Why Did God Give You THIS Time?

A Lord of the Rings quote made me rethink what Scripture actually says about the time you’ve been given.

A few weeks ago I was sitting at a concert, waiting for it to start. And instead of doing the easy thing — pulling out my phone to scroll while I waited — I’d brought a book.

Apparently I’m now the woman who brings a book to a concert. So there’s that. 😂

It wasn’t The Lord of the Rings. It was Mark Buchanan’s God Walk, the book we’re currently reading inside our Faithful Focus Book Club. And Buchanan referenced the exchange between Frodo and Gandalf that every LOTR fan already knows by heart.

Here’s the setup, for those of us who need it (my kids are the real fans in this house — I mostly just know the cliff notes). Frodo has just realized what the Ring means and what it’s about to cost him. A conflict he never asked for has landed in his lap. And he says:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time.”

Gandalf answers:

“So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

I read that line twice.

The time that is given us.

And I couldn’t stop wondering: given by whom and for what?

Gandalf’s answer is beautiful. It’s also as far as Gandalf can take you. Because Scripture tells us something he never could.

We know the Giver.

Maybe You’ve Wished for a Different Time Too

You’ve probably never said Frodo’s exact line out loud. But I’d bet you’ve said a version of it.

Why does raising kids have to be so complicated in this generation?

Why does building a business have to be this noisy right now?

Why is my capacity so different than it used to be?

Or maybe just: I wish I had more time.

But notice what Gandalf isn’t doing. He isn’t handing Frodo a productivity tip. He’s not saying you’ve got 24 hours, make ‘em count. He’s talking about the time in history Frodo has found himself living in — a time he didn’t choose and can’t undo.

That question sent me back into Acts 17. Then Esther. Then Psalm 31. And eventually right back to Ephesians 5 — which changed the question I’ve been asking about my own time.

🎙️ In this week’s episode, I walk through that whole thread — and why it changes the way we answer what is it time for?

So hit play above and let’s take 15 min to walk through this together.

Your Time Isn’t Accidental

Paul is standing in Athens, talking to people who have no idea who the God he’s proclaiming even is. So he starts at the beginning. This God made the world and everything in it. He’s Lord of heaven and earth. He gives life and breath to everyone who has it.

And then, in Acts 17:26, Paul says something easy to read past: God determined the appointed times and the exact boundaries of where people would live.

Not just that you would live. When you would live.

That doesn’t mean God causes every hard thing you’re carrying. It means your life isn’t unfolding outside His sovereignty.

Your time isn’t an accident. I dig into what that actually means for the specific season you’re in right now in the episode.

What If This Time Has Purpose?

That’s what took me to Esther, sitting in the palace while her people are about to be wiped out by Haman’s plan. Mordecai tells her:

“And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Frodo asks: why did this have to happen in my time?

Esther is asked: what if this is exactly the time you’ve been placed in?

Your “such a time as this” almost certainly won’t look like hers. It might look a lot more ordinary than that, and that’s exactly what I walk through in the episode.

Everything can matter without everything being for right now.

So What Is It Time For?

Once you actually believe God entrusted you with this particular time, the question underneath your calendar changes. It stops being how do I fit everything in and starts being what has God entrusted to me in this season.

If you’re realizing you don’t need another system to help you squeeze more into your day, start here. The free REDEEM Her Time Starter Kit will help you step back from everything competing for your time, name what God has actually entrusted to you in this season, and give it a place in the time you’ve been given.

Grab it at now.

GRAB THE REDEEM HER TIME STARTER KIT

Appointed. Purposeful. Stewarded.

Three words to carry with you: Appointed (Acts 17). Purposeful (Esther). Stewarded — that last one comes from Ephesians 5, and it’s the piece I haven’t told you about yet. It’s the one that turns all of this from a nice thought into something you actually practice.

Underneath all three sits the same reminder David gives us in Psalm 31: my times are in Your hand. Not in my planner. Not under my control. In His hand.

A Question to Take With You

Go back to Frodo’s line and finish it yourself:

“I wish __________ didn’t have to happen in my time.”

Something unresolved. Something you never expected to be carrying. A door you thought would’ve opened by now. Name it. God already knows what it is.

Then open your hands — actually, physically, if you need to — and ask:

Lord, if this is the time You’ve entrusted to me, what does faithfulness look like here?

Not how do I get through this faster. Not how do I control the outcome. Just: what is it time for?

Learning to Live the Question, Not Just Answer It Once

And there’s a part of this I didn’t expect. Answering what is it time for once can bring real clarity. But your season is going to change. Your capacity is going to change. What was faithful last year may not be what faithfulness looks like this year.

Which means this isn’t a question you answer once. It’s one you practice asking, with the Author of Time, over and over.

That’s exactly why I built The Stewardship Circle. Twelve months of practicing a different way of living your time, starting with the Faithful Week Framework and continuing month by month through our Faithful Living Workshops and a community of women asking the same questions you are. You don’t need another year of trying harder to manage your time. You need time to practice living it differently.

JOIN THE STEWARDSHIP CIRCLE

We Know the Giver

Frodo says he wishes it hadn’t happened in his time. I understand that. There are pieces of the time I’ve been given that I wouldn’t have chosen either. You could probably say the same about yours.

Gandalf was right about one thing: we don’t get to pick the time we’re given.

But we know something he couldn’t. We know the Giver.

The One who appointed our time, who holds it in His hands, who works His purposes within it, and who invites us to walk wisely through it with Him.

So instead of wishing for a different time, or trying to squeeze more out of the one you have, what if you just asked Him: Lord, what is it time for?

Before you start filling September with all the things, there are 3 stewardship decisions I want you to make first.

Because if you start with the calendar, it’s really easy to recreate the exact problem you’re trying to solve: trying to figure out where to fit everything.

In today’s Live, I’ll help you step back before you plan so you can head into fall knowing what matters + give it a faithful place to live.

And yes...Tuesday at 10 am will still happen. 😉
But you’ll know what to return to when it does.

READY TO PUT IT INTO PRACTICE?

Grab the REDEEM Her Time Planner (it comes with a personal coach!)

GRAB THE REDEEM HER TIME PLANNER

And if you want support discerning what deserves your yes, planning where it belongs + faithfully walking it out in real life, upgrade to annual to join us inside the Stewardship Circle.

JOIN THE STEWARDSHIP CIRCLE

Don’t just plan September. Steward it.

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The woman reading this isn’t someone who can’t handle a lot.

She can. She has proven it more times than she can count.

She can run the business, lead the ministry, care for the family, and somehow still remember that somebody needs cupcakes on Thursday.

Maybe ten or twenty years ago, she did all of it and thought, “This is just what I do.”

Maybe even a few years ago she could still carry it the same way.

Or, and this is the part worth sitting with, maybe she couldn’t. Maybe she was already running on adrenaline, pushing the margins toward burnout, and just hadn’t reached the moment where her body, her circumstances or her season made it impossible to ignore.

Now something feels different.

She still has the ambition. She still has the calling. She still wants to make an impact.

But she doesn’t necessarily want to carry all of it anymore. And maybe that’s not something to fix.

Maybe one of the gifts of midlife is finally having the wisdom to stop confusing “I can” with “I should.”

What If This Isn’t Decline, But Discernment?

That question is exactly why I loved sitting down with Claire Davis of The Midlife Mentors for a recent conversation on the podcast. If you missed it, you can listen to Ep 440 here.

Claire described midlife as a season when roles, priorities, identity, hormones and capacity are all shifting at once. And instead of framing that as loss, she talked about the opportunity to subtract, to examine what still fits and what doesn’t.

For a high-capacity woman, that can feel uncomfortable.

Because we’ve spent decades getting good at carrying things. We know how to make it work. We know how to squeeze it in. We know how to push through.

And sometimes we’ve even spiritualized that ability. “People need me.” “God gave me these gifts.” “I said I’d do it.”

