From Scarcity to Stewardship: Renew Your Mind for Abundant Living

Scarcity is not only a money issue it is a mindset issue.

In this episode of Kingdom Life Unfiltered, Natalie Lawson and Janeen Marino talk about what it means to move from fear, lack, and anxiety into biblical stewardship, peace, generosity, and purposeful living.

Romans 12:2 reminds us that transformation begins with renewing our minds. That renewal affects more than our finances. It shapes how we use our time, lead our families, serve others, build businesses, make decisions, and manage everything God has placed in our hands.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• The difference between a scarcity mindset and biblical stewardship
• How gratitude, generosity, peace, and integrity create Kingdom habits
• Recognizing lack-based thoughts and words
• Making prayer-led decisions instead of panic-driven choices
• Creating systems that replace stress and confusion
• Stewarding your finances, time, gifts, talents, and leadership
• Believing in the vision God has given you
• Practical journal prompts to help uncover fear and bring order

This week, take some time to ask:

Where am I operating from fear?
What area of my finances needs order?
What seed has God already placed in my hands?
What would faithfulness look like right now?

God is your source, and you have a responsibility to faithfully manage what He has entrusted to you. Believe in the future He has shown you, remain committed, and run with purpose in every step.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” — Romans 12:2

Resources mentioned:
✨ Abundant Mindset Guide : https://kingdomlifeunfiltered.com/abundance-mindset

📱The Pause App by John Eldredge

📝 Journal by Kelly Knuckles of Embracing Grace: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1891986746/christian-guided-journal-for-women?sr_prefetch=1&pf_from=shop_home&ref=shop_home_active_16&pro=1&logging_key=53e948d225911892b67c2caaa52f4e034004fd47%3A1891986746

Connect with us and tag us with your one-word War Paint declaration for the week. @Kingdomfamiliesonmission on Instagram

Subscribe to *Kingdom Life Unfiltered* for conversations about faith, obedience, family, purpose, business, and building a life led by God.

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Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Kingdom Life Unfiltered. I pray it encouraged you to live boldly, love deeply, and step into the ripple God has uniquely called you to create.

