For the believer who keeps meaning to begin.
Let your faith show up in the life you actually live.
Put one neglected part of your faith into practice—with a plan that fits your life and a way to begin again when you fall short.
A self-paced Christian course with nine guided steps, practical exercises, and a personal practice record.
See the nine steps ↓Perhaps you know which part of your faith walk needs attention. You mean to spend time in God’s Word. You mean to pray without rushing. You mean to reach out to another believer. Then the day fills up, and the thing you meant to do is still waiting.
I would like to help you bring one of those intentions into your ordinary life. We will look honestly at where you are, prepare a step you can take, and consider what happened when you tried it. You do not need to have the whole journey worked out before you begin.
You meant it when you said you would begin.
Let’s say you decide to read your Bible after the house settles down. You mean it. But a message arrives, something needs your attention, and before long you are ready for bed. The Bible stays where you left it.
What do you tell yourself the next morning? Perhaps it is, “I need to try harder.” Perhaps the disappointment reaches further: “Why do I keep doing this when my faith matters to me?” An unfinished intention can become a harsh description of the person who made it.
There is something here worth addressing. But we can address it honestly without deciding that we are beyond growth. The missed reading gives us a situation to examine. It does not tell us everything about our relationship with the Lord.
One practice can receive your attention now.
We can become so concerned about all the places we fall short that we try to change everything at once. We make a demanding plan, struggle to keep it, and take that struggle as proof that we cannot follow through.
This course asks you to begin with one practice. The other parts of your faith still matter. Your family and existing responsibilities still matter. We are giving one needed change enough attention to become a real action.
Examine. Choose. Walk.
First, you will pause with the Lord and use the seven questions from Awaken to look at your present faith walk. The questions cover God’s Word, praise and worship, fellowship, gathering with believers, sharing the message of Jesus, giving time and resources, and good works.
Then you will choose one practice, identify what has been getting in the way, and write a small step that actually expresses that practice. Reading a passage is an action. Arranging a reminder to read is preparation. Learning to tell the difference matters.
You will give that step a day, a place, a limit, and an honest definition of done. Then you leave the page and try it. When you return, the course helps you keep an account of what happened and choose your next opportunity.
The plan includes the day that does not go to plan.
Perhaps you begin but do less than you intended. Perhaps the opportunity passes altogether. Those are different experiences, and your record keeps them different. A partial attempt is still an attempt. A miss needs an honest response.
We will consider what you can take responsibility for and where you need to extend grace to yourself. You can change an unworkable time without giving up the practice. You can acknowledge a poor choice without adding a punishment that makes the next attempt harder.
This is the kind of growth I want you to pursue: a faith that reaches into your conduct, and a willingness to return when you still have something to learn.
Examine
Bring your actual life before the Lord and choose where to give your attention.
Choose
Prepare one meaningful step with room in the responsibilities you already hold.
Walk
Try the practice, keep an honest account, and use the experience to continue.
The teaching begins in Awaken. The work takes place in your life.
In chapter 11 of Awaken, I ask readers to examine seven parts of their faith walk, prayerfully consider adjustments, and begin planning small, intentional steps. Chapter 12 returns to the difficulty of falling short and learning to continue with realistic expectations.
The book gives you that teaching. This course provides a guided way to work through it: full explanations, examples of weak and useful answers, working exercises, and a personal record that carries your plan into an attempt and a review. You can see what the course asks you to do before deciding whether it will help you.
A fictional worked example
See how an unfinished attempt can lead to the next one.
- The intention
“I mean to spend time in God’s Word.”
- The plan
Read Luke 10:25–37 and write one question, after lunch at the kitchen table. Keep a ten-minute limit.
- What happened
Tuesday was missed. Thursday included some reading, but the passage and question were unfinished. Both entries remain in the record.
- The next opportunity
Saturday after breakfast: read Luke 10:33–37 and write one question, within the same ten-minute limit.
This illustrates the course’s existing worked example. It is not a customer result or James’s personal story. Read the full example →
A course you can work through, with room to apply what you learn.
Each step has a full guide. Each action explains what to do, shows you an example, and gives you a place to keep your own work. Read at your own pace, leave the page when it is time to act, and return with what happened.
Examine
Steps 1–3Pause
Begin honestly, with the Lord.
- Give your intention a real beginning, so you can become someone who brings a difficulty before God and takes responsibility for it.
- Bring the situation you are actually facing into prayer. You can begin with ordinary words, before you have a polished answer.
- Describe what has been happening without dressing it up or making one hard day the whole story of your faith.
Chart
See where your attention is needed.
- Look honestly at seven parts of your faith walk, practicing the kind of truthfulness others can rely on when you say how you are doing.
- Put words beside the number that troubles you. A Bible left closed after dinner tells you more than simply calling yourself undisciplined.
- Read the total without turning it into a verdict about your worth. Keep a starting point you can use instead of another reason to hide.
Practice
Give one part of your faith your attention.