But stewardship asks something different than capability.

The question isn’t “Could I keep carrying this?” It’s “Has God actually asked me to carry this now?”

And that’s exactly why, before we carry everything from summer straight into September, we need to stop and look at what’s coming with us.

The Fall Carryover Check

Here are four questions I’ve been asking myself this week, and I want to walk through them with you.

1. Does this still MATTER?

Not: did it once matter? Not: did I say I was going to do it? Not even: is this a good thing?

Does it still matter in light of what God is doing in this season?

Something can have been incredibly important in one season and no longer deserve the same investment in another. That’s not failure. That’s discernment.

2. Is this still MINE?

This is where a high-capacity woman will squirm a little. Because if she can do it, she’s probably been doing it.

But can someone else carry it? Was it ever yours? Are you continuing because you’re called, or because you’re capable?

God doesn’t ask us to faithfully steward everything that could be done. He asks us to steward what He has entrusted to us.

3. Is this for NOW?

A book can matter and not be for now. A ministry opportunity can be God-honoring and not be for now. A dream can still be from God without needing to happen this fall.

“Not now” isn’t the same thing as “never.”

Sometimes it’s what protects the yes God is asking you to give now.

4. Does this fit the capacity God has given me in this SEASON?

Not the capacity you had at 35. Not the capacity you wish you had. Not the capacity the woman you’re comparing yourself to seems to have.

The capacity God has given you now.

Your body is part of the equation. Your family is part of the equation. Your need for rest and relationship with God is part of the equation.

Claire talked specifically about honoring the body God has given us and creating space for Him rather than continually filling our days.

Capacity isn’t an inconvenience to your calling. It’s one of the boundaries within which you discern how to live it faithfully.

Maybe Wisdom Looks Like Carrying Less

There’s grief in this, and I don’t want to skip past it.

Grief in realizing, “I don’t have the same energy I used to.” “I can’t do everything I used to.” “Some things I thought I’d accomplish by now aren’t done.”

But what if wisdom isn’t proving you can still do what you did twenty years ago? What if wisdom is finally knowing what’s worth doing with the time you have now?

Claire calls part of this a kind of second adolescence, change happening again, except this time you’re bringing decades of wisdom and experience into it that you didn’t have the first time around.

Maybe the goal for this next season isn’t to prove how much you can carry. Maybe it’s to become more discerning about what you pick up in the first place.

So before you plan September, sit with this question: what are you willing to leave behind?

If you know immediately, I’d love to hear your answer in the comments. Want help discerning what it might be, upgrade now to become a paid subscriber and let’s walk through the Fall Stewardship Reset below…together.

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Midlife…Maybe you’ve noticed it too.

You still care deeply about your calling. You still want to make an impact. You still have ideas, responsibilities and people you love.

But the pace you once kept doesn’t fit quite the same anymore.

Your energy has changed. Your capacity may have changed. Your roles are changing.

And somewhere in the middle of it all, you may be asking, “What is this season for?”

We’ve been talking a lot around here about a theology of time, how what we believe about God and time shapes what we do with our days. Today’s conversation with Claire Davis of The Midlife Mentors adds another layer:

The God who created time also created you. Your body isn’t an inconvenience to your calling. Your limitations aren’t something you have to outsmart. And a change in season doesn’t necessarily mean you’re becoming less useful.

It may be an invitation to become more discerning about what you’re carrying into the next one.

Ready to Start Redeeming Your Time?

If this conversation has you realizing it’s time for a different rhythm, you don’t need another productivity system. You need a place to start.

I’ve put together the free REDEEM Her Time Starter Kit to help you begin asking the question that changes everything: “Lord, what is it time for?”

Inside, you’ll get the foundational tools to start giving what matters a home in your actual week, while leaving room for your capacity, your season, and real life.

When you grab the Starter Kit, you’ll also join me here on REDEEM Her Time, where we’ll keep looking to the Author of Time for what it means to faithfully steward what He’s entrusted to us.

GET THE FREE REDEEM HER TIME STARTER KIT

What If Midlife Isn’t a Decline?

Claire knows something about reaching the point where striving stops working. After years of putting so much of her identity and meaning into her career, work and brand, she experienced burnout and eventually found herself at the end of herself.

And that’s where God met her.

What followed reshaped how she understood who she was and what her life was for.

That’s especially significant in midlife because so much is already changing. Children may be leaving home. Parents may need more care. Hormones change. And suddenly the roles that have answered “Who am I?” for decades don’t answer quite as easily anymore.

Claire describes midlife as an opportunity to get curious rather than assume we’re in decline.

What still matters? What have we been carrying because someone else told us success was supposed to look that way? And what might God be asking us to lay down so we have the capacity to hear what He’s inviting us into next?

As Claire put it:

“It’s not about adding. It’s about subtracting. It’s about taking things out and living more in our natural rhythms.”

That sounds a lot like stewardship to me.

Healthy Ambition Requires a Different Rhythm

I especially wanted to ask Claire about healthy ambition because the women in this community aren’t looking for permission to stop caring.

We want our lives to matter. We want to build, serve, love our families and use what God has entrusted to us well.

The real question is what’s driving our ambition, not whether we should have it.

Unhealthy ambition can look a lot like stress, striving, and not-enoughness. And we can make our striving sound very spiritual.

“I’m doing this for God.” “I’m serving people.” “This opportunity could make such an impact.”

All of those things may be true. And we can still outrun our capacity.

Claire reminded us that the body we’re living in is also part of what God has entrusted to us. Sleep matters. Movement matters. Creating space to be with God instead of filling every available minute, even with good things, matters.

And sometimes the most faithful thing we can do is remove something that no longer belongs, not squeeze another healthy habit into an already-full schedule.

Faithful stewardship means discerning what God has entrusted to us and letting that determine our yeses, not doing less simply for the sake of doing less.

So What Is It Time for Now?

Toward the end of our conversation, Claire offered a simple place to begin.

Take 10 minutes a day. Grab a journal. And get curious with God.

Who does God say I am? What used to bring me joy? What might He be calling me toward now?

You don’t need to figure out the entire second half of your life in one sitting. You simply need enough space to begin listening.

Because maybe this season isn’t asking you to become more efficient at carrying everything you’ve always carried. Maybe it’s asking you to discern what belongs now.

So before you move on to the next thing, sit with this week’s stewardship question: “What am I still carrying because it fit a previous season, but may not belong in the one God has me in now?”

Don’t rush to fix it. Get curious. Bring it before God. And then ask the question we’ve been practicing together: “Lord, what is it time for?”

I’d love to hear what comes up for you in the comments.

Leave a comment

Ready to Let That Answer Shape Your Actual Week?

Recognizing that your season has changed is one thing. Letting it change the way you live Monday through Sunday is another.

Inside the Stewardship Circle, you’ll start with the Faithful Week Framework™ to discern what God has entrusted to you in this season, decide what deserves your yes, and give those priorities a realistic home in your week, with room for your actual capacity and real life.

Because great information can help us see differently. But transformation comes as we begin living differently.

And change takes time. Pun fully intended.

JOIN THE STEWARDSHIP CIRCLE

About Claire Davis

Claire Davis is an award-winning coach, speaker, host of a top 1.5% global podcast and co-founder of The Midlife Mentors, helping midlife men and women thrive with clarity, confidence and purpose.

With more than two decades of experience in health, wellbeing and resilience, Claire blends science-based strategies with real-world insights to help people navigate the psychological and physiological complexities of midlife. She’s a certified health and business coach, personal trainer, NLP practitioner, stress-management consultant, menopause specialist and nutrition advisor.

Take Claire’s Free Midlife Reset Audit

Claire also created a free Midlife Reset Audit to help you discover what may be holding you back from living your healthiest, happiest midlife, and where you may want to focus next without adding more pressure or burning yourself out.