If today’s conversation spoke to you, please take a moment to subscribe, rate, and leave a review it helps us reach more faith-fueled women who are ready to walk in Kingdom purpose.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome back to this next episode of our series. We're doing all around abundant living and we're going to be talking about renewing your mind for abundant living and moving from scarcity to stewardship. So if you've heard any of our other episodes, we've talked a lot about, you know, abundant living in with money and sometimes how our money mindset can become an issue. But it's not just the our money and things we think about that. It's really just everything that can kind of come in, even those limiting beliefs, self-sabotaging thoughts, it's all a mindset issue that honestly is going to be what at every level you get to as a leader, as you're building your business in your life. I mean, around all the different topics we're going to be sharing with you, parenthood, marriage. It's always these thoughts that can creep in that really can start to sabotage anything that we're trying to do for good. And so we just have to know that that is always going to be a tactic of the enemy, that he is prowling around looking for someone to devour. So we've got to armor up. And that is where if we remember in Romans 12, that talks about the transformation that comes from the renewal of your mind. And so maintaining that steadfast focus on God, as it mentions in Isaiah 26, and remembering, and this is something I always remind myself too when I can start to see myself like spiraling out a little bit, is reminding myself that I have the mind of Christ. So we get to actually we can stand in that authority and remember that we have this a spirit and a power of love. And it says a sound mind. Um if you remember that in 2 Timothy 1:7. So really embracing those scriptures and your identity so that you don't have to realize that you don't have to stay stuck in those downward spirals or repeating those limiting beliefs over and over that is gonna just try and keep you down and keep you stuck and feeling less than. What we want to do is help you move from that scarcity mindset, from that lack mindset, from even sometimes just the stress that can come, the stress and the worry and the anxiousness that we realize we don't have to live in that and move out of that into stewardship and remember that through it all, like God is our source and we're responsible for just what he's placed in our hands. And we get to steward that that's like our moral responsibility, but we're always remembering that when we are getting those burdens on us, we realize we're trying to take everything in our control. Well, now we need to release that and put the control back on him and remember that he's our provider and he's our source, and that's gonna start to shift things for you.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Yeah, for sure. And that reminded me of something that I did. Someone had walked us through this actually at one point, and I think you may have been on this call as well. But she told us all to close our eyes and to put our hands out and to imagine that all the things that we were trying to manage in our life were like little marbles or little balls in our hand. And she said to close your eyes and then to to like feel that like God's hands are right in front of yours and to drop the balls in his hands. And then she said, Now imagine that one, that one that's like you're feeling stress or anxiety about. Maybe it's your finances, maybe it's your health, maybe it's a relationship. And she was like, Now imagine yourself going and taking that ball out of his hand and taking it back. And like, that's what it's like when we are not surrendering things to God, or we're like, okay, I surrender. And then you're like, never mind, I've got this. Like, we've got it better than he's got it. And that just like was such a profound imagery to me to be like, oh, that's right. Because it's so often how we work, you know, we end up doing that. But when we make that shift of focusing on stewardship and abundance over scarcity, like that shift changes everything. That surrender changes everything. It changes how you budget, it changes how you serve others and how you run your business, how you treat people, how you lead, how you love, and how you invest your money and your time.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Yeah. And you actually sharing that too reminding me of a vision that the Lord gave me when I was journaling one morning. And I wish I had my journal with me and I could like read this to you. But essentially, as I was journaling, he gave me the vision of like, sounds funny, but if you guys have watched Lord of the Rings, you know Gandalf and how like he was so tall and he just like moved, you know, with this. And then the think of like a hobbit, right? So imagine yourself like small, and then there's like Gondor. So like God was there, like Jesus was there, and he it was like he just put me up on his shoulder and he was like, Look, if you ride on my shoulder and you depend on me, you can now see everything in front of you. And it was also like he was able to take these like just long and nice strides, and it was just like that's where I feel like people talk about things being kind of easier and effortless, but it was like that feeling of like, I don't have to try so hard. Like, I don't have to do everything. Like, if I just do it with him, if I just abide in him, or if I just rely on him instead of trying to take the control myself, it was like, wow, walking through this where I don't know where I'm at. Now I can see where I'm at, and it's so much easier. And it says like in Matthew 11 about the burden is light, and that's how it felt. And so I just yeah, I wanted to share that vision with you guys of like just remembering that we can take that and just feel that you know, that lightness or and that heaviness can go away when we start to realize, like, yeah, we don't have to hold down to everything. But we also want to give you some other kingdom habits and getting practical about what does this look like and tangibly think about how we start to shift our mindset and to be in that more abundance um mindset. And so this is gonna lead with you having gratitude, generosity, peace, think of integrity. So gratitude is something you've probably heard before, but it really does make it. There's literally a mindset shift like in your brain, like scientifically. I'm not an expert to exactly explain how it works, but it's firing your neurons and really turning that on. So if you are getting into gratitude, and I would really encourage you, this is a new habit I've even started putting into my day in the mornings and/or at night, or sometimes both, is really is writing down 10 things. I think I mentioned this on one of the other um podcasts, but even just getting a journal where you can journal every day what you're thankful for, and even some of those things, it be things you're expecting. Like you are your things you're praying over, but you are praying expectantly that like God is gonna come through, that these things are gonna happen in your life. And so writing those things down, and then even throughout your day, um, get really good at just acknowledging the things. Man, I'm so glad I have a dishwasher right now, or it's winter time right now, and I'm like so thankful that our pipes aren't frozen and we have water because I know some people are dealing with that. So it's just all becoming and developing a mind of gratitude. And then generosity, you know, is always gonna also be a big thing is developing that heart of generosity and the mind of generosity and not just with your finances. This is like with your gifts, with your talents, with your leadership, right? With your time. Um, and thinking about too when you're running a business, if you have a mission and a purpose behind what you're doing, beyond just trying to get on social media and sell your product or sell your service or whatever. If you know kind of beyond what you want to help people with and why you're showing up on social, you're gonna be so much more motivated because you're gonna show up with like this heart of giving of how can I help someone today? Like, how can I serve my audience today? Oh, I read this in my devotion. I need to make sure I share this with them. Like, so that's gonna also change your mindset and give you more purpose. And then be someone who is leading one of the fruits of the spirit and it says you'll be known by your fruit is peace. So, are you having peace-led choices, meaning you're not panicking and doing these like panic pivots or having shiny object syndrome or this avoidance that we get sometimes because we think, oh, this work might be too hard, or this or that. Like, so there's this anxiousness that can well up. Or have you dealt with maybe procrastination by overanalysis and you're just overthinking? We're gonna talk about some of these things, but this is when you can we need to start pausing, we need to reflect, we need to pray, we need to journal over it, seek God first on it, seek wise counsel so that you can lead with peace over this panic. And then when you're thinking about multiplication, we also talked about how we are meant to multiply that is a command. But so how can we scale, but do it with integrity? And again, do it with the other fruits of the spirit, like love and joy, and out of that peace. And that is how we want to start shifting our mind and how we're operating from day to day.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Yeah, for sure. And it's not just those practical habits, too, that invite that increase without anxiety. It's also really partnering with God in your life and business. It's in your decision making when you really partner with him and you really get quiet and journal and talk to him about it and figure out where he's leading you, not just make decisions on your own and bounce around like an anxious bouncy ball. I think of it like a ping-pong getting dropped out of the sky or something sometimes, is what ends up happening in our minds. But then you can stop kind of chasing those shiny objects and you can really pray over each decision and just put systems in place that are gonna replace that stress. And then also start asking, like, how does this serve my people? Not just like, how does it serve me? How do I get what I want? How do I reach my goal? How am I gonna serve people? And it's in also when we look at a lot of all the things we're talking about and abundance in general, it's a mindset thing, it is all in your intentions, in your thoughts, in your words, and so it's so important. Words are so powerful. I mean, God started the world with words. I mean, he created the world with words. Think about that. Think about how powerful your words are. Our words carry that same weight and our thoughts. And I don't know if you guys have seen the there's a video out there, and it's so good. I mean, there's so many different scientific studies of if you put words on rice, a jar of cooked rice, where you've got one that says something really nice and was a positive uh words, encouraging words, and then one that's saying, like, I hate you, you're awful, you're ugly, whatever it says. And like the one that, and you leave them in the same environment right next to each other, and the one that has good words is fine, and then the one with bad words has mold, and it's you know, it gets bad and all of that. And the same thing with the video of you know, the different water. Like, if you do that with water, there's a guy, Dr. It's like something emoto, I can't remember Sura Moto, and he does this study on does the same thing with water, and then he freezes the water and looks at it with a like a microscope. And the water that he said all these beautiful, encouraging, positive words to are these beautiful like crystals and snowflakes, and and the ones that he said all this awful stuff to is like it looks it looks bad, it looks angry. Like it's hard to say that a snowflake could look angry, but it does. It's crazy. You should go look it up. But just know that your words and your thoughts are so so powerful, and that lack mindset can creep in in so many ways, even if you've ever said, I don't have time, or how am I gonna do this all, or there's not enough money, or we can't afford that, or or I didn't get enough sleep, or whatever it is, you gotta shift that. You can't be speaking that that's like speaking death over your finances and your time and your sleep and your body and your health and all of those things. You gotta flip a switch. And and I'm not saying like go say some things that are are lies. I'm not trying to say go manifest stuff or or anything like that. But I remember being at a conference one time and someone said, instead of saying I'm tired, say I got all the sleep the good Lord intended. And even if she only got two hours of sleep and she felt not tired when she said that. Just remember how powerful your words are. Maybe you feel like you can't afford something, maybe it's just not in the budget right now. It will be, but it's just not right now. And that's that's just a different switch of like, I'm not saying like lie to yourself, but be careful about your words. And then I feel like the the biggest test of that too is if you're a mom and you all of a sudden start hearing your words come out of your kid's mouth and you're like, I can't say that anymore. So one for me, I used to say when I would get like overwhelmed, which is another word that I'm not allowed to say, but I would say either I'm struggling or my that makes my brain hurt. I used to say that all the time. And let me tell you, I I started getting headaches one time, and I was like, maybe it's because I say that all the time. I should probably stop saying that. And so I've stopped. So now every time that it like slips, the kids are like, Mom, you're not supposed to say that. And I'm like, I know. But it's just like these little habits that we pick up. And so also remembering, too, that when you're having some of these like different anxious thoughts and stuff, that that actually the feeling sometimes comes first when you are thinking something, and it could be maybe in your business, maybe you feel like you're gonna fail or or you can't do it, or it's not gonna work, or whatever it is. If you start to think about this the next time it happens, before the the thought comes, you feel this like feeling when it might be in your gut, it might tense up a little bit, or you might get this like drop in your stomach or something, and that feeling comes, and then the thought actually comes like seven seconds later. And that thought is the interpretation of that feeling. One thing that you can do to kind of shift that is first off recognize it. Recognize, okay, I'm having a stored, like a habitual feeling in my body. This is just a habit that my body has. And recognizing it and put your shoulders back, take a deep breath, shake it off a little bit, and then tell yourself, I'm safe. God's got this. Tell yourself something. And actually, it's kind of interesting. If you put your hand like on your heart, like it will calm you down. And even if you just think that like I'm safe, like it changes the way that you feel. I mean, it's crazy when you try, start doing it, you're like, oh, that works. It sounds kind of new agey or something, but it's just really God created the words and He created them to heal and to you know help us. So if you do that, then a lot of the times you're gonna interpret that differently. So it's actually gonna stop the thought rather than trying to fight it with something else. And so just keep that in mind as you're going through. Instead of seeing everything that maybe you're struggling with this or that, remember you have choices in your life and you get to choose how you spend your time, how you use your words, how you use your thoughts. And it's really a matter of focusing on stewardship and just not excuses of like, well, I didn't do this because of that or whatever it may be. When it comes down to it, there's always gonna be excuses for things. You really just have to focus on why you're going to do it, not why you don't need to or why you could skip it, because there's always gonna be a reason you could skip things. There's always a reason not to, and there's always a reason to. And so you really just have to choose your hard. And so, you know, this week as you step into, you know, more abundance in your week, just journal and ask yourself some of these questions. Where am I operating from fear? What thought am I continuing to hear? Because your thoughts are creating your future. You want to make sure that you are using positive things to help you to create what you want, not what you don't want. If you're operating from fear, you're creating the wrong thing. And what area of you your finances maybe need order? So ask yourself that and kind of pray about and ask and ask God too like, is there somewhere that I'm not being a good steward, somewhere that I need to like tighten things up? Or what seed has God already given me that I need to go plant, or like what gift has he given me that I'm not walking in that calling just yet, or that he's been asking me to do? Or like what would faithfulness or obedience, which we'll get into in another episode, look like right now?

