a conversation with room for two people in it, not just one delivering a verdict to the other. So the next time you feel that hear me out rising up before you speak — pause. Say it. But then hand the phrase back. Ask them to hear you out, and then genuinely hear them out too. Not every conversation needs a winner. Some just need two people willing to be sharpened. "Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!" #ConfessionsOfAnUpsetMama #CreateYourNow #TodaysParent 🔔 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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 694132 Been There, Dump ThatYou know the phrase, "Been there, done that." It's the verbal shrug we give when something no longer impresses us, no longer scares us, or no longer has anything left to teach us. To put a twist on the phrase to serve you better, why not enhance it: been there, dump that. Because here's something we never sit around and talk about when it comes to growth — it's not just about picking things up. Those new habits, new skills, new mindsets. Growth is just as much about what you're willing to put down. Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com The Backpack Nobody Told You to Unpack Picture your life as a hike. Every year, every failed relationship, every job you hated, every version of yourself you've outgrown — you didn't leave those behind. You packed them. Zipped the bag. Kept walking. Some of what's in there is useful. Lessons. Scar tissue that turned into wisdom. Keep those. But some of it is just weight. The old grudge. The identity you built around being "the responsible one" or "the screwup" or "the one who always gets left." The rule you made up when you were twenty-three that you've never once revisited: I'm not the kind of person who asks for help. I always have to prove myself twice as hard. If I'm not exhausted, I'm not working hard enough. You didn't decide to carry that today. You decided to carry it once, years ago, and then forgot you were still carrying it. Been there. Time to dump that. Why We Keep the Weight If it's just weight, why not put it down? Because familiar weight feels safer than an empty bag. There's a strange comfort in old pain. It's furnished. You know where the exits are. A new season — one without the grudge, without the old story about who you are — is unfurnished. Unknown. And unknown, even when it's lighter, can feel more frightening than heavy and familiar. So we keep hauling around identities we've outgrown because at least we know how to be that person. We'd rather be a tired version of someone we recognize than a rested version of someone we don't yet know. That's not laziness. That's just how people work. But it's worth naming, because you can't put down a weight you've convinced yourself isn't there. The K.I.S.S. ~ Been there, dump that! The Difference Between Failure and Defeat Here's a distinction worth sitting with: failure is an event. Defeat is a decision. Failure says, "That didn't work." Defeat says, "So nothing will." One is data. The other is a lid you put on your own future. Most of what's in that backpack isn't failure — it's old defeat, dressed up as identity. You didn't just lose that opportunity; somewhere along the way you decided you're the kind of person who loses opportunities. That's the part worth dumping. Not the memory. The conclusion. What Dumping Actually Looks Like Dumping isn't a call to forget your past or pretend the hard stuff didn't happen. Dumping isn't deleting. It's sorting. Keep the lesson. Drop the verdict. "I got burned trusting too fast" is a lesson. "I can't trust people" is a verdict. Keep the first. Dump the second. Keep the scar. Drop the script. You're allowed to remember what happened without letting it write your next ten years. Keep the growth. Drop the grudge. Especially the grudge against yourself. You were doing the best you could with what you knew then. "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal." (Philippians 3:13-14) Notice it doesn't say the past disappears. It says you stop straining backward so you have both hands free to reach forward. The Lighter Way Forward You don't need a bigger bag. You need a lighter one. So take inventory. What are you still hauling that already did its job? What identity, grudge, or old verdict have you been carrying out of habit rather than necessity? Been there. You learned what you needed to learn there. Now dump that — and see how much lighter you feel so you can go in peace. "Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!" #Inspiration #CreateYourNow #DailyMotivation 🔔 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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 704131 Fear Isn't Who You AreFear rarely shows up looking like fear. It shows up looking like "that's just who I am." It shows up as "I've always been this way." It shows up in the sentence that starts with "I'm not the kind of person who..." — and ends right before you find out you actually could have been. That's the sneaky part. Fear doesn't usually announce itself. It just quietly moves into the identity you've built for yourself, unpacks its bags, and starts paying rent. And over time, you stop noticing it's even there. You just think it's you. But fear isn't who you are. We all carry a version of ourselves we've decided is the "real" one — often built from a handful of old moments that never got the chance to grow up. Maybe it was a failed attempt, a harsh word someone said about you at nineteen, a habit you picked up during a hard season that never got put back down. Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com Somewhere along the way, that moment stopped being something that happened to you and started being something you believe defines you. And here's the tricky part: your habits follow whatever story you believe. If you believe you're someone who quits, you'll find quiet, reasonable ways to quit. If you believe you're someone who isn't disciplined, "isn't lucky," or "isn't the type to change," your habits will work overtime to prove you right — not because it's true, but because it's familiar. And familiar feels safer than possible. This is how we get stuck. Not because we're lazy or broken, but because the unknown is genuinely uncomfortable, and our minds will choose a painful known over a hopeful unknown almost every time. Fear isn't usually about heights or spiders. Most days, fear is just the discomfort of not knowing who you'd be without the old story. The Should've, Would've, Could've Loop You know this loop. Everyone does. I should have started that business when I had the chance. I would have gone back to school if things had been different. I could have been further along by now. It feels like reflection, but it's often just fear wearing a costume — grief for a version of you that never got a shot, dressed up as regret over the past. And the cruel irony is that while you're busy mourning who you didn't become, you're also busy not becoming who you could be right now, today. The loop doesn't just cost you the past. It quietly taxes your present, too. Eleanor Roosevelt put it plainly: "You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face." Not by out-arguing it. Not by waiting for it to leave. By looking directly at it and moving anyway. There's an old, steady promise that echoes the same idea: "Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you" (Isaiah 41:10). You were never meant to face the unknown white-knuckled and alone, convinced you have to have it all figured out before you're allowed to move. You can't think your way out of a habit. You have to practice your way out. The K.I.S.S. ~ Practice your way out! Here are three places to start. 1. Separate your history from your identity. Take one belief you have about yourself — "I'm not disciplined," "I always self-sabotage," "I'm bad with money" — and ask, honestly, is this who I am, or is this just something that happened, repeated enough times that it started to feel permanent? "A habit is evidence of what you practiced. It is not a life sentence of who you are." ~ Kristianne Wargo Naming the difference is the first crack in the story. 2. Make the next decision small enough that fear can't talk you out of it. Fear thrives on the size of the leap. It rarely objects to one small, present-tense step. You don't have to overhaul your life today — you just have to do the next honest thing. Send the email. Write the paragraph. Say the boundary out loud, once, quietly. Small, repeated action rewires belief far faster than a big, dramatic resolution that fear can talk you out of by Tuesday. 3. Practice being where your feet are. Almost all fear lives in the future — in what might happen, what you might lose, who you might fail to become. Almost none of it lives in the actual present moment, where you're simply reading this sentence, breathing, capable. When you catch yourself spiraling into "what if," gently bring yourself back to "what now." Presence is where your actual strength lives — not in having the whole path figured out, just the next right step in front of you. "One step at a time leads to miles of greatness." ~ Kristianne Wargo You Are Not Your Worst Habit You are allowed to outgrow the story. You are allowed to have been someone who struggled with something and become someone who doesn't struggle with it anymore. That's not reinvention — that's just growth doing what growth does. Fear will always offer you the comfort of staying exactly who you've been. But the version of you that's becoming — steadier, freer, less afraid of the unknown — is worth more than the comfort of the familiar. Release the grip today has on tomorrow, and you'll be surprised how much strength was simply waiting for you to show up for it. "Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!" #WellspringWednesday #CreateYourNow #HealthAndWellness 🔔 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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 714130 Find the Gift in the GrindSome days don't ask permission. They just show up — loud, full, and relentless. The alarm goes off before you're ready. The inbox is already three messages deep before your coffee's even brewed. Somewhere between the meeting that ran long and the errand you forgot, you look up and realize the whole day has passed you by, and you can barely remember a single moment of it. This is the trap of a busy life: we get so wrapped up in doing that we forget to notice we're living. And in that forgetting, we lose something precious — the ability to see the good that's been sitting right in front of us the entire time. Find the gift in the grind. Inspiration doesn't usually arrive as a lightning bolt. Most days, it's quieter than that. It's a decision, made over and over, to notice what's still true even when everything feels like it's moving too fast. Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com The Chaos Isn't the Whole Story Chaos and gratitude are not opposites. They can exist in the same breath, the same hour, the same overwhelming Tuesday. The apostle Paul wrote this from a prison cell, of all places: "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" — Philippians 4:4 He wasn't writing from a mountaintop retreat. He was writing from chains. And yet he understood something we often forget in the middle of our own noise — joy isn't the reward we get after the chaos clears. It's a choice we make inside of it. The same is true for gratitude. It's not the feeling you have when life finally settles down. It's the practice you build while life is still happening. Small Moments Are Still Moments You don't need a perfect day to find something worth being thankful for. You need eyes willing to look. Maybe it's the way the light came through the window this morning. Maybe it's a text from a friend who was thinking of you at exactly the right time. Maybe it's simply that you woke up, breathed in, and got another shot at today. None of these things are small when you actually stop to notice them. "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." — Psalm 118:24 Not when the day calms down. Not once the to-do list is finished. Today — this one, exactly as it is — is the day to rejoice in. Maya Angelou put it simply: "This is a wonderful day. I've never seen this one before." No matter how repetitive your routine feels, no version of today has ever existed before. That alone is worth a second look. Gratitude Is a Discipline, Not a Mood It would be easy to say "just be grateful" and leave it there. But gratitude in the middle of a hard, full, chaotic day isn't a feeling that shows up uninvited — it's a discipline you build on purpose, the same way you'd build any other habit. Try this: at three points in your day — morning, midday, and night — pause for ten