Have you ever noticed how quickly we can talk ourselves out of something good?
"I'm finally making progress…but I know it won't last."
"I feel like God is calling me to this…but what if I fail?"
"Things are going really well…but I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop."
What if the very thing keeping you from experiencing God's goodness isn't the absence of His grace—but the little word you keep adding after it?
But.
"I'm making progress…but I know it won't last."
"I feel like God is calling me to this…but what if I fail?"
"Things are going really well…but I'm waiting for something to go wrong."
We can be so quick to recognize something good happening in our lives and then immediately qualify it, minimize it, or talk ourselves out of it. And often, what comes after the but reveals the fear, doubt, or distorted belief we're actually operating from.
In today's episode of Nourished to Bloom, we're talking about how our "buts" can keep us from fully receiving the abundant grace God is already pouring into our lives—and what they can teach us about where our mindset work needs to happen.
🌸 In this episode, we'll talk about:
✨ Why I start my coaching sessions by asking clients to share their wins—and what one client's response taught me about receiving goodness
✨ How the thoughts that come after our "but" can reveal the beliefs we're actually living from
✨ Why fear and doubt can keep us from being present to the goodness God is giving us right now
✨ How our thoughts and beliefs influence our emotions, behaviors, and the way we show up in our lives
✨ How to hold distorted beliefs up against God's truth instead of allowing fear to have the final word
✨ What 2 Corinthians 9:6–10 teaches us about God's abundance and His promise to provide the grace we need for every good work
✨ A simple "No More Buts" challenge to help you recognize where fear may be keeping you from receiving God's grace
Friend, God's grace is not scarce. You don't have to justify His goodness, qualify it, or convince yourself that you've already received more than you deserve.
Maybe this week, instead of saying, "God is doing something good, but…" we simply stop the sentence.
God is doing something good.
Period.
Receive the grace. Notice the goodness. Give thanks for what God is doing. And trust that He will continue to provide what you need to become the woman He is calling you to be.
🌸 Ready to work on the thoughts and beliefs keeping you stuck?
If you're recognizing some deeply rooted "buts" that are keeping you in fear, doubt, comparison, or feeling like you're not enough, this is exactly the kind of work we can do together through coaching. Email me kara@karatrochta.com to learn more about working together and taking the next step toward greater clarity, confidence, and freedom.
And if this episode encouraged you, share it with a friend who might need the reminder too: God's goodness doesn't need a "but."
Join The Nourished to Bloom Community: www.community.karatrochta.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/karatrochta
The Nourished to Bloom Podcast Show Notes: www.podcast.karatrochta.com/shownotes
00:00:00
What if one little word is keeping you from actually receiving the goodness
00:00:05
that God is pouring into your life? It's a
00:00:08
word that we use all the time. You ready?
00:00:13
But. Here's what I mean. Things are going really well, but
00:00:17
I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. I'm finally making progress towards my
00:00:21
goals, but I know it probably won't last.
00:00:25
I feel like God is calling me towards something,
00:00:29
But what if I fail? And I've started noticing
00:00:33
something both in my coaching clients and in myself.
00:00:37
Sometimes everything that comes before the but is
00:00:41
the, like, astounding evidence of God's grace in our
00:00:45
lives. And then everything that comes after the but reveals
00:00:49
the fear, the doubt, or the distorted belief that is keeping us from
00:00:53
fully receiving it. So today we're talking about what would
00:00:56
happen if we stopped adding a but to God's
00:01:00
goodness. Welcome to the Nourish to Bloom
00:01:04
podcast, where your faith meets your health. I'm your host,
00:01:07
Kara Trachtner, a registered dietitian and certified Catholic coach, and
00:01:11
I'm here to help you cultivate a deeper connection with your body, your spirit,
00:01:15
and the nourishment that sustains them both. In a world
00:01:19
filled with noise and confusion about food, health, and body image, this
00:01:23
podcast offers truth and healing from a Christ-centered
00:01:26
perspective. Together, we'll untangle the deep roots of diet
00:01:30
culture and discover what it means to truly care for
00:01:34
ourselves through joyful nourishment of mind, body, and
00:01:37
soul. We're here to dive into the transformative power of intuitive eating
00:01:41
coupled with the rich teachings of our Christian faith. With every
00:01:45
episode, I'll be cheering you on, offering insights, inspiration,
00:01:49
and practical tools to help you heal your relationship with food.