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Yeah, I love that. And you're even talking about like the heart, like putting your hand to your heart or taking deep breaths. I was thinking that like with our kids, we do that. Like I do that with Elias when he wakes up scared or anything, or just I'm helping him, like I'm always putting my hand on him, and then I speak over him. I'm like, you're safe, like you have love, like you're peaceful right now, like we're we can sleep soundly. So it's like, right? If we're doing that for our children, like do that for yourself too. Um these are gonna be really good journal prompts for you to have just kind of a soaking workshop session with the Lord to pray over to journal. That can those can be some really good prompts to help you also get some more discernment and clarity. Also, start to begin each morning with not only the gratitude, but even declarations. Um, and so I actually wanted to read one to you that I got from a friend of mine and business partner, um, Michelle Weime. She's amazing and she really helps people with their mindset and these things. And she talks like your thoughts create your future. And um, I actually wanted to read this to you guys, and then we can probably type it out and put it into the show notes for you. So it says, God has called me to this work. I am a kingdom builder, a wealth distributor, and a light in the marketplace. So this opportunity is a blessing, and I'm here to offer it boldly, without pressure, and without apology. So that's just one of the things that I read as like a declaration, and then I'll with along with other um, you know, scriptures I've turned into declarations and things like that. So just equipping yourself first thing in the morning or as you're getting ready and sharing those things. You can even uh record uh one of the things you guys don't know about Janina and I, we've we're certified biblical leadership coaches, and one of the things we had um our students do, and what we did when we also went through the class was that we had to recite basically affirmations every day. And so then I would go when I recorded myself. So on those days, maybe I didn't feel like saying them, I could go and listen to them if I just needed to remind myself. So just putting those tools in place can be really helpful. And another thing that we have had our students do is um and actually even did this with my actual students in like the classroom when I was a teacher, was war paint. And so choosing one word that you want to stand on, that you want to believe about yourself or remind yourself of. And that could be maybe it's the word abundant, maybe it's that you are feeling joyful. What is something? Did you do you remember a word that you did? I did victorious one time. Did you do a word?