seconds and name one true, good thing. Not the biggest thing. Just one true thing. A cup of coffee that was actually hot. A conversation that went better than expected. The simple fact that you're still standing at the end of it. This is what Paul meant when he wrote: "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." — 1 Thessalonians 5:18 Not for all circumstances — some days genuinely hurt, and pretending otherwise helps no one. But in all circumstances, there is still something to hold onto. The discipline is training yourself to find it, even on the days it's hiding. The K.I.S.S. ~ Find the gift in the grind! Let the Hard Moments Refine You, Not Define You Some days aren't just busy — they're heavy. You'll have days that test you, disappoint you, or leave you wondering if you have anything left to give. Those days need honesty as much as gratitude. It's okay to acknowledge that something is hard. But hard doesn't have to mean hopeless. James wrote to people who were living through real trials, not hypothetical ones: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance." — James 1:2-3 This isn't about faking a smile through pain. It's about trusting that even the hard chapters are shaping you into someone steadier, someone stronger, someone who knows how to keep showing up. Perseverance isn't built on easy days. It's built on the ones you didn't think you'd get through — and did anyway. As Winston Churchill is often credited with saying, "If you're going through hell, keep going." The point was never to stop and admire the flames. The point is to keep walking, because the other side exists. Inspiration Is a Practice of Presence At the end of the day, inspiring yourself through the ups and downs isn't about manufacturing positivity or ignoring what's genuinely difficult. It's about presence — being awake enough to your own life to notice the good that's still there, even when it's surrounded by everything that isn't. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, "Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year." Not because every day is easy. Because every day holds something worth keeping, if you're willing to look for it. So today, in the grind and chaos — the meetings, the messes, the moments that don't go as planned — pause. Breathe. Look around. Somewhere in the noise, there is still a reason to be grateful. There is still a reason to keep going. There is still a reason to rejoice. That reason is often smaller than you expect, yet closer than you think. "Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!" #Inspiration #CreateYourNow #DailyMotivation 🔔 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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
- 724129 Why Your Hustle Needs A PauseHow many times have you pushed through the day fueled by caffeine and sheer will, only to realize by evening your decisions are fuzzy, your energy is gone, and your brain feels like mush? Your decisions are only as good as the sleep you got the night before. Your actions are only as strong as the rest of your body took the day before. Your productivity hinges on how still and quiet your mind has been — not how fast it's been spinning. It's no wonder why your hustle needs a pause. The culture today glorifies nonstop motion as the only path to success. But the consequence is a society on the edge, living in constant fight or flight mode, waiting for that inevitable crash. Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com For many, rest is an afterthought — a luxury that's not built into the schedule but squeezed in, if at all. That's a recipe for burnout, bad decisions, and creativity that runs dry. How much are you really prioritizing rest? If your answer is anything other than "It's non-negotiable," then it's time to rethink your approach. The Bible understood this wisdom thousands of years ago. In Exodus 20:9-10, it says: "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on it you shall not do any work." Rest wasn't a suggestion. It was a mandate — because the cycle of deliberate rest recharges the mind, body, and spirit. Even Jesus invited the weary: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). The message is clear — rest is a powerful force that renews leaders, builders, and visionaries. So where do you fall in this camp? Are you breaking dawn being exhausted, or are you recharging so you can do what you are created to do? It's about time you look at your schedule and make minutes matter. The K.I.S.S. ~ Make minutes matter! Because if you keep burning the candles at both ends, you will lose something in the process. And usually, it has nothing to do with anyone else, only how it affects you. Not fair, but truth does hurt. So let's look at this a little closer and make your minutes matter. 1. Create Non-Negotiable Rest Windows — Schedule It Like Business Meetings If you don't schedule rest, you won't get it. Block off consistent hours where your phone is off, screens are down, and your muscles relax. Treat these blocks like sacred appointments. It's not laziness. It's strategy. 2. Practice Mental Stillness — Quiet the Noise Before It Quiets You Our minds often race at hyper speed. Combat this with daily rituals like meditation, journaling, or deep breathing—even for just five minutes. This stillness helps your thoughts become clearer and more thorough, ensuring your next move is a smart move. 3. Prioritize Sleep Like Your Life Depends On It—Because It Does Going light on sleep steals your clarity, saps your energy, and turns your productivity into mere busywork. A consistent sleep schedule — even on weekends — will transform your ability to focus, decide, and perform. No excuse holds up against this. The Bottom Line You can't pour from an empty cup—and that goes for your brain, body, and soul. Rest isn't optional fluff. It's the foundation of every smart decision, every breakthrough idea, and every strong action you take. So here's your challenge: What's your next move to own your rest? Because productivity without rest is just burnout in disguise. "Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!" #MindsetMonday #CreateYourNow #PersonalDevelopment 🔔 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/) ✍️ YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com 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.
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