You Are More Than What You Produce

Feb 10

Angeline sits at a table looking down as she paints a watercolor wreath. She is surrounded by her art supplies and has her document camera set up. — Photo by Kia & Co.

I am pretty sure there is a quiet pressure many of us carry without realizing it.

It doesn’t always shout. Sometimes it whispers — in the way we feel uneasy at the end of a day when nothing is crossed off a list. In the way “rest” feels uncomfortable unless we’ve earned it. In the way creativity slowly turns into something we feel we must justify.

Somewhere along the way and the longer we live in modern society, productivity becomes tangled with identity.

We live in a busy world that constantly asks us to measure our lives by output.

What did you make and how much did you make off of it?

Did you finish that project?

Do you have anything tangible to show for your time?

And even when we step away from work or social media, those questions tend to follow us. We take them with us into our homes, our creative practices, and even our faith.

For many women, especially mothers and creatives, this pressure feels constant and nagging. We become accustomed to being praised for how much we juggle, how efficiently we manage our days, and how quickly we turn ideas into results. Over time, it becomes easy to believe that our value rises and falls with what we get done.

But this was never how we were meant to live.

Scripture tells us that we are God’s workmanship. We have been carefully made, intentionally formed, and deeply loved. Not God’s workforce that runs until we no longer look like the woman we were meant to be. Not measured by usefulness or efficiency.

Our worth was established before we ever produced anything at all. Jesus Christ gave up EVERYTHING for us. We do not have to earn anything. We do not even have to earn our salvation. He has done it all.

And yet, we forget.

Even our spiritual lives can quietly slip into performance. We measure our faith by consistency and by how much we are doing for God instead of how deeply and earnestly we want to know Him and who he is. And as we strive, our God just wants us to be in fellowship and relationship with Him.

There is one thing that I know.

If this unmeasurable sense of striving happens within my faith, then I will definitely notice this tension show up in my creative life, too.

Watercolor, bible journaling, and crafting used to feel like places of freedom for me, but now slowly, and oh so subtly, they began to carry difficult expectations.

Gotta finish this project today so I can move on to the next thing.

Gotta make sure to share something on social media because if I don’t, did it really happen?

Make sure it is meaningful or useful.

Creativity became another place where I felt the need to prove my worth.

So this year I chose to practicing something different.

I started painting without an agenda.
Journaling without needing insight.
Creating without finishing.

Not every watercolor piece needed to be on social media.

Not every moment needs a result.

On most days, the act of showing up is more than enough.

And in that space, something gentle happened: I remembered that my value doesn’t come from what my hands produce, but from the fact that I exist, am loved, and held by a good and gracious God.

You are allowed to have days that don’t add up to anything impressive.
You are allowed to rest without justifying it.
You are allowed to create simply because you are alive.

Your life is not a project to complete.
Your worth is not something you earn.

You are more than what you produce…and you always have been.