S3 E2 One Faithful Step

Season 3, Episode 2: One Faithful Step 👣🤍

What if becoming the woman God is calling you to be doesn’t require one giant leap—but simply the courage to take the next small step?

In this episode of She Is Enough, I’m sharing what I’m learning about slowing down, letting go of the pressure to make everything perfect, and finding God in the ordinary moments of our lives.

We talk about motherhood and realizing our children need our presence more than perfect experiences, building small habits instead of constantly trying to overhaul our lives, making space for God—even if it’s only five minutes—and learning to celebrate the wins we so easily overlook.

Especially during busy seasons like back-to-school, when so many women are taking care of everyone else, I want to ask: When was the last time you made space to simply breathe, be still, and recognize what God is already doing in your life?

Maybe you don’t need to have the entire path figured out.

Maybe you just need enough faith for the next step.

✨ One prayer.
✨ One verse.
✨ One quiet moment.
✨ One small act of courage.
✨ One faithful step.

Because sometimes we're waiting for God to do something extraordinary while He's inviting us to be faithful in the ordinary.

🎧 Press play and let’s take the next step together.

Link to Bible App- Bible App: Read, Listen, and Pray | YouVersion

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hi, beautiful ladies, and welcome to the She Is Enough Podcast, the place where we remind ourselves that our worth isn't something we earn. It's something we've already been given by God. I'm your host, Jocelyn Ortiz, and like many of you, I'm learning what it means to trust God through life's unexpected seasons. This isn't a podcast from someone who's figured it all out. It's a space where we walk together while we're becoming. Whether you're navigating grief, motherhood, healing, setting boundaries, or rediscovering yourself, you belong here. We speak Spanglish here, Lo siento, Auelita, because we live in both worlds and both are sacred. So grab your cafecito, get comfortable, and let's walk through this season together. Abuelita, this is still for you. Hi, beautiful ladies, and welcome back to the She Is Enough podcast. Today I want to talk about something God has been teaching me lately. Something that honestly sounds so simple, but has been changing the way I look at motherhood, my health, my faith, and even the way I spend my days. And it's this sometimes we're waiting for God to do something extraordinary while He's inviting us to be faithful in the ordinary. I think so many of us are waiting for the giant breakthrough, the perfect timing, or the big moment that changes everything. But what if becoming isn't one giant leap? Not one giant step. What if it's one faithful step at a time? I've noticed something about myself. I used to believe that if I was going to do something well, it had to be big. It had to be amazing. Big goals, big memories, big changes, big gestures. And it wasn't big. Somehow it didn't count. But the older I get, the more I realize our lives aren't built in the big moments. They're built in the small ones. I remember thinking that being a good mom meant creating these magical moments all the time. Planning amazing outings, buying fun things, making every weekend unforgettable. But honestly, it left me exhausted. Sometimes I was so focused on creating the perfect memory that I wasn't even present enough to enjoy it. And what I've been learning is that my daughters don't need a perfect mom. They just need me. They're going to remember swimming together. They're going to remember us laughing together. They're going to remember going down the water slide and watching mom admit that she was scared. Definitely scared of water slides. Um, but doing it anyways. So maybe one of the greatest lessons they'll learn isn't that mom was fearless, but the courage sometimes looks like doing something while you're staying afraid. And isn't that kind of what faith is, right? It's doing something scary, but doing it anyways. We talked a little bit about those 20 seconds of bravery, the wrestling that I had in even starting up again and recording uh the podcast again. But I think these are the moments that we teach our kids the most, right? We teach them that it's okay to be scared, it's okay to just take a couple of steps and take a deep breath. How many times have any of you started an extreme diet and said, I'm cutting everything out, I'm working out twice a day, I'm changing my whole life starting Monday, and then a few weeks later, you're honestly so exhausted, sometimes the first week, because you're so sore. But think about brushing your teeth. You don't wake up every morning wondering if you're going to do it. I hope not. It's simple become, it simply became part of who you are, and that's how a lasting transformation happens. It's really one small habit repeated over time. Some of you have heard about like habit stacking. Um, it's really about making your life so much easier by just tacking it on to something you already do because your muscle memory starts remembering it. So now I want to tie this back to faith, right? Because this is why we're here. So faith works in similar ways. For the longest time, I thought spending time with God had to look perfect. An hour in my Bible, a beautiful journal, everything highlighted, even had different colored pens for it. And I set this really high expectation that I needed to understand everything. I needed to understand everything in my Bible, and honestly, it was super intimidating, first of all. And secondly, I was really confused. Still am. Um, but now sometimes I just read one passage, to