00:01:53
And embrace the beauty of your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit
00:01:57
with confidence and courage that can only be found in
00:02:01
Christ. Join me as we journey together towards a more holistic
00:02:04
approach to wellness, one that honors the wisdom of your body as
00:02:08
God's creation, the teachings of our faith, and the unique
00:02:12
purpose you're called to fulfill. You were made
00:02:16
to bloom, to come into full beauty and health in
00:02:19
order to bear good fruit for the Lord with your life. So if you're ready
00:02:23
to nourish your body, feed your soul, and bloom into the best version of
00:02:27
yourself, then you're in the right place, and I'm so happy you're here.
00:02:32
Welcome to Nourish to Bloom, where every day is a sacred
00:02:35
invitation to thrive. Hey there, welcome back to
00:02:39
the Nourish to Bloom podcast. Happy to be here with you this week.
00:02:43
We are headed back to school this week, which brings on,
00:02:48
um, A whole lot of emotions. I'm
00:02:51
ready, and then I'm also not ready. And, you know, then there's
00:02:55
just like all the logistical things. But ready or
00:02:59
not, here we go. And I think it's going to be a really good year,
00:03:02
a really sweet year, um, and just looking forward to
00:03:07
whatever it's going to bring. So I'm really excited about
00:03:11
this podcast episode. Um, I always love when
00:03:16
I'm in a coaching session with someone, and
00:03:20
just through something that they've revealed, the
00:03:23
Lord puts this like aha moment in front of me. And so that's what I'm
00:03:27
sharing with you today, because I typically begin my coaching
00:03:31
sessions by asking the person I'm working with to share
00:03:34
any wins that they've had since our previous session. And what I mean by
00:03:38
wins is it can be anything. It can be progress toward a
00:03:42
goal. It could be maybe they followed through on something that they've been putting
00:03:46
off, or they handled different conversation or situation
00:03:50
differently than they would have 6 months ago. Maybe they're noticing
00:03:53
some emotional growth, or they're able to set and hold a
00:03:57
boundary. Maybe it looks like they've rested or
00:04:01
eaten something or gone and done something without feeling
00:04:05
guilty about it, or they're recognizing a thought pattern that
00:04:08
normally sends them spiraling, spiraling, and they were able
00:04:12
to interrupt it. Or maybe they simply had a hard week
00:04:16
and responded with more grace towards themselves than they have in the past.
00:04:20
It doesn't have to be this, you know, huge accomplishment, but
00:04:24
just really helping understand what they see as
00:04:28
a win. And I do this for a couple of reasons. First, because it
00:04:32
starts us off on a positive note. It sends their brains on a
00:04:35
mission to go find the good that has happened in their lives.
00:04:39
Because our brains are really good at finding what went wrong. We
00:04:43
tend to fixate on the negative, what
00:04:47
we didn't finish, where we fell short, the thing we said that we wish we
00:04:50
could take back, the workout that was missed,
00:04:54
the habit that we didn't follow through on, or the person that seems to
00:04:58
be doing something better than we are. We don't usually have to train our
00:05:02
brains to go find those things. It's like this constant ticker
00:05:05
tape that's running through our minds. So simply by asking, what are
00:05:09
your wins? It's just giving us an opportunity to intentionally
00:05:13
look in another direction, being able to see,
00:05:17
was there growth? Where was the grace? Where
00:05:20
did God move in their life? What went differently
00:05:24
this time? And it gives us this time to reflect on, on the
00:05:28
goodness and the gratitude that we've experienced.
00:05:32
And the second reason why I do this is because it helps me as their
00:05:35
coach see where they are and the progress that's being made.
00:05:39
Because sometimes we're so close to our own lives that we can't see how far
00:05:43
we've actually come. So I was doing this
00:05:47
exact same thing in a coaching session a few weeks ago, and the woman that
00:05:51
I was working with, I had been coaching for several months at this point,
00:05:54
and she— gosh, y'all, she was just
00:05:59
so joyful and
00:06:03
overjoyed with the progress that she had been experiencing and the goodness that she was
00:06:06
seeing in her life. Like, you could just see the joy in her whole being.