→ Take Claire’s Free Midlife Reset Audit

But what if a no-regrets season isn’t one where everything goes according to plan?

In today’s Live, I’m sharing the story of one woman who told me she had a summer with no regrets—even though very little went according to plan—and the three things that made the difference.

Because the goal isn’t to fit everything in.

It’s to decide what matters and give it a faithful place to live.

Ready to Plan Fall Differently?

If this has you thinking, That’s how I want to enter September, take a look inside the REDEEM Her Time Planner.

It was created to help you discern what deserves your time, focus + attention—and then give it a realistic place to live in the season you’re actually in.

[SEE INSIDE + GET YOUR PLANNER →]

And make sure you’re subscribed—I’ll be back LIVE Tuesday with Don’t Plan September Yet: 3 stewardship decisions to make before you fill your calendar.

You know when you sit down before the week begins, determined that this week is going to be different.

You look at everything you want to do. Everything you need to do. Everything everyone else needs from you.

You make the plan. Give everything a place. Maybe even color-code it. And for a minute, you think, “Okay. I can do this.”

Then Tuesday at 10 a.m. happens.

The meeting runs long. The school calls. Something that should have taken 20 minutes takes two hours. And you’re doing the mental math high-capacity women know all too well: “What can I move?” “What can I squeeze in later?” “Who am I disappointing if I don’t get to this?”

Maybe you’ve bought the beautiful planner at Target. Tried time blocking. Made the lists. Started over on Monday more times than you can count.

I’ve been that woman. And I’ve learned something: the problem was never that you hadn’t found the right planner.

A planner can tell you where something fits. It can’t tell you whether that something deserves your time in the first place.

That’s a stewardship question.

And it’s why I built the REDEEM Her Time Planner differently: undated, built around seasons instead of a perfect week, with no hourly blocks pretending your life happens in neat little boxes.

I wrote out the whole story behind it, what’s actually inside, and why it’s different from every planner you’ve tried before.

YOU MIGHT WANNA READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Time is sacred. Stewardship is strategic.

Lissa

P.S. Shipping’s free within the U.S., and the planner’s undated, so there’s no wrong week to start.

GET MY REDEEM HER TIME PLANNER

Free US shipping. For international shipping see details below.

You know when...

You sit down before the week begins, determined that this week is going to be different. You look at everything you want to do. Everything you need to do. Everything everyone else needs from you.

Your work. Your family. Your health. And that thing God has put on your heart that you really do want to make time for.

They’re not bad things. That’s what makes it so hard. They’re mostly good things.

So you make the plan. You give everything a place. Maybe you even color-code it. And for a minute, you think, “Okay. I can do this.”

Then...

Tuesday at 10 a.m. happens.

The meeting runs long. The school calls. Something that should have taken 20 minutes takes two hours.

And suddenly, you’re doing the mental math high-capacity women know all too well: “What can I move?” “What can I squeeze in later?” “Who am I disappointing if I don’t get to this?”

And underneath all of it is that familiar feeling... there simply isn’t enough of me to go around.

Maybe you’re the woman who responds by trying harder. Or maybe you’ve gone the other direction. You’ve bought the beautiful planner at Target. You’ve tried time blocking. You’ve made the lists. You’ve started over on Monday more times than you can count.

And somewhere along the way, you started wondering, “Why bother planning when real life keeps changing the plan anyway?”

I’ve been both women. And I’ve learned something I wish I’d understood much sooner. Maybe the problem isn’t that you haven’t found the right planner. Maybe you’ve been asking your planner to answer a question it was never designed to answer.

A planner can tell you where something fits. But it can’t tell you whether that something deserves your time in the first place.

That’s a stewardship question.

And that’s why I created the REDEEM Her Time Planner: to help you discern what deserves your time, focus, and attention, and then give it a faithful place to live.

What If You Don’t Need to Fit It All In?

Most planning systems begin with some version of, “What do you need to get done?” So naturally, we gather all the things. Appointments. Projects. People who need us.

And then we ask, “How am I going to fit all of this in?”

But faithful stewardship asks a question further upstream: “What has God entrusted to me in this season?”

Because just because something is good doesn’t mean it’s yours. Just because you’re capable of doing it doesn’t mean you’re called to carry it. And just because something is yours doesn’t necessarily mean it’s for now.

Sometimes the reason you can’t figure out how to fit everything in... is because it doesn’t all belong in this season.

So before you fill the calendar, what if you asked: What season am I in? What deserves my time, focus, and attention now? What’s mine, and what’s not mine?

A planner can help you find room for something. Stewardship helps you decide whether it belongs there in the first place.

That’s the difference behind the REDEEM Her Time Planner.

GET MY REDEEM HER TIME PLANNER

This Isn’t Productivity With a Jesus Sticker on It

Believe me, I love a good planner. I love a good system. And I probably love checking things off a list more than the average person. Those things aren’t the problem.

But I spent years expecting better planning to give me something it simply couldn’t. Peace. Presence. The feeling that I’d finally done enough.

Maybe you’ve been there too.

Because when you believe the problem is that you don’t have enough time, the obvious solution is to become better at managing it. So you organize. Optimize. Try harder.

And when you still don’t get everything done, the story can quietly shift from “I don’t have enough time”... to “I didn’t do enough”... and eventually, “Maybe I’m not enough.”

That’s a weight no planner was ever designed to carry.

The REDEEM Her Time Planner won’t promise that you’ll finally fit everything in. And your worth isn’t waiting at the bottom of a completed to-do list.

Instead, it helps you practice a different way of living: receive the time God has given you, discern what He’s entrusted to you, then faithfully steward it with Him.

A faithful life matters more here than a productive one.

Plan for the Season You’re Living

Your life doesn’t stay the same for 12 months. Why should your planning pretend it does?

Kids grow. Your capacity changes. God opens one door and closes another. And sometimes what served you beautifully six months ago simply doesn’t fit anymore.

That’s why the REDEEM Her Time Planner is built around seasons, not just schedules.

Yearly Vision

Before you zoom into Monday, you’ll zoom out and look at the bigger picture. What has God entrusted to me? Who and what matters right now in my life? What do I want my time to reflect?

Seasonal Reset

Then throughout the year, you’ll have a place to pause and ask again.

The rhythm that was faithful in one season may not be faithful in another. You don’t have to drag last season’s priorities into this season simply because they were once important. You can notice what’s changed, release what no longer belongs, and build from there.

Monthly Preview

Then each month, you’ll pause again to preview what’s ahead. What’s already on the calendar? What needs preparation before it arrives? What do you want this month to be about?

Seeing the month before you’re already living inside it changes how you enter it.

Weekly Spread

Then week to week, you won’t find pre-printed dates, times or boxes waiting to be filled. Just open, guided space, paired with a simple planning checklist beside it to help you decide what belongs before you ever pick up the pen.

No grid pressuring you to account for every hour. Just room to give what matters a place to live.

Undated. Because You’re Never Behind.

Good news. You don’t need January 1 to begin. You don’t need the first of the month. You don’t even need to wait until Monday.

Start in August. March. Or on a random Tuesday when you realize the way you’ve been carrying your time isn’t working anymore.

The REDEEM Her Time Planner is completely undated, so your 12 month journey begins whenever you choose to begin.

And if you use it faithfully for six weeks and then life happens? Pause. Take care of what’s in front of you. And return.

There aren’t weeks of wasted dated pages staring back at you as evidence that you’ve fallen behind. You don’t have to wait for the next Monday, month or January to try again.

Reset. Don’t restart.

Your planner should serve your life. Your life isn’t supposed to serve your planner.

Built for Tuesday at 10 A.M., Not Just Sunday Night

Living it when real life happens is usually harder than making the plan in the first place.

That’s why you won’t find rows of predetermined hourly blocks waiting to be filled. An empty hour on a page can look a lot like capacity. But just because you technically have an hour available doesn’t mean you have an hour to give.