be honest with you. Just one. Sometimes I write a few thoughts, sometimes I do highlight, sometimes I close my Bible and laugh because I think, God, I don't know if my mind understood that today, but I hope my soul did. And genuinely, sometimes I'm just like, okay, that's good enough. I know that my soul is gonna remember it, and I'm really confused right now. But God, I'm trying to be present. I don't know what this means. I don't know if I'm gonna understand it right now, or maybe I'm gonna understand it later. But I'm taking those small steps because I do want to get closer to God. I do want to understand the word. Am I going to understand it forever? And every single time, probably not. Some of you have maybe seen that I started doing or started a Bible study again with one of my really good friends, Cynthia. And I don't know if I've told her this, but I like assumed that she was like an expert at it and realized that we all have like similar questions. Like we all read it sometimes and we're like, hmm, well, what does this mean to you? And sometimes it means something completely different for all of us. And I think that's the beauty of reading the Bible because we're all in different seasons and we're all gonna interpret it differently, but not only different people, like when we open it, we might open it and open up um to a verse, and then it means something completely different a year later. You might remember or maybe why you highlighted it, but you know, might not apply to you in the same way, or you might think of it in a different situation. So it's really not about being perfect, not even being perfect, faithfulness. It's really about just taking those small steps. One thing that I've realized in kind of taking that less, I don't know, pressure, I guess we can call it, is that sometimes I want God to answer my question the same day. And I think part of it is because we're so attached to our phones and we can literally get answers within seconds. But that's not how God works. Um, sometimes we're like, okay, God, like, what do you mean? Like, what door are you gonna open today? Like, are you gonna open this door or are you gonna open that door? And we're so impatient. We're so impatient. I think our society is getting worse and worse and worse at patience that you actively have to be like, okay, I'm gonna practice patience right now. Because we have so much instant gratitude. We literally have everything at our fingertips. You're hungry, you don't want to drive it in and out. Okay, so you're gonna order. I don't even know if you're gonna order in and out on Uber Eats, but we have Uber Eats, we have DoorDash, we have Instacart, we have all of these things at our fingertips. That when our phone dies and we have no phone, we feel so weird, right? But God doesn't work that way. God doesn't work in the way where you have a challenge or you have a moment or you have a question. He may be answering a question for you that you had months ago. He because he's constantly preparing us, maybe not for today, but maybe for tomorrow, or maybe even a few months from now. But God gives us exactly what we need before we know that we need it, because that's who he is. Faith can feel frustrating because we definitely want the entire map, we want to know where the season is leading, we want every answer before we move, but God rarely works that way. And I think that's one of the hardest things for me when I'm trying to make decisions. I'm definitely the type of person that wants to have all the answers before so I can make an informed decision, right? And remember, I'm I work in HR, so I'm used to needing all the facts to be able to make a decision because most of my decisions are impacting other people and employees, and I want to make sure I'm doing the right thing. So I actively have to just be like, okay, I'm not gonna have all of the answers. And this is part of the season, right? We want to know where the season is leading, we want to every answer, and God, like I said, he rarely works this way. His word says, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. He doesn't say I'm going to turn on every light in your house so that you know exactly where you're going. He's going to point you in the right direction, but he's not going to show you the whole map. So, a lamp, just enough for light for the next step. That next step of faith. Those 20 seconds of bravery. And as I'm recording this, I want to thank all the mommies on this podcast. Thank you for joining during this back to school season. Uh, many of us, some of us have already started it, depending on which state you're in, which side of the state you're on. Um, but for me at least, uh, my kiddo is going back to school. And during this back to school season, there's so much that goes on. I think I didn't really realize this until now, my kids in school. But there's shopping, there's school supplies, there's meet the teacher night, there's new routines, there's early mornings, there's fighting in the morning with the hair and the waking up and the new routine, and you're trying to get your kids used to the new routine. Uh, we're also trying to help our children navigate new classrooms, new teachers, and maybe lots of new fears. We're doing everything we can to prepare them. But can I ask you something? Are you preparing your own heart? While you're packing lunches, are you feeding your soul? While you're encouraging your children to be brave, right? We're like, you got this, it's gonna be okay, you're gonna love your new teacher, maybe you'll have a classmate in there, right? Like, we're constantly there trying to calm their fears. Are you remembering where your own courage comes from? And maybe you don't