SPEAKER_01 19:12

I think abundant was the one that I did. And actually, we did this when we were with kids, like on Mission Romania. We did this when we were with the kids from the Roma village. We also did it at an orphanage in the Philippines, and a lot of them choose loved. That was the most common one was loved, chosen, and and so I beautiful. There were there were quite a few really sweet ones that you know when we asked them, like, we're like, well, pray about what word God wants you to choose. So it was really sweet to see that.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

I love that. So we want you to do that. Like, that could be something you do, and if you have kids at home, do it with them, get them involved. These are all practical things that you could even be doing with your family. But take a Sharpie and write it on your arm. Um, take a picture then and go tag us at Abudd Living Co. We'd love to see if you do this or um if you write down your declarations, like go put that in your stories, share it with others, and then tag us as well. We'd love to see what you're doing. But just remember that God multiplies what we manage and believe in the future vision that He has given you. So be fully committed to just run your race in faith. And I love this scripture in First Corinthians 9 26 because it reminds us that we have been called to live in freedom. So run with purpose in every step. And so I just like want to, that's kind of my prayer over you, and that we want you to remember about yourself. So we hope that you got a lot out of this episode. So share with us like your takeaways you got from it. What's one thing you're gonna implement, or all these things? Definitely we'd love to hear from you. And then we have just some resources too that we'll add an episode on um, there's a pause app. So that's one I've been using. John Eldridge has. It's free. You can download and it has daily prayers, it has like a morning and an evening one. Um, it also has like how you can experience Jesus more. It will also give you like one minute, three minutes. So if you just need you can time them throughout your day and it'll send you a reminder that you can just feel like, hey, you need to take your pause right now. So just getting again, it helps you. It's a tool to just help you keep your mind where it needs to be and on what it needs to be, and always on things above. And then if you want to journal, one of my favorite journals is from our good friend Kelly Knuckles of Embracing Grace. And she has really awesome journals on Amazon that you can get. So we'll put the link there for you, and then we'll get have that declaration for you that you can even write out as well. So we're so glad you tuned in for this episode, and we can't wait to see you on the next one.