00:06:11
You could sense that she was different, and you could see the ways that the
00:06:14
Lord had been working. Not that He hadn't been working previously,
00:06:18
but that she was aware of the way that the Lord was working in
00:06:22
her life. She could recognize her own growth, and that there was just so much
00:06:25
goodness happening. And she was just so excited about it.
00:06:29
But then something really interesting happened.
00:06:33
Almost as quickly as she acknowledged all of that goodness, she tried to
00:06:37
diminish it. She told me that she was receiving
00:06:41
all of these good things, but did she deserve them?
00:06:46
You know, the, the Lord had already done so much good in her life. He
00:06:49
had already brought incredible healing into her life, including healing from
00:06:53
addiction. And somewhere along the way, she started having
00:06:56
this belief that God has already done enough for me.
00:07:01
And so she was adding all of these
00:07:04
these caveats on this goodness. It's almost like there was
00:07:08
some imaginary allotment in her mind of the amount of grace that
00:07:12
she was allowed to receive, and she just was having
00:07:16
a really tough time believing that he was still doing good things in her life
00:07:20
because she didn't think she deserved them anymore. And then she
00:07:23
said something that really stuck with me. She
00:07:27
said, the buts that come after the good things
00:07:31
Kept her from actually being in the moment.
00:07:35
She couldn't simply receive the goodness. It was always this, but
00:07:41
there always had to be this qualifier. And immediately I thought,
00:07:46
I mean, how many times do I do this too? And maybe that's something that
00:07:49
you find yourself doing as well. So let's
00:07:53
really look at what comes after the but, because when we acknowledge something good
00:07:57
and then immediately follow with a but, And without even
00:08:01
realizing it, what we're doing is we're negating the way that God is
00:08:05
working in our lives by immediately attaching a negative thought to it.
00:08:09
Think about how often we say things like, I've been making really good
00:08:12
progress towards building this habit, but I
00:08:16
know it won't last. My marriage is in such a good
00:08:20
place right now, but I'm sure something's going to happen.
00:08:24
I'm actually feeling really good in my body lately, But
00:08:28
I probably shouldn't get too comfortable. I'm
00:08:32
proud of how I handled that situation, but I still should have
00:08:36
done better. I think the Lord wants me to
00:08:39
pursue this dream, but what if I mess it up?
00:08:44
Things are finally going well with one of my kids, but I
00:08:48
don't want to get my hopes up. I'm really enjoying
00:08:52
this season of life, But I know it won't last forever.
00:08:58
I think God might be opening this door for me, but who am I
00:09:02
to think that I could do this? Do you
00:09:05
see what happens? I'm telling you, in this session, it was such an aha
00:09:09
moment for me personally to see this
00:09:13
connection of this first half of those sentences
00:09:16
revealing this goodness that's there, this growth and this
00:09:20
grace, this evidence of God's presence in our lives.
00:09:24
And then comes that but. And what I find really
00:09:27
interesting is that what follows the but is often what we are
00:09:31
actually believing about the situation.
00:09:35
And that's that place that we're operating from. We're operating from places
00:09:39
of, this isn't gonna last, I'm gonna fail, I didn't deserve this,
00:09:43
I'm not capable, something bad is probably coming, I
00:09:47
shouldn't get too comfortable. Who do I think I am to
00:09:50
deserve this? And what is amazing is
00:09:54
that that is where the mindset work needs to
00:09:58
happen. It's just this, like, again, this beautiful, like,
00:10:01
clue that the Lord gives us, because the but may be
00:10:05
revealing the exact place where the enemy is trying to keep
00:10:09
you doubting or discouraged or distracted
00:10:13
and trying to keep you stuck and frozen.
00:10:18
And I think that this is important, because sometimes we imagine the
00:10:22
enemy's work in our lives as something dramatic. But
00:10:26
he doesn't always have to take away the good thing.
00:10:29
Sometimes he just has to convince us not to
00:10:33
receive it. God can give us something beautiful, and
00:10:36
the enemy whispers, you don't deserve it. God can show
00:10:40
us evidence of growth, and the enemy says, it won't last.
00:10:44
God can invite us into something new and the enemy says, you're probably
00:10:48
going to fail. God can give us a moment of joy
00:10:52
and the enemy says, don't get too comfortable.
00:10:56
And suddenly, instead of experiencing gratitude, instead
00:11:00
of experiencing joy or peace or hope, we're
00:11:03
experiencing anxiety. Instead of confidence,
00:11:07
doubt. Instead of joy, fear.