- Choose one practice to act on, so the people close to you can see a specific commitment taking shape in your ordinary day.
- Set six improvement projects aside without setting your other responsibilities aside. You do not need seven new demands to take one faithful step.
- Name why this practice matters and what keeps interrupting it. Carry that reason into the days when the first burst of enthusiasm has passed.
Choose
Steps 4–6Adjustment
Change what keeps getting in the way.
- Bring the obstacle before the Lord and consider your part in it. Become someone who responds to a difficulty instead of repeating the same explanation.
- Make one adjustment aimed at the actual obstacle: where the phone goes, when the reading begins, or what must be ready beforehand.
- Check the change against your family, work, and existing commitments. A plan to grow in one area should not require neglect in another.
Step
Know what you will actually do.
- Turn “I should do more” into an action you can carry out, becoming someone whose faith is visible in what they do next.
- Tell the difference between preparing and practicing. Setting a reminder can help you read Scripture; the reminder itself is not the reading.
- Keep the smallest step that still expresses your chosen practice, so a crowded day does not automatically become a day you cannot begin.
Limit
Make a plan that has room in your life.
- Give the step a day, a place, and a cue, so your family can see someone making room for faith within the life you share.
- Prepare what you need and name the time or resources you can give. You can arrive ready instead of spending the opportunity getting ready.
- Decide what full, partial, and missed mean before you begin. Stop moving the finish line every time you have done what you planned.
Walk
Steps 7–9Attempt
Leave the plan and take the step.
- Carry the practice into your day. This is where you begin becoming the person who does the thing they have kept meaning to do.
- Keep an account of what happened while the details are clear. You will have something firmer than a vague feeling when you review it.
- Keep a miss in the record without letting it erase a later attempt. You can be honest about both, and learn from each.
Grace
Face what happened without giving up on growth.
- Separate what went wrong from a judgment about your whole self, so you can become someone who admits a miss and returns to the work.
- Keep the reason the practice matters. Receiving grace does not require pretending your desire to grow was unimportant.
- Write a response that holds responsibility and grace together: what needs attention, what you will do, and what punishment you can stop adding.
Review
Have a next step after the first attempt.
- Read your starting chart beside what actually happened, becoming someone who learns from experience instead of making the same promise all over again.
- Keep what helped and change what did not. You can adjust the time without throwing away the practice you still want to grow in.
- Leave with a dated next opportunity and a record you can return to. A difficult attempt can lead somewhere other than starting over from nothing.
The preview opens the first teaching page. No purchase is required to review it.
Included in the course
The teaching, the work,
and a record to return to.
- Nine step guides
- Understand what each part of the course is helping you change.
- Twenty-seven action guides and working exercises
- Move from an honest starting point to a plan, an attempt, and a next opportunity.
- A complete fictional worked example
- See how one reader’s decisions carry through the whole course, including a miss and a partial attempt.
- Examples across all seven practices
- Find a starting point you can adapt to the part of your faith you chose.
- Your personal practice record
- Keep your answers, plan, attempts, and reviews together. Print or download a copy for yourself.
Give one intention somewhere to go.
The course brings the teaching, examples, and working pages together so you can spend your attention on applying them. You can work through the material at your own pace and return to your record as you learn.
One payment for the course. No subscription proposed.
Purchasing is not open. The button below opens the course preview.
A few things you may be wondering.
Do I need to have read Awaken?
No. The course includes the explanations and questions you need to begin. If you have read the book, you will recognize the teaching and now have a guided way to apply it to one real situation.
Is this just the seven-question chart?
The chart is one part of Step 2. The course continues through choosing a practice, making a workable plan, taking a step, recording what happened, receiving grace, and preparing the next opportunity.
What if I fall short again?
Bring the actual experience back to the course. You will distinguish an attempt from a miss, consider your responsibility, and decide what to keep or change. The course includes a way to return; it does not promise that you will never struggle again.
Is this a video course or personal coaching?
It is a self-paced reading and practice course with full teaching guides and interactive working pages. It does not include video lessons or personal coaching.
How long will it take?
There is no required seven-day deadline. Reading, prayer, and the practice you choose take the time they take. You set an actual opportunity to act and then return to review it.
Where does my work go?
Your entries save in the browser you use. You can print or download your personal record. Keep a copy if you change devices; the current course does not sync your notes between devices.
You can begin with the next faithful step.
You do not have to wait until your schedule is perfect or your discouragement has disappeared. You can bring the part of your life that needs attention before the Lord and consider one response you are willing to make.
If you keep leaving that response undefined, another busy day can make the decision for you. Give it a place now. Read the opening guide and consider the recent situation you would bring into this work.
My friend, the aim is a faith that can be seen in the way we live. Begin honestly. Make room for the step. Then remain willing to learn as you walk with Him.
Read the opening guideOpens “Mark your start,” the first reading guide.
P.S. A missed attempt does not have to be the end of the practice. This course takes you through the return as well as the beginning, with an honest record and a next opportunity you can name.