Making Room for Kingdom Building

Happy New Year, Worthy Women!

This is my favorite time of year. I love a fresh start—the blank page, the quiet hope of new ideas, and the gentle promise that something good can grow here. There’s something sacred about standing at the edge of a new year, looking back at what was and forward at what could be, and realizing that God meets us in both directions.

Like many of you, I lean fully into the New Year rituals. Honestly, maybe a little too fully. January has become less about a single holiday and more of a month-long reset. I clean out closets and drawers. I reorganize spaces that didn’t technically need reorganizing. I make lists of commitments, responsibilities, places I’m serving, dreams I’m holding, things I’ve quietly outgrown. I pull out the school calendar and the church calendar and carefully fill my planner with all the important dates. I look ahead at vacations and start dreaming about rest and togetherness. I cancel subscriptions I forgot I had. I audit my time, my money, my energy. Everything gets evaluated.

On the surface, it might look like productivity extreme "Type A" behavior. But underneath it all, it’s really about one thing: making room. Also, I'm more of a "Type B or C" person.

Eventually, after the adrenaline of a “new beginning” wears off, I bring it all to God. And almost without fail, He gently reminds me that I’ve taken on too much. That while my intentions are good, my load is heavy. That His plan is quieter, slower, and far more sustainable than the one I carefully mapped out.

God always affirms my desire to be a good steward of what He’s given me: my time, my resources, my gifts, my relationships. But He also knows something I often forget: I am not meant to carry everything at once.

I might come to Him with ten shiny new goals, but He lovingly narrows my focus to two or three that truly matter. Not because the others are bad, but because focus is holy. He doesn’t want me flailing in seventeen directions; He wants me rooted, intentional, and present.

This is where the New Year becomes more than a reset. It becomes an invitation.

As women, we often live in constant motion. Whether we are teenagers navigating identity, young women building careers or families, mothers managing endless schedules, or older women carrying wisdom and responsibility, we are conditioned to add more. More commitments. More expectations. More pressure to “do it all” and do it well. But God’s economy works differently. Before He asks us to build, He asks us to clear. Before He adds, He subtracts. Before He speaks, He quiets.

God has given us apostolic grace—not just to stay busy, but to be Kingdom builders. Erin and I talked about this on The Live Worthy podcast (coming out next week): that deep urge many of us feel at the start of a new year to throw everything out and start fresh is actually a God-given desire to make room for more of Him. We want to clean out what doesn’t belong—not just in our homes, but in our minds, our calendars, and our hearts—so we can hear Him more clearly. So we can see the next step instead of being overwhelmed by the entire staircase.

This is deeply practical. It might mean saying no to a commitment that drains you, even if it’s “good.” It might mean letting go of a version of yourself you’ve outgrown. It might mean simplifying your schedule, creating margin, or allowing rest to be a spiritual discipline rather than a reward. For some, it may mean releasing bitterness, comparison, or unrealistic expectations you’ve been carrying for years. For others, it may mean embracing a new season with courage instead of fear.

The beauty of cycles and seasons is that they remind us we are allowed to end things. We are allowed to change. We are allowed to hold everything loosely: plans, roles, even dreams, because Jesus is our only guarantee. He is steady when everything else shifts. He is faithful when our energy fades. He is present in both the quiet resets and the bold new beginnings.

So as this year begins, my encouragement to you is simple: don’t just ask, What should I add? Ask, What needs to go? Ask God where He wants your focus, not just your effort. Make room. Not for a busier life, but for a clearer one. One where your yes is intentional, your no is confident, and your heart has space to receive what God is already preparing.

Here’s to a year of less striving, more clarity, deeper alignment with God and building His Kingdom!

~Niki Hathorn, Worthy Content Creator

1. What is God inviting you to let go of in this season in order to make room for greater clarity and rest?

2. Where have you been equating faithfulness with busyness, and how might your life look different if focus and presence (not productivity) became your measure of success?

3. As you enter this new year, what would it practically look like for your “yes” to be more intentional and your “no” to be more confident?