You are a whole person. Your capacity matters. Your season matters. Your responsibilities matter. And real life rarely unfolds in neat hourly increments.

So instead of assigning every minute a task, you’ll have room to build a rhythm around what matters. Enough structure to know what it’s time for. Enough flexibility to adjust when Tuesday happens. And enough white space to respond to the people and opportunities God places in front of you.

And when the plan does change? You don’t have to declare the week ruined. You don’t have to cram everything into tomorrow. You don’t have to promise yourself you’ll finally do it right next Monday.

You pause and ask, “What is it time for now?” Then return to the next faithful thing. Not every thing. The next thing.

The goal is “I faithfully stewarded what mattered,” not “I followed my planner perfectly.”

START STEWARDING MY TIME

And I Won’t Hand You a Planner and Leave You to Figure It Out

You need help learning how to discern what deserves to be written there, not just someone to show you where to write things.

That’s why your REDEEM Her Time Planner comes with more than pages to fill. I’ll personally walk you through how to discern the season you’re in and use the stewardship methodology behind the planner.

And each month, you’re invited to join me live for our Monthly Planning Session. Together, we’ll preview what’s ahead, plan for what matters, and pray over the month we’re entering. We’ll pause long enough to notice what has changed, what deserves our attention now, and where it needs a faithful place to live.

This is the planner women tell me they actually use, the one that doesn’t end up sitting unopened on a shelf by February. I want you to know how to faithfully live the life you’re planning, not just own another beautiful planner.

GET THE PLANNER + JOIN ME

What’s Inside the REDEEM Her Time Planner?

Here’s what you’ll receive:

• A full 12 months from whenever you choose to begin

• Completely undated pages because you’re never behind

• Yearly Vision to zoom out before you plan

• Seasonal Reset to discern what belongs as life changes

• Monthly planning pages to see what’s ahead

• Weekly planning pages to give what matters a place to live

• No predetermined hourly blocks creating pressure to fill every minute

• Guidance from me to help you discern your season and learn the stewardship practice behind the pages

• Access to live Monthly Planning Sessions to Preview + Plan + Pray over the month ahead

• A physical planner designed for real life, not an imaginary perfect week

• FREE U.S. shipping (International friends, please email me at lissa@redeemhertime.com for details)

This planner is designed to help you discern what belongs, not to help you fit everything in.

Maybe You Don’t Need More of You

Maybe that’s what I most want you to hear.

You’re carrying a lot because you care about a lot. You want to love your people well. Do meaningful work. Be faithful to what God has called you to.

And when all those good things compete for the same finite hours, it’s easy to conclude, “There just isn’t enough of me.”

So you try to become more efficient. More disciplined. More productive.

But what if the real invitation is to become more discerning about what’s yours to carry, not more capable of carrying it all?

You need to faithfully steward what God has entrusted to you, not be enough for everything. In this season. With the capacity you have. With the time you’ve been given.

That’s where the REDEEM Her Time Planner begins. It starts not with “How can I fit everything in?” but with the question I hope you’ll return to again and again: “What is it time for?”

Discern what deserves your time, focus, and attention. Then give it a faithful place to live.

And when Tuesday at 10 a.m. happens? Return to the Author of Time. Return to what matters. Take the next faithful step.

GET MY REDEEM HER TIME PLANNER

FREE U.S. SHIPPING

A Few Questions Before You Begin

Is the REDEEM Her Time Planner dated? No. It’s completely undated and includes a full 12 months of planning. Your 12 months begin whenever you choose to begin.

Do I have to start in January? Absolutely not. January. August. Next Tuesday. You’re never behind. The planner is designed to meet you in the season you’re living.

Does it use hourly time blocks? No, and that’s intentional. The open weekly layout gives you room to create a rhythm around your actual priorities, responsibilities and capacity rather than forcing your life into predetermined hourly boxes.

What support comes with the planner? You’ll receive guidance from me to help you discern the season you’re in and understand the stewardship methodology behind the planner. You’ll also have access to our live Monthly Planning Sessions, where we Preview + Plan + Pray over the month ahead together.

Is this only for entrepreneurs? Not at all. You may be leading a business, a ministry, a team, a family, or several of those at once. This planner is organized around a question, not your job title: “What has God entrusted to me in this season, and how can I faithfully steward it?”

Is shipping included? Yes. Shipping is FREE within the United States. If you are international, please email me your address to lissa@redeemhertime.com and I will contact you with final shipping costs.

One of the perks of being part of Faithful Focus™ is that we don’t stop with deciding what matters—we build the support to actually follow through on it.

On Tuesday, we’ll take your ONE Thing and map out the next 12 weeks:

→ the outcome you’re working toward
→ the milestones that will move it forward
→ the actions that need your time + attention

Then we’ll lean into the weekly accountability, coaching + support inside Faithful Focus to help you keep moving it forward when Tuesday at 10 a.m. happens and the plan meets real life.

Because clarity helps you decide. Consistent support helps you keep choosing it.

If you’re already in Faithful Focus, save the date! I’ll share what you need before we meet.

P.S. If you’re in Stewardship Circle and thinking, “This is exactly the kind of support I need for my ONE Thing,” you can upgrade at redeemhertime.com/subscribe. Click Change on your current subscription and choose Faithful Focus.

Already an annual Stewardship Circle member? Your investment isn’t lost—Substack automatically credits the unused portion of your current annual subscription when you upgrade.

She told me she had spent much of this past year trying to hold onto everything she had been doing before her life changed—and simply add her new responsibilities on top.

Podcast.

Coaching.

Book.

Courses.

Client work.

Ministry.

Family.

All good things.

And because she could do all of those things in a previous season, she kept asking herself some version of:

How can I squeeze everything I want to do into right now?

Sound familiar?

That’s exactly why I didn’t want today’s Retreat to become another fall planning session.

Because before we ask:

Where can I fit it?

There’s a more important stewardship question:

Does it belong in this season at all?

As she worked through the Seasonal Stewardship Reset™ today, something shifted.

She realized that two of the things she’d been carrying didn’t need to disappear.

They simply didn’t need to happen now.

She could move the book and courses into not now without deciding never.

And suddenly she had room to give her time, focus and attention to the two things that really did belong in this season.

What struck me most was how she described what happened next.

She essentially said:

I don’t feel burdened anymore. I feel excited again.

THAT is why this work matters.

Not so we can become better at cramming everything into our calendars.

Not so we can squeeze a little more productivity out of ourselves.

But so we can recognize that different seasons require different stewardship.

Something can be good.

Something can matter.

Something can even be part of what God has called you to do.

And still be:

Not now.

Sometimes the faithful decision isn’t figuring out how to do more.

It’s releasing what doesn’t belong yet so you can faithfully tend what does.

If you've been trying to figure out how to fit it all in, maybe the first question isn't where it fits. Maybe it's whether it belongs in this season at all.

UPGRADE TO ANNUAL TO ACCESS THE REPLAY

Read more

You finally drop into bed.

Your body is tired, but somehow your brain has enough energy left to start taking inventory.

I should have gotten that done today. I still need to answer that email. I would have finished if that interruption hadn’t happened. Now I’ll have to figure out how to fit that into tomorrow.

And without consciously deciding to, you’ve just given your day a grade.

I’ve done this more times than I can count. Just last week, as I was preparing to open the Stewardship Circle, I had a laundry list of things I wanted to have ready. I started with what was most important and necessary, and a lot got done.

But guess what I was thinking about when I went to bed? Not everything I had accomplished. All those little things I’d hoped to cross off that were still sitting there.

Somewhere along the way, completion became our definition of a good day.

But is that God’s definition?

The Problem With Our Scorecard

This week on EP 439 of the REDEEM Her Time Podcast, we talked about the difference between having a productive day and a faithful day. That’s a bigger distinction than it first appears.