00:11:11
Instead of being present to how the Lord is moving in your life right now,
00:11:16
we're mentally preparing ourselves for the moment when it all falls apart,
00:11:20
and we're missing the grace of the present moment.
00:11:25
And gosh, if you've listened to the podcast for a little while, you've heard me
00:11:28
talk about this, that our thoughts matter. Our thoughts
00:11:32
and our beliefs create our emotions, and our behaviors and our
00:11:36
habits stem from those emotions. So imagine the difference
00:11:40
between these 2 beliefs: God is providing what I need for this
00:11:43
season versus this probably isn't going to last.
00:11:48
What emotions come from the first? Gratitude,
00:11:52
peace, confidence, hope, trust.
00:11:56
And what comes from the second? Fear, anxiety,
00:12:00
doubt, discouragement. Those
00:12:04
emotions are going to produce very different actions.
00:12:08
This is why our mindset work matters. And when
00:12:11
we are working on reframing these distorted beliefs, part of
00:12:16
our counterattack is holding those beliefs up to God's
00:12:19
truth, right? Taking those distorted
00:12:23
beliefs and holding them up to God's truth to see, is this
00:12:27
actually true? Is this What God
00:12:30
says? What does Scripture tell me?
00:12:35
What evidence do I have of God's presence and faithfulness in my
00:12:39
life? Because we don't fight lies simply by telling
00:12:42
ourselves nicer thoughts; we fight these lies with
00:12:46
God's truth. And there are so many places in
00:12:49
Scripture where we see God's abundance at work.
00:12:54
But recently, I came across a passage that really encouraged
00:12:57
me when I was thinking about this. No more buts
00:13:01
mentality. And it comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verses
00:13:05
6 through 10. Brothers and sisters, whoever sows
00:13:09
sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully
00:13:13
will also reap bountifully. Each must do as already
00:13:16
determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful
00:13:20
giver. Moreover, God is able to make every grace
00:13:23
abundant for you, so that in all things Always having all you
00:13:27
need, you may have an abundance for every good work. As
00:13:31
it is written, he scatters abroad, he gives to the poor, his righteousness
00:13:34
endures forever. The one who supplies seed to the sower and
00:13:38
bread for food will supply and multiply your seed and increase
00:13:42
the harvest of your righteousness.
00:13:46
So I just want to highlight a couple of things from this
00:13:50
scripture passage. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap
00:13:53
sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
00:13:58
And just as I was reflecting on this, I started thinking about how often
00:14:03
we sow sparingly in our own lives because we are operating from this fear
00:14:06
and doubt. We hold back, we don't pursue the things,
00:14:10
we don't use our gifts, we don't allow ourselves to hope,
00:14:14
we don't fully receive the good, and we try to protect
00:14:18
ourselves from disappointment by expecting less. But when
00:14:22
we continually operate from fear, and doubt, we can
00:14:26
keep ourselves from bearing the abundant fruit God desires to
00:14:29
produce through our lives. And then Paul continues, God
00:14:33
is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all
00:14:37
things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance
00:14:41
for every good work. Take a minute and really hear
00:14:45
that. Every grace. All things.
00:14:48
Always having all you need. An abundance for every good work.
00:14:54
That doesn't sound like a God who's rationing his grace to us.
00:14:58
It doesn't sound like a God who's saying, okay, you've had enough goodness, you
00:15:01
reached your limit. It sounds like a Father who gives us
00:15:05
what we need so that we can become the woman he created us to be
00:15:08
and do that good work that he is calling us to do. And
00:15:13
gosh, maybe if that's that reframe that
00:15:17
some of us need. The goodness that God is giving you isn't necessarily
00:15:21
meant to stop with you. That healing, the growth,
00:15:24
the opportunity, the gift, the wisdom, the experience,
00:15:29
the confidence, the resources, the grace— maybe God is
00:15:32
providing all of those things because there is good work ahead of you.
00:15:37
It says God loves a cheerful giver, and it— and
00:15:41
this, this passage finishes with The one that
00:15:45
supplies the seed to the sower and the bread for food will multiply
00:15:49
and will supply and multiply your seed and increase the
00:15:52
harvest of your righteousness.
00:15:56
Think about that, that this abundance is
00:16:00
not— we are the only ones who are limiting this abundance
00:16:04
when we add a but and we try to justify or put a
00:16:08
qualifier on God's goodness and grace in our lives.