have an hour, right? Maybe you have five minutes, five quiet minutes before everyone wakes up, five minutes in the school pickup line, five minutes in the car before walking into work. Five minutes with God is still five minutes spent with the one who created you. Now, can I ask another question? When was the last time you sat in complete silence, right? I'm talking about everything being literally at our fingertips. But when has been the last time you sat in complete silence? No phone, no notifications, no emails, no one needing something from you, just you and God. I think so many of us struggle with silence because we've become so accustomed to always being available for everyone else. But sometimes God's voice is easiest to hear when we're finally stop filling every empty space, every empty minute with noise. One thing I've learned this season is to celebrate the small wins, not just the promotions or the vacations or the big milestones, but the ordinary victories. Maybe today your win is simply I got out of bed. I took a walk, I hugged my kids, I apologized, I laughed, I prayed, I chose peace, I showed up. Or maybe your win is even simpler. I'm alive, I have a heartbeat, I can breathe. Those aren't small blessings, those are gifts from God. And sometimes we overlook miracles because they become part of our everyday lives. I'm gonna be honest, this week has been really tough. Um I there's a lot of changes going on at work right now. We're hiring a lot of people, and um, it's just a lot of responsibility, right? As well as it being back to school, we are juggling, right? Getting our kid ready, uh, doing the first day of school sign. I'm like, I don't know what it's called. The yeah, I guess the first day of school sign, right? Where you put like their favorite things, and so we're like, wait, where did that go? Because you know, you only use it once a year. And you know, I've been getting home late, so I'm like trying to prepare dinner, and luckily I meal prepped, and I just feel like my brain doesn't stop, it hasn't not stopped, it just keeps going, going, going, going, going, going, going until I'm finally gonna go to sleep. And I realized I'm like, okay, I'm not giving myself time to just take a deep breath. I think in some of the one of my episodes, or maybe two of them, I talked about um like those transitions, right? Like just chilling in the car for like five extra minutes just to like let your brain decompress from like, okay, I gotta work. I got straight into my car, I started driving, I'm navigating, switching lanes, and getting off exits, and then I got home and then I'm like total mom mode, and I'm like, okay, I need to heat this up and I need to do this, and I have two daughters, right? And so they're like, mom, mom, mom, and they don't know how to take turns talking, and then my husband's asking me questions, and I'm like, oh, I'm exhausted. Um, that's part of that's part of the mom life, right? Um, but yeah, I I think I realize that. I realized that this week I have not given myself breaks, and I'm not gonna beat myself up over it. I think I'm just being real with you, is uh it's hard. It's hard to fit it in sometimes, and it's hard to be like, hey, I need a second. I need a couple of minutes, and maybe some of you are really great at it. So if you are, I commend you for it. I think for me, sometimes when I'm navigating new things, or I'm navigating change, or I'm navigating just doing things that I'm not used to doing, I naturally gravitate towards like okay, I need to do all this, and I kind of hyper-aphyxiate on like okay, I need to make sure I do this, and oh my gosh, I haven't done this. And um, instead of just being like, okay, I'm gonna do these three things, and then the rest will be a win if I do them, and if not, then I don't there they were just meant to be a bonus, and so I think that's been I think that's been the theme this week is just kind of making sure that I'm giving myself the time. I um did have I did fit in some time to get some movement in yesterday, and I have been consistent with reading my Bible lab. So um on my phone, since we're on our phone all the time, I have a Bible app. Um, if I can drop the link on the on the show notes, but uh you can pick a plan, and I just finished another plan, and honestly, most of the time it takes me like 10 minutes to read all the devotionals and just kind of like the little excerpts. And sometimes I will like reference the Bible and kind of read the entire excerpt, but um if I get those 10 minutes done, like that's a win for me. So I will celebrate that as a win as well. I've been consistent and I've done it every single day, different times, but I I've been doing it. So there's a win, there's a small win there. So however you're navigating this week or the first couple of weeks, if your kiddos already started school, I hope that you're giving yourself grace. I hope that you're giving yourself the time that you need to embrace this change, right? For some of you, like your kids going to a new grade is a huge milestone. It's like, okay, my kid made it here, right? I'm thinking about the parents, and I'm not in this situation, but I'm thinking about the parents that sent their kids off to college, and that's hard. Saying goodbye to your kid is hard, and I think sometimes understanding and saying, Hey, my daughter's growing up, my son's growing up, are they still gonna need me, right? So many times I think as our kids grow up, we expect it to get easier, right? And it does, I think it gets easier in certain sense, right? Like when they're newborns, they need you literally for everything. And then as they get older, I think you navigate the change of them need not them not needing you