Productivity is fairly easy to measure. Did I check the boxes? Finish the project? Hit the goal? Stick to the plan?

Faithfulness is harder to quantify. You can’t always put a checkmark beside it.

Let’s say you planned three focused hours of work, but your daughter calls and needs to talk. Mine recently got married, moved to another state, started a new job and is buying a house. Being available when she needs her mom matters to me.

The productivity scorecard says I lost an hour. But what if that conversation was part of what had been entrusted to me that day?

Or maybe you planned to work out, but your body is telling you it needs rest. Productivity says you missed the workout. Could honoring the limits of the body God entrusted to you also be an act of stewardship?

That’s where this gets uncomfortable for those of us who like a neatly checked-off list. Because, things do still need to get done. I’m not suggesting we slap the word faithfulness on procrastination or use it to excuse avoiding the hard things.

But I am suggesting we ask a different question: does this have to get done today?

Most things feel urgent. Far fewer are. Sometimes the faithful decision is to do it. Sometimes it’s to delay it, which isn’t the same as procrastinating. It’s intentionally deciding, this matters, but it isn’t what it’s time for right now, when will I give it my focused attention instead?

And sometimes our plans simply change because we made them using the information we had at the time.

We don’t know the future. God does.

Faithful Doesn’t Always Look Productive

I experienced this recently in a way I couldn’t easily dismiss. God had brought a particular friend to mind as I was in His Word, and I found myself praying about how I might support her. Later that day, someone else shared the very same Scripture with me. Then the next morning, that friend messaged me with a request for help.

Saying yes meant walking away from what I had planned to accomplish. But by then, I had a pretty good idea what it was time for. So I went.

And here’s the interesting part: I still got the project done with the time that remained. But even if I hadn’t, would that have made the day unsuccessful? That’s the question I’m learning to wrestle with.

Because believe me, I love completion. I have literally added something I’d already done to my list just for the satisfaction of crossing it off. Please tell me I’m not the only one.

Completion feels good. But completion and faithfulness aren’t always the same thing.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 4:2, “Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.”

In context, Paul is talking specifically about himself and the other apostles as servants of Christ entrusted with the gospel, not giving us a time-management principle. But the underlying picture of stewardship matters. A steward has been entrusted with something by the owner, and faithfulness is measured in relationship to the one who entrusted it.

In fact, Paul goes on to say that neither the Corinthians’ assessment nor even his own is the final word: “It is the Lord who judges me.”

That’s a radically different scorecard.

Because I can finish everything on my list and still miss what mattered. Or I can finish the day with things undone and have faithfully responded to what was mine to steward.

A faithful day isn’t necessarily a day when everything got done, it’s a day when I faithfully responded to what God entrusted to me.

But that leaves us with a very practical problem. How do we know if we were faithful?

If we’re going to stop using completion as our scorecard, we need another way to examine the day. Otherwise, faithfulness can become vague Christian language we use to make ourselves feel better about whatever happened. That’s not what I’m after.

I want to know: did I recognize what God entrusted to me today, and did I faithfully respond?

So I’ve started closing my day differently, with four questions I call my Faithful Day Reflection. It takes a few minutes, not a journaling session, and this first question is already challenging what I thought even belonged on my list in the first place…

━━━━━━ PAYWALL — everything below is paid ━━━━━━

A Faithful Day Reflection

First, one important distinction.

This isn’t another checklist to complete before bed. Please don’t turn your Faithful Day Reflection into one more thing you can fail to get done.

The goal isn’t to put your day on trial, it’s to put your day before God.

You can walk through all four questions when you have time. Or take the one that catches your attention and sit with it for a few minutes.

1. What Was Actually Entrusted to Me Today?

Not everything that entered your day was yours to carry. Not every notification was an assignment. Not every person’s urgency automatically became your responsibility.

But some things were yours to steward. A person. A responsibility. Even a moment of needed rest.

I’ve had days when the phone rang and one of my kids needed a real conversation. Days when the work I planned needed to wait because a friend needed a ride home from the mechanic. Days when several business tasks were competing for my attention, but serving the women already in front of me mattered more than another hour of backend work.

That doesn’t mean every interruption is a divine assignment. We still need wisdom. Sometimes I need to ask myself:

Am I saying yes because this is mine to do, or because I don’t want to disappoint someone? Am I avoiding something hard by choosing something easier? Does this fit with the direction God has been leading me in this season?

Our capacity changes from season to season. Time, energy and bandwidth look different while raising children than they do in an empty nest. They look different in seasons of strength than in seasons when our bodies require more from us.

Faithfulness begins by recognizing what was ours to steward.

2. Where Was I Faithful That My To-Do List Couldn’t Measure?

Your planner probably doesn’t have a checkbox for sitting on the porch and listening to a friend who needed to talk, staying fully present instead of checking your phone, or holding a boundary you knew was right even when it disappointed someone.

It doesn’t have one for praying for a woman walking through something hard, resting when your body needed rest, or saying no to something good so you could be faithful to what was already yours.

Yet some of those may have been the most faithful moments of your day.

That’s worth noticing, especially if you’ve trained yourself to measure a good day primarily by visible output. I know I have. I can point to exactly what I finished on a given day far more easily than I can point to the moment I chose presence over productivity, and that says something about what I’ve trained myself to notice.

Was there a moment today you’d list as faithful even though no one else would ever know it happened? A conversation you didn’t rush through. A boundary you held even though it would have been easier not to. A need you noticed because you were paying attention.

What happened today that your planner couldn’t measure?

3. Where Did I Confuse Completion With Faithfulness?

This one brings a little more conviction for me.

There are still nights when I catch myself thinking: it’ll just take another minute, one more email, one more task I can cross off so it doesn’t mess up tomorrow.

Except it rarely takes just a minute when I’m already tired and distracted. I’ve even caught myself sitting with my laptop during what was supposed to be movie night, trying to send one more email before I was done.

Why? Sometimes because unfinished feels irresponsible. Sometimes because I assume I’m the one who has to take care of everything. Sometimes because getting it done makes me feel productive, and productivity makes me feel valuable.

That’s where diligence can quietly become striving.

One way I’ve learned to notice the difference is by paying attention to what happens when my plan gets interrupted. Can I prayerfully lay it down and respond to what is in front of me? Or do I immediately become frustrated because something got in the way of my plan? Do I honor my limits, or knowingly push past them because I need the satisfaction of finishing?

Something being unfinished at bedtime doesn’t mean you were unfaithful with the day. Sometimes it simply means you’re human.

4. What Do I Need to Release Before Tomorrow?

There will almost always be something unfinished at the end of the day. The unfinished work isn’t necessarily the problem, it’s what we do with it.

I should have... I didn’t... Tomorrow I have to make up for...

Before tomorrow even begins, we’ve made it responsible for paying off today’s debt.

What if, instead, we closed the day? Look at what’s left. Does it still matter, and if so, when will you intentionally return to it? Does it need to be delegated? Delayed? Deleted altogether? And what simply needs to be entrusted back to God?

One of the rhythms that helps me is deciding ahead of time when my workday ends, even when my list doesn’t. In my REDEEM Her Time Planner, I call what follows my Evening Refill, time to refill my body, mind and spirit rather than squeeze in one more thing.

Sometimes I even need an alarm on my phone to remind me: put down the device, go for the walk, connect with someone I love. Be done.

Because here’s something I’m learning to believe: you don’t have to finish everything to finish the day. Tomorrow doesn’t need to begin with I’m already behind. You’re not behind. You’re where you are.

And tomorrow you can ask afresh, Lord, what is it time for?

A Three-Minute Evening Rhythm

You don’t need twenty minutes of journaling to do this. Tonight, take just a few minutes to bring the day before God:

Where did I see God’s faithfulness today, and where was I faithful with what He entrusted to me? Where did I start measuring myself by completion again? What am I still carrying that I need to entrust back to Him before this day ends?

