My husband and I are doing some financial planning for 2026, and I have to tell ya, right now it feels a little frightening. I wish I knew everything would work out okay. I think it will, but I don’t know that. Prices are up and insurance premiums are astronomical. We don’t know what we’re going to do about insurance. I’ve been tempted to panic, but instead I’m trying to focus on what’s right in front of me.

Even though the trigger for all this anxiety is financial, I’m realizing that the scarcity I feel is rarely just about money. Scarcity shows up in other places too: time, energy, confidence, clarity. Sometimes the fear behind the numbers is really the fear that we won’t have enough of what it will take to face the future in every area of life.

I’ve been thinking a lot about stewardship. Usually when I think about it, it’s being generous with time, talent, and treasure. Lately I wonder if the heart of stewardship is less about output and more about attention. What if our call is to notice what we already have? Not the hypothetical gifts we wish we had, but the actual resources, relationships, and capacities in our lives right now.

Sometimes I catch myself imagining how much easier it would be to serve if I had more energy, or more hours in the day, or more clarity. But stewardship begins before any of that. It begins with opening our hands and our eyes to what’s already present. The resources we have, the experiences we’ve lived, the wisdom we’ve gained, the people who are right in front of us. These are sacred gifts entrusted to us.

My wish for you this week, Reader, is that as you notice what is already in your hands, you’ll also feel a quiet trust growing that you are not facing the future alone. May you feel steadied by the truth that provision has met you before and will meet you again. And may you discover that hope does not come from having every answer in advance, but from taking the next faithful step knowing that grace has always had a way of showing up when it is needed most. That's the fiLLLed life.

Live a fiLLLed life, Melissa ​