Grace for Tough Times
It had been weeks of sickness, exhaustion, and frustration. Jaclyn and Sam found themselves in a season that tested their patience and their resilience. What was supposed to be just a passing virus stretched into two long, draining months of low energy, canceled plans, and projects put on hold.
When they finally sat down to record again, the title of their conversation felt almost inevitable: Personal Development: Grace for Tough Times.
Because this wasn’t just about a flu or a lingering cough. It was about what happens inside when life demands you slow down — and when your worth feels tangled in how much you can accomplish.
Grace for Tough Times
Jaclyn admitted she had a hard time stopping. Even when her body begged for rest, she’d push through — crawling toward the kitchen to make homemade soup, answering one more text, forcing herself to do “just one more thing.” Productivity, for her, was often tied to self-worth.
Sam, on the other hand, confessed he was the opposite. When sickness hit, he shut down completely, letting himself lean into the rest. No phone, no TV, no distractions. Just silence, recovery, and the clarity that came on the other side.
Their differences revealed something universal: being human means honoring both rhythms. The go and the stop. The push and the release. The work and the rest.
For another story about holding both strength and vulnerability, see When the Vision Feels Bigger Than You: Building Businesses While Growing a Baby. It’s a reminder that big dreams often come with tender seasons too.
Lessons from the Hard Days
As they reflected, a few lessons rose to the surface:
The world keeps spinning without you. Jaclyn remembered a quote that struck her deeply: “Don’t fool yourself into thinking you are God. The world will keep spinning, with or without your productivity.”
Nature teaches us to rest. Trees go dormant. Bears hibernate. Seasons shift. Humans aren’t machines — and expecting ourselves to operate at full speed 24/7 only leads to burnout.
Self-worth is not measured by output. Since childhood, Jaclyn had tied her value to how much she could achieve. But being sick was a humbling reminder: she is worthy, loved, and whole regardless of what gets checked off the list.
Treat yourself the way you treat others. When her son Roman was sick, Jaclyn didn’t demand productivity from him — she nurtured him. Why, then, was it so hard to extend the same grace to herself?
For those in the tender postpartum season, Encouragement for New Moms offers a similar reminder: grace and gentleness matter just as much as getting things done.
Finding Balance in Real Life
Both Jaclyn and Sam admitted that balance isn’t always neat. There are seasons of pushing hard — like launching their app or working through the holidays — and there must also be intentional seasons of pulling back.
Sam pointed out that balance doesn’t only come from big trips or long breaks. True balance comes from the everyday — building in quiet moments of rest, creating routines that don’t demand constant overdrive, and learning to stop before burnout takes root.
Their word for the year became consistency — supported by organization. Not a rigid schedule, but a rhythm that allowed both work and restoration to coexist.
For a look at how challenges can be reframed as growth, read The Obstacle Is the Way: How to Face Relationship Challenges with Grit and Grace. It’s proof that imbalance doesn’t have to be the end of the story — it can be the start of deeper wisdom.
Grace as the Gateway
At the heart of it all was grace.
Grace for the body when it shuts down.
Grace for the mind when it replays old patterns.
Grace for the soul when it whispers that worth is not in doing, but in being.
Sam reminded Jaclyn — and anyone listening — that sometimes the very purpose of these hard seasons is to slow us down. To invite us into surrender. To teach us lessons we can’t learn when life is moving too fast.
This echoes what Jaclyn and Sam shared in The Blessing Behind the Breakdown: the hardest times often carry the seeds of transformation.
As Jaclyn reflected, she offered a question for anyone in the middle of their own tough season:
What area of your life can you extend yourself some grace?
Final Thought: Thank You
Tough times have a way of stripping us down — not to leave us empty, but to reset us. For Jaclyn and Sam, this season of sickness revealed clarity, humility, and a renewed commitment to live with rhythm instead of relentless striving.
Grace, after all, isn’t weakness. It’s the soil where growth begins.
And as they reminded their listeners: things are happening for us, not to us.
So the invitation remains —
live on purpose, live on frequency, and let grace lead the way.
Ien Araneta - editor of The Freq Show & The Beckon Times