You can walk through all four questions from the Faithful Day Reflection, or simply sit with whichever one you need tonight.

Then close the day. Not because everything is finished. Because today is.

What Are You Training Yourself to See?

There’s a deeper reason I think this matters.

What we repeatedly look for, we become better at seeing.

If I end every day looking primarily for what remains undone, I’m training myself to see the gaps. I’ll notice the email I didn’t answer before I notice the person I stopped to listen to. I’ll notice the workout I missed before I notice the wisdom it took to honor my body’s limits.

But what if I begin training my eyes to see differently? God’s provision. My faithful responses. The places I need His grace.

Over time, maybe “Was I productive enough?” loses some of its power. And another question becomes more instinctive: Lord, what would faithfulness look like here?

I think that forms a different kind of woman. One who isn’t defined by her to-do list. One who has margin to notice the person in front of her. One who responds instead of constantly reacting.

Not a woman who gets every day right. A woman whose heart increasingly says, Lord, it wasn’t perfect, but I want to be faithful.

And isn’t that ultimately what we’re after? Not “well done, good and productive servant,” but “well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).

A Different Kind of Good Day

So tonight, maybe you get into bed and three things are still sitting on your list. The email is unanswered. The laundry isn’t folded. The project isn’t quite finished.

Before deciding it was a bad day, pause. What did God entrust to me today? Where was I faithful in ways my list couldn’t measure? Where did I confuse completion with faithfulness? What can I release now?

Maybe a good day isn’t one where nothing remains undone. Maybe it’s one where we can be at peace with what remains unfinished, without allowing it to define us or put tomorrow in debt.

Where we can place what was done, and what wasn’t, back into the hands of the One who entrusted the day to us in the first place.

And then rest. Tomorrow, we receive another one.

Before you do anything else, pick one thing still sitting on your list tonight and just decide: is it done, or can it wait until tomorrow?

Tell me in the comments what you decided.

Leave a comment

If you want to go further, try the full Faithful Day Reflection before bed.

Answered the emails. Finished the project. Made dinner. Returned the call. Maybe even got the workout in.

You crawled into bed thinking,
That was a pretty productive day, if I do say so myself.

But was it faithful?

Because those aren’t necessarily the same thing.

You can have an incredibly productive day AND yet completely miss what God entrusted to you in it.

And you can have a day that looks terribly unproductive on paper—a conversation that took longer than expected, an interruption you didn’t plan for, a needed hour of rest—and be incredibly faithful.

That’s the conversation we’re having this week on the REDEEM Her Time Podcast.

Because I think we’ve gotten stewardship a little wrong.

Sometimes we take all the productivity advice we’ve learned, add a Bible verse, pray over our planner...and call it Christian time stewardship.

But stewardship has a completely different starting point:

Productivity starts with my agenda. Stewardship starts with His assignment.

In this episode, we’re talking about:

• Why stewardship isn’t simply Christian productivity

• What Matthew 25 reveals about the difference between an owner and a steward

• Why what you believe about the Owner changes what you do with what He’s entrusted to you

• Why your week doesn’t have to go perfectly to be lived faithfully

• A simple Receive → Recognize → Respond rhythm to help you steward an ordinary Tuesday

If this conversation is helping you rethink your relationship with time, I’d love to keep going with you.

Subscribe to REDEEM Her Time and I’ll send you the free REDEEM Her Time Starter Kit to help you begin laying out your day around the question:

What is it time for?

GET THE FREE STARTER KIT

A Better Question for Your Day

Instead of ending today asking:

How much did I get done?

Try asking:

Where was I faithful with what God entrusted to me?

That’s the measure we’re after.

Not perfection.

Faithfulness.

And if you’re thinking, I don’t just want to understand this. I want to actually live this way, that’s exactly why I created the Stewardship Circle.

Because change takes time. (Pun fully intended.)

Inside the Circle, we’re practicing faithful stewardship together week after week and season after season—with biblical guidance, practical rhythms, and support for living this out when real life changes the plan.

I’d especially invite you to join us as an annual member, because becoming a faithful steward isn’t something we accomplish in a month. It’s something God forms in us over time.

JOIN THE STEWARDSHIP CIRCLE

And sometimes what feels like a time-management problem is actually an unmade stewardship decision.

In this morning’s Live, I shared why I believe we need to discern before we plan—and gave you a peek at the Seasonal Stewardship Reset™ we’ll be working through together at Tuesday’s Fall Stewardship Circle Retreat.

Because something can be good and still not belong in this season.

And before you ask, How am I going to fit everything in this fall? there’s a better question:

What has God actually entrusted to me—and what does faithfulness with it look like in this season?

🎧 Watch the replay above, then if you know you need the pause before the pace picks up, upgrade to annual to join us Tuesday for the Fall Stewardship Circle Retreat.

As soon as you do, you get access to the Faithful Week Framework™ you can start working through this weekend.

UPGRADE TO ANNUAL STEWARDSHIP CIRCLE

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There’s something about August.

Summer isn’t quite over, but you can already feel fall coming. School schedules are starting back up. Work is picking up. Activities are making their way onto the calendar. And somewhere in the not-so-distant future, the holidays are waiting.

So naturally, we start planning. We pull out the calendar, look at the dates, and start plugging things in. (Maybe even buy a new planner. 😉)

And begin asking, “How am I going to fit all of this in?”

But before you plan the season... what if you need to discern the season?

Most fall planning starts with one question: “What do I need to get done?” Faithful stewardship starts with a different one: “What has God entrusted to me now?”

Those two questions can create two very different falls.

Before the pace picks up, pause.

Fit Isn’t the Same as Faithful

Fall rarely becomes overwhelming all at once. It fills itself, one yes at a time.

Yes to the opportunity. Yes to the project. Yes to the thing that sounded good when September still looked relatively empty. And then suddenly it’s October, and we’re managing a calendar full of commitments we never really stopped to decide belonged there in the first place.

Not because any of them were necessarily bad. Most of them were probably good. But one of the things I’m learning about stewardship is this: good doesn’t always mean mine. And capacity isn’t the only question. Calling matters too.

You may technically have room on your calendar. You may be capable of making it work. You may even be able to squeeze it in.

But...

It fits isn’t the same as it’s faithful.

This Isn’t Another Planning Workshop

That’s why I don’t want us to wait until we’re overwhelmed this fall to finally stop and ask what belongs. I want us to pause before the pace picks up.

This isn’t about getting more done before December. There are plenty of fall planning workshops that can help you set goals, make a plan, and get more accomplished before the end of the year. That’s not what we’re doing.

Because you probably already know how to make a plan. You’re probably pretty good at figuring out how to fit things in. That may be part of the problem.

Traditional planning tends to ask: What are my goals? What do I want to accomplish? How can I fit everything in?

Stewardship asks: What has God entrusted to me? What deserves my yes? What is it time for?

We’re not trying to create a more productive fall. We’re creating space for a more faithfully stewarded one.

And that’s exactly why I created our first Fall Stewardship Circle Retreat: The Pause Before the Pace Picks Up.

Decompress. Discern. Decide. Design.

On Tuesday, August 18, we’re going to step out of the pace for 90 minutes and walk through four movements together.

Join Annual + Come to the Retreat

Inside the Retreat

1. Decompress

Before rushing into the next season, we’ll look back at the one we’re leaving. What changed? What did you learn? And what might not need to come with you?

Sometimes we need to step out of the noise long enough to notice what’s true before deciding what’s next.

2. Discern

Before deciding what goes on your calendar, we’ll create space to ask, “Lord, what are You entrusting to me in this season?” Not what you could do. Not what everyone else thinks you should do. What is yours?

Because before you design the season, you have to discern the season.

3. Decide

Because everything cannot be the priority. We’ll determine what deserves your yes, what doesn’t, and what ONE Thing deserves intentional focus in this season.