as much. And yes, you have more freedom, but you also kind of miss parts of it, right? And that's okay too. I think it's okay to miss what used to be, right? Um and also feel fear as they navigate life, right? And hope that you've done a good enough job that they'll know what to do. Because the world is scary, the world is scary for us, so I can only imagine for them, and we also. Live in a different world that we grew up in, right? I don't think I'm gonna date myself here, but I got my first cell phone. I think I was oh gosh, I think I was in the end of middle school, maybe. And for my parents, that was strange because they didn't have a cell phone until they were adults, and so I knew that was a challenge for them, right? As they were navigating, like, okay, what are the rules for the cell phones? And you know, now our kids are around so much technology that we're even still trying to navigate, like, okay, how do we raise them in a world of technology? And now with AI, I think it's we're trying to learn AI ourselves, and then we also have to figure out what are the parameters for our kids as well. And so change is hard. I think I went from take steps of faith to uh change, change is hard. But um, I hope that you're having a wonderful week. Um, I'm probably going to release this on Friday. So I hope that you survive the week and I hope that you're giving yourself some downtime to rest, to do something you enjoy. Do something that you enjoy and remember that all the stresses are the stresses, and you don't need to carry them. Give them to God and trust that every door that's meant to open will open and trust that we don't need to run to the finish line. All we need to do is take small little steps. All right, beautiful friend. Maybe you've been waiting until you feel ready. Maybe you feel you've been waiting for a very long time. Maybe you've been waiting until your faith feels bigger. But Jesus never said we needed mountain size faith. He said the faith, the size of a mustard seed. Maybe today God isn't asking you for that leap. Maybe he's asking you for one small step, one prayer, one page of scripture, one act of forgiveness. Oof, that one's hard. One workout, one conversation, one moment of obedience. Because becoming doesn't happen overnight, it happens every time we choose to trust God with the next faithful step. And one day you'll look back and realize those little steps became the life God was building all along. And before we close today, I'd love for us to read a few verses together. I'm gonna try this out and see how it works, and hopefully you like it. But I'm gonna read Zechariah verse 4 10, right? Zechariah 4 10. Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin. All right, the next one is Psalm 119-105. Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. And then the last one is Matthew 1720. If you have faith as a small, as small as a mustard seed, nothing will be impossible for you. And I'm gonna pause there for a second. Because sometimes reading these is a little convicting, but I think we have it in us all the time, right? To have the faith to have the patience and be able to be open, right? Being able to be open to the fact that God's plan is greater than mine, to think that today's stresses aren't gonna be forever. Today's stresses aren't gonna be here a year from now. And it's okay to validate our feeling. But it's also important to just have a little faith. The size of a mustard seed. Alright, I'm going to say a prayer now. I'm gonna say Heavenly Father, thank you for this beautiful and amazing day. Thank you for this beautiful community. Thank you for every single person that's listening today Thank you for the person that shared this with another person today. Maybe they were struggling, maybe they didn't know where to start. Maybe they've been trying to figure out the perfect way to move closer to you but never got quite got it to perfect. May they understand, may we all understand that our plans and our relationship with you don't have to be perfect. That you just want us to have faith, that you just want us to be there. So wherever our path leads us this week, we pray that you're alongside of us as the doors continue to open or close for us. May the doors that close be the right ones that are no longer serving us and no longer in the season that we're in or the version of us that are becoming. May the doors that open be open for us and for us to have the patience and the understanding of what's to come and even when we have to leave things behind, that we be open to the new things that are coming. May we find joy in the little moments, may we find joy in the times with our family and our loved ones. May you always be with us, may you bless our path, may you bless every step that we take as we work on figuring out who we are this season. Thank you, ladies, so much for joining today. I really hope that you enjoyed the episode. I am happy to be back. I'm happy to be here with you recording this episode, and I hope you have a wonderful and amazing day. And that wraps up this episode. Thank you, ladies, for tuning in today. This is a reminder, I am offering live and career coaching. So if you're interested, if you love my content, if you uh love all the pillars that I stand for, I do have a coaching program for women uh that are either in live transitions, trying to elevate themselves, or going through a career transition. Um and I'd love to help you through it. So if you're interested, please email me at sheisenough podcast at gmail.com. And if you're not interested, but you know someone who would be interested in or benefit from this episode, please share it with them and hit subscribe. Thank you, and have a wonderful day.