00:16:12
And, and I keep coming back to, to what the
00:16:16
woman that I was coaching said. I don't deserve this.
00:16:20
But here's what you need to, to remember, because the truth is, is that grace
00:16:24
is not something that we earn. That's why it's grace.
00:16:28
We don't have to convince God we're finally good enough to receive his goodness.
00:16:33
We don't have to pay him back for what he's already done before he can
00:16:36
do something else. We don't have to say, thank you, God,
00:16:40
but we can simply say, thank you for this
00:16:44
season, for the growth, for the healing, for the moment with
00:16:48
our kids, for the progress that you're making, for
00:16:51
opening a door, for giving you courage, for giving you
00:16:55
what you needed today. And then just pausing and
00:16:59
staying there long enough to receive it. So
00:17:03
here's my challenge for you this week. No more
00:17:06
buts. Or at the very least, start noticing them.
00:17:11
Pay attention to the next time something good happens and you immediately attach a but
00:17:15
to it. Maybe even write that sentence down.
00:17:19
Whatever it is that you're experiencing, but— and then fill in the blank.
00:17:23
And look closely at what you wrote after that but, because that
00:17:27
thought might reveal exactly where your mindset work needs to happen.
00:17:32
And then ask yourself, is this true? How does this compare to
00:17:35
God's truth? What am I afraid will happen if I
00:17:39
simply receive this goodness? What would I believe
00:17:43
instead if I trusted God's abundance? And then
00:17:46
go back to that first half of the sentence, because that part where that grace
00:17:50
is, that was what
00:17:54
God's abundance did in your life. And you can stop there.
00:17:58
I'm making progress, period. God is opening a
00:18:01
door, period. I'm proud of how I handled that,
00:18:06
period. There is goodness in my life right now,
00:18:10
period. God is providing what I need,
00:18:14
period. You don't have to justify it. You don't have
00:18:18
to qualify it. You don't have to predict when it's going to disappear.
00:18:22
You can simply receive it. Because God's grace is not
00:18:26
scarce. His goodness towards you isn't something you need to ration.
00:18:31
And receiving his goodness doesn't make you selfish or naive or undeserving.
00:18:35
It makes you aware of his presence and his provision,
00:18:39
and aware of the ways that he is already moving in your life.
00:18:44
And maybe this week your prayer can simply be, just, Lord, help me
00:18:47
to notice your goodness. Without immediately looking for the
00:18:51
but. Help me to receive the grace that you are giving
00:18:55
me today and trust that you're going to continue to provide what I
00:18:58
need for the good work that you are calling me to do.
00:19:03
Because scripture reminds us that God is able to make every grace abundant for us
00:19:07
so that we have what we need for every good work.
00:19:11
So let's stop talking ourselves out of the goodness or assuming it won't
00:19:14
last or deciding that we don't deserve it. And stop letting
00:19:18
fear have that final word. No more
00:19:22
buts. Receive the grace, notice the goodness,
00:19:27
and give thanks for what God is doing. And then go out and become that—
00:19:31
the woman that this world desperately needs you to be.
00:19:35
And as you take on this challenge this week, if
00:19:39
you're realizing that there are a lot of buts in your life,
00:19:43
these thought patterns that are keeping you stuck in fear or doubt
00:19:47
or comparison or having you believe that you're not enough.
00:19:51
This is exactly the kind of work that we do in coaching.
00:19:55
Sometimes we need someone else to help us recognize the beliefs that we've been
00:19:59
operating from for years without even realizing that they're there.
00:20:03
So if that sounds like you, I invite you to reach out to me. Simply
00:20:07
email me kara@karatroxah.com, and I'd love To talk
00:20:11
with you about coaching and how working together can help you uncover
00:20:14
those beliefs and hold them up to God's truth and help you move
00:20:18
forward with greater clarity and confidence and freedom. So you
00:20:22
can already see that God is at work in your life, because
00:20:26
maybe it's time to stop adding the but and just start receiving that
00:20:29
abundance. I pray you have a beautiful and blessed week.
00:20:33
Remember, beauty held is the seed, beauty shared is the flower. It is your time.
00:20:36
Bye. time to bloom. Take care, and we'll talk soon. Bye.
00:20:40
Bye.