You’ll create your Fall YES Filter™, so the decisions that come later don’t have to be made from urgency, pressure, or guilt. Instead, you’ll have a way to discern:

Yes. No. Not now. Not mine.

4. Design

Then, and only then, we’ll begin planning. We’ll take what you’ve discerned and design a realistic fall around the life you’re living.

Work. Family. Rest. And room for the things you cannot possibly predict from here.

Faithful planning doesn’t control the season. It gives you enough clarity to respond wisely as it unfolds.

Your fall doesn’t have to go perfectly to be lived faithfully.

Join Annual + Come to the Retreat

Maybe you don’t need another planner (yet). Maybe you need the pause.

If you’re looking at fall thinking, “There’s a lot coming,” this Retreat is for you. Especially if you’re the woman who’s good at making things work.

You can rearrange. Squeeze something in. Figure it out. You can make almost anything fit.

But again, fit isn’t the same as faithful.

Maybe what you need before fall begins isn’t another strategy for fitting more into your calendar. Maybe you need enough space to determine what belongs there.

Because every yes costs time. And every yes to one thing is, eventually, a no to something else.

I want you making those decisions intentionally, not discovering in October that the season decided for you.

What You’ll Leave With

By the end of our 90 minutes together, you won’t simply have more ideas to think about. You’ll leave with:

Your Fall Stewardship Vision Clarity around what this fall is for and how you want to faithfully show up in it.

Your Fall YES Filter™ A simple decision-making filter you can return to when opportunities, requests, and unexpected things arise.

Your ONE Thing Focus The meaningful thing you’re choosing to intentionally move forward this fall.

Your Fall Stewardship Plan A simple path forward that accounts for what you already know is coming: work, family, and travel.

Your Faithful Fall Rhythm A realistic way to give what matters a home in your actual weeks, with margin for what you can’t predict.

In other words, you’re not leaving with more things to do. You’re leaving with fewer things competing for your yes.

And that may be one of the most valuable things you can carry into fall.

And this is exactly why the Retreat belongs inside the Stewardship Circle. Discerning what matters is only the beginning.

Faithful stewardship happens when those decisions meet ordinary Tuesdays. Changing plans. A week that doesn’t go the way you thought it would. A priority that matters but keeps getting crowded out.

The Retreat helps you discern the season. The Circle helps you practice living it. That’s what we’re doing inside the Stewardship Circle, practicing faithful stewardship together as real life unfolds.

Come retreat with us.

The Fall Stewardship Circle Retreat

The Pause Before the Pace Picks Up

Tuesday, August 18 11:00 AM CST 90 minutes on Zoom

Bring your:

Bible. Calendar. Planner. And your real life. 😉

The Retreat is included with paid Stewardship Circle membership. And if you know you want to join us, annual is the option I’d choose.

After the live Retreat, the standalone replay will be available for $147. So if you already know this is the pause you need, you can join the Stewardship Circle for the year, come live, keep the Retreat forever, and spend the next year practicing what we’re learning together, for less than the replay will cost later.

Join Annual + Come to the Retreat

Before you give fall your yes, know this. Fall is coming either way.

The calendar will fill. There will be things you can’t anticipate. There will probably be a Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. when the plan you so carefully made looks nothing like the week you’re living.

We can’t plan our way out of that. But we can enter the season differently.

Before the pace picks up... pause. Before you plan... discern. Before you give another yes... decide what this season is for.

Then build your plans around what matters most, with enough margin to faithfully respond to the life God gives you.

Because we’re not trying to fit more into fall. We’re discerning what belongs in it.

That’s what we’re doing together on August 18. And we’d love to have you there.

You probably don’t need another person telling you to manage your time better.

You’ve tried the planner.
You’ve made the schedule.
You’ve blocked the time.

And maybe you’ve even started Monday feeling pretty good about the plan...

only to watch real life barrel through it by Tuesday at 10:00 a.m.

Then the meetings run long. Someone needs you. The thing you meant to get to gets pushed aside again. And before you know it, you’re back to reacting to whatever feels most urgent—wondering why you can never seem to stay ahead.

The problem isn’t that you need to try harder at managing your time.

You need a different way to think about it—and a faithful way to live it.

FOUNDING MEMBER PRICING IS OPEN

Join The Stewardship Circle during our five-day opening celebration and lock in annual subscriber pricing for just $80.

This special pricing ends Tues, Aug 11at 11:59 pm CST.

JOIN THE STEWARDSHIP CIRCLE

RIGHT THEOLOGY LEADS TO RIGHT METHODOLOGY

I believe time isn’t something we’re meant to control.

It’s something God has entrusted to us to steward.

That changes the question.

Instead of constantly looking at the clock and asking:

What time is it? How am I already behind?

we learn to pause and ask:

What is it time for?

That’s the shift we’re practicing inside The Stewardship Circle.

This isn’t a place to consume more information about productivity.

It’s a place to learn how to faithfully steward your time, priorities, and calling—and then put what you’re learning into practice in the ordinary weeks you’re actually living.

JOIN THE STEWARDSHIP CIRCLE

WHAT CHANGES WHEN YOU JOIN

I don’t want you to simply know more about stewardship.

I want you to become a more faithful steward.

That means learning how to:

Build a week around what matters most instead of trying to squeeze your priorities into whatever time happens to be left.

Put biblical truth into practice through simple rhythms you can actually live.

Respond differently when life interrupts instead of throwing away the plan and promising yourself you’ll start again next Monday.

Recognize what it’s time for in this season so you can make decisions with greater clarity and less guilt.

And most importantly?

Keep practicing.

Because faithful stewardship isn’t something you figure out once.

It’s a way of life.

HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL RECEIVE

✨ THE FAITHFUL WEEK FRAMEWORK™

Your foundational roadmap for building a week you don’t have to start over every Monday.

You’ll learn to identify what matters most, build your Time Anchor Zones, create a Faithful Week that reflects the life you’re actually living, and know how to return when the plan inevitably changes.

Instant access when you join.

✨ MONTHLY FAITHFUL LIVING WORKSHOP + STEWARDSHIP FIELD GUIDE

Each month, we’ll take one area of faithful stewardship deeper—grounded in biblical truth and brought all the way into real life.

And you won’t leave with another page of notes you’ll never look at again.

Your accompanying Stewardship Field Guide will help you take what you’re learning and put it into practice.

✨ TIMELY GUIDANCE + COMMUNITY SUPPORT

Because sometimes you don’t need another training.

You need somewhere to go when it’s Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. and the week you planned is no longer the week you’re living.

Inside our subscriber community, you’ll have a place to ask questions, work through real-life challenges, share what you’re learning, celebrate progress, and get support as you practice faithful stewardship alongside women doing the same.

JOIN THE STEWARDSHIP CIRCLE

YOU DON’T NEED ANOTHER PERFECT PLAN.

You need rhythms that can hold up in real life.

A way to know what matters when everything feels important.

Permission to adjust when your season changes.

A place to return when the week goes sideways.

And a community that keeps reminding you:

You don’t have to do everything.
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Have you ever reached the end of a Tuesday and wondered why it felt so exhausting?

Nothing terrible happened. You got things done. And yet, it still felt like you spent the entire day racing the clock, behind from the moment it started, just trying to catch up.

Why?

Most productivity advice has an answer- You need a better system. A better routine. A better planner.

But what if the race isn’t actually happening on your calendar?

Somewhere along the way, racing the clock became fighting the clock. We talk about “beating a deadline,” “running out of time,” “fighting the clock.”

Without even realizing it, we’ve begun treating time like the enemy.
But what if time was never meant to be your opponent?

Those are the questions I couldn’t shake after spending time in Genesis while preparing Episode 438 earlier this week. And one simple observation stood out to me.

God created time, and called it good.
Then He created people to live within time, and called it very good.

So if God called time good, why does it so often feel like it’s working against us?

