4138 When Trying Harder Isn't Always the Answer

Release Date: 07/29/2026

Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo

When 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...

4148 Look For Something To Work With

Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo

There'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 . #RelationshipBuilders #CreateYourNow...

4147 Never Miss A Beat

Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo

Parenting 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,...

4146 The Circle Isn't Wasted

Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo

There 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 . #Inspiration...

4145 Just Because Life Takes An Unexpected Turn

Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo

Life 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...

4144 Keep Walking When the Miles Feel Long

Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo

There 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...

4143 You Didn't Come This Far to Come This Far

Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo

A 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...

4142 Satisfy Us in the Morning

Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo

There'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...

4141 Keep Your Clothes On

Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo

Marriage 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...

4140 The GIft that Keeps on Giving

Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo

Parents 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...

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There'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!!!"

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Cover Art by Jenny Hamson

Photo by Canva.com

Music by Mandisa - Overcomer

http://www.mandisaofficial.com

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

The Grind Isn't Always Growth

What Peace Actually Looks Like

The K.I.S.S. ~ Live from a place of P.E.A.C.E.!

P.E.A.C.E. — A Different Way to Move Forward

Grit Has Its Place — But It Isn't the Whole Answer

Who You're Becoming, Not Where You've Been

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

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