Part 2: Count The Fruit: Especially When You Don't Feel Like It.
End Well + Start Brave: A 12-Part Series For The New Year
Just like I can’t tell you when I became obsessed with goals, I can’t tell you when I started using the phrase count the fruit. I remember having to explain it for the first few years, but now it feels like most people in our community understand what we mean when we say it.
Counting the fruit is about gratitude, but it goes a step deeper than that. It is a thoughtful glance around your life to notice what God has been growing. In you. In others. In places you might have overlooked. It is an intentional practice of identifying His handiwork, even when it feels quiet or incomplete.
In my glory days of goal setting, counting the fruit was always my favorite part.
I would grab a whiteboard or a blank sheet of paper and write for hours. I would scroll through iPhone photos, scan my calendar from the year before, and pull out old journals. I would name every single piece of fruit I could find, thanking God along the way.
But here is the honest truth, friends. There are seasons when counting the fruit feels obvious and victorious. And there are seasons when it feels like you are digging around in the dirt, hoping to uncover even the smallest evidence that anything grew at all.
What I have learned in the last few years is that counting the fruit matters most when you least feel like doing it. When your spirit whispers, “It is always going to be this way,” that is when you most need proof that things have changed before. When you are convinced that everything you touch breaks or dies, that is when you measure growth in millimeters, just to remind your own soul that God is not finished with you yet.
If you do nothing else to end 2025 well and start 2026 bravely, this would be my one piece of advice: count the fruit.
And because I want to lead by example, here is a small, shareable snapshot of my own fruit counting. There is a longer list that stays private, but this feels honest and true.
January
We had a huge, very atypical snow in Charleston. We went on a long walk with some of our kids, and I remember my heart feeling full.
February
Listen. February was a fight. Our house flooded, and it was a nightmare. But we made it through. And at the end of the month, my mom, my older sister, and I got to hear Beth Moore teach. That felt like real fruit.
March
My dear friend Katie married her sweetheart, Jordan. I love these two so much.
April
After two years of praying, saving, fighting, and trying not to stress, we moved into our new home. A deep peace settled over our family. This fruit was easy to see and sweet to count.
May
I will tell you this about May. Wild restoration and peace hit our family. We saw the Lord do miracles.
June
On the heels of that miracle, June was filled with family time. We took a little staycation with our kids, celebrated Father’s Day, and the whole month felt like hope.
July
Nick and I celebrated our twentieth anniversary with a vow renewal and a quick trip to one of our favorite places on earth, Portugal. Also, seeing these photos reminds me how much I miss having a slight tan.
August
In August, I became a football mom. To be honest, this was my view from August through October and I loved it. Is it August again yet?
September
I got to launch my newest book, What Comes Next, into the world. When people tell me this book was “for them,” I always say thank you and I am so sorry. It is for hurting women, and I am grateful for the way God has used it to serve them.
October
To celebrate my little sister’s thirtieth birthday, my mom took all of us girls to Mexico. We spent two and a half days laughing, resting, and healing together.
November
We began sabbatical. Deep exhale. Thank you, God.
December
We have spent countless hours together as a family. And one huge piece of fruit we are counting is that our dear Glory graduated early and will be heading to Oklahoma Christian University in just a few weeks. I am so proud of her and so expectant for what comes next.
Now it’s your turn.
I dare you to get alone and get serious about counting the fruit.
Especially if you do not feel like it.
Tomorrow, on Day 3 of End Well + Start Brave, we are taking it easy. I am sharing some of my favorite things from the year.
I love the idea of going month by month.
One major fruit this year for me- after months of praying, God led me to a new apartment in September. My body took a deep exhale and released so much anxiety I don’t know it was holding. Stress and tension had been living in my body due to fear of neighbors and other issues from my old home. The peace he had since September had poured into every area of my life.
God had done so much; excited to sit down and count the fruit.
I love the concept of counting the fruit! There is so much to be grateful for and if you don’t slow down long enough, pausing to praise, you just might miss it.