Maybe the problem isn’t your planner. Maybe it isn’t your schedule. Maybe it isn’t even your workload.

Maybe you’re experiencing Tuesday through the effects of Genesis 3, while longing for it to feel like Genesis 1.

Notice what the serpent attacked first. Not creation. Not time. Trust.

His first recorded words weren’t a command. They were a question. “Did God really say...?” (Genesis 3:1)

That single question invited Eve to question God’s goodness, His design, His provision.

And I wonder if we ask surprisingly similar questions on an ordinary Tuesday. Not out loud, but quietly, in the stories we tell ourselves, the assumptions we carry, and the way we experience time.

The more I paid attention to my own struggles with time, the more I realized I wasn’t really battling my calendar. I was battling the thoughts I’d come to believe about it. And once I saw them, I couldn’t unsee them.

If the real battle isn’t happening on your calendar, it’s worth asking where it’s happening instead.

Inside the rest of this reflection, we’ll uncover three ordinary Tuesday questions that quietly fuel hurry, guilt, and striving, and a simple practice for each one to help you recognize it, take it captive, and replace it with what God actually says.

Three Ordinary Tuesday Questions I Couldn’t Unsee

Long before we believe something that isn’t true, we usually begin by asking a question. Just like Eve. “Did God really say...?”

I don’t think we consciously ask that question every Tuesday. But I do think it quietly shows up in the stories we tell ourselves about time.

Once I began paying attention, I noticed three questions I was asking over and over again. Maybe you’ll recognize yourself in them too.

1. “Did God really say...everything on my list is mine to do?”

It sounds almost ridiculous when we say it out loud. Of course God never said that.

And yet, how often do we live as though He did?

We say yes because no one else will. We carry responsibilities no one ever asked us to carry. We feel guilty saying no. And before long, our calendar begins reflecting everything we feel responsible for instead of everything God has actually entrusted to us.

That’s a very different way to live.

On an ordinary Tuesday, it looks like answering one more email before taking a break. Solving someone else’s problem before finishing what God already put in front of you. Saying yes because disappointing someone feels harder than disappointing yourself. Or God.

No wonder Tuesday feels heavy. You’re carrying assignments that were never yours to begin with.

A Thought to Take Captive

The next time you feel the weight of everything resting on your shoulders, pause before you keep pushing. Ask yourself: what has God actually entrusted to me today?

Then ask one more question. What am I carrying that belongs to someone else, or to Him?

Not everything on your list came from Him.

Sometimes faithfulness looks less like doing more, and more like laying something down.

2. “Did God really say...I have to be done before I rest?”

This one hides in plain sight. We rarely say it out loud. We simply live as though it’s true.

I’ll rest after I answer these emails, after I finish this project, after the kids go back to school. But after never actually comes.

Tuesday quietly becomes one long attempt to deserve Wednesday’s rest.

But Genesis tells a different story. God built rhythms into creation before sin entered the world. Evening. Morning. Day. Rest wasn’t added because people were weak. It was woven into creation because God is good.

On an ordinary Tuesday, this is the lunch you skip. The walk you postpone. The moment of quiet you keep pushing to “later.” And later rarely comes.

A Thought to Take Captive

Today, stop before everything is finished. Not because your work is done. God never made completion the condition for rest.

Receive one small moment of rest today as an act of trust. Not reward.

3. “Did God really say...I’m not enough unless I stay busy?”

This may be the quietest question of all. Because we almost never say it. We simply measure ourselves by our productivity.

A full calendar feels meaningful. An unfinished list feels like failure. Busy becomes proof that we’re doing enough, being enough, making our lives count.

On an ordinary Tuesday, the day ends. The list doesn’t. And without even realizing it, we stop evaluating the day and start evaluating ourselves.

That’s a heavy burden to carry. Especially because God never asked us to.

A Thought to Take Captive

Tonight, before you ask, “What did I get done today?” ask instead, “Where did I notice God’s presence today?” Then ask, “Where was I faithful with what He entrusted to me?”

Busyness isn’t what proves your value. Faithfulness is.

Those questions tell a much truer story than your checklist ever will.

A Stewardship Practice for This Week

The serpent never needed Eve to stop believing in God. He only needed her to question His goodness. “Did God really say...?”

I wonder if every hurried Tuesday invites us to answer that same question. Not once. Dozens of times.

So this week, don’t just watch your calendar. Watch your thoughts.

When you notice yourself thinking, “I have to...,” “There’s not enough time...,” “I’m falling behind...,” pause. Don’t immediately believe the thought. Hold it up to God’s Word.

Ask: “Did God really say that?” Then ask: “What did He actually say?”

That’s where renewing your mind begins, and perhaps that’s where redeeming your time begins too.

A Blessing for Your Tuesday

My prayer this week isn’t that your Tuesday becomes less full, it’s that, in the middle of an ordinary Tuesday, you’ll begin recognizing the quiet questions that have been shaping the way you experience time.

And as you replace them with what God actually says, I think you’ll discover something beautiful.

The race begins to slow. The battle begins to lose its grip.

Not because your calendar changed. But because your heart did.

Keep Practicing With Us

Renewing your mind doesn’t happen in one article. It’s formed one ordinary Tuesday at a time.

That’s why I created the Stewardship Circle, a place to move beyond inspiration and actually practice faithful time stewardship alongside other women on the same journey.

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Have you ever reached the end of the day and thought, “That wasn’t how I wanted today to feel”?

Maybe you answered the emails, served your family, and checked everything off your list. And yet you still climbed into bed wondering where the time went.

We usually blame time. “If I just had more.” “If life would slow down.” “If this week were different.”

But what if that conversation didn’t begin with your calendar? What if it started much earlier than you realize?

This week on the podcast, we’re continuing our conversation about time by going all the way back to the beginning, not to find a better planning system, but to discover what God intended when He created time itself.

Inside This Episode

In today’s conversation, we’ll explore:

• Why the Bible’s story of time begins before there were people, work, or calendars.

• What Genesis 1 reveals about God’s purpose for creating time.

• Why time isn’t your enemy, even if it sometimes feels that way.

• What changed in Genesis 3 that affects how we experience every ordinary Tuesday.

• One simple morning rhythm to help you begin receiving time as God’s good gift.

This Week’s Sacred Truth

One sentence from Genesis has stayed with me all week.

God called it good.

Not just the light. Not just the land. Not just the living creatures. In fact, time itself, marked by evening and morning, the exact place where God put mankind, was part of God’s very good creation.

That means time wasn’t created to pressure you, keep you behind, or become the enemy. Time was created as the place where God would meet with His people.

So if time often feels like something working against us, perhaps the problem isn’t time itself. Perhaps it’s that something has changed the way we experience something God originally called good.

That’s a very different place to begin. Because if God called time good, maybe we can begin receiving it as a gift again.

This Week’s Stewardship Practice

Tomorrow morning, before you reach for your phone, before you open your planner, before you begin working through your to-do list, pause.

Thank God, not only for another day, but for time itself as one of His good gifts.

Then simply ask, “Lord, what is it time for today?”

As you listen, don’t just look for your next task. Look for Him.

Because maybe the first purpose of today isn’t simply what you’ll accomplish, it’s who you’ll walk with.

Reflect

If God called time good, how might that change the way you approach today?

I’d love to hear what stood out to you from this week’s conversation…

Leave a comment

Keep Walking With Me

The podcast is where we begin the conversation. Each week here on REDEEM Her Time, we continue it with a companion reflection, one simple stewardship practice, and one question to help you move from hearing truth to faithfully living it.

If you’re ready to stop chasing better time management and begin seeing time through the eyes of its Creator, I’d love for you to continue the journey with us.

When you subscribe, I’ll also send you the REDEEM Her Time Starter Kit, including The Only 5 Time Blocks You Need to Stop Feeling Behind, to help you begin putting these ideas into practice right away.

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