All About Seedling Routines: What They Are and How to Use Them

“I feel like I’m a disappointment to God.”

That statement left my lips in the spring of 2024. My spiritual habits felt all out of whack and I didn’t know what to do about it. But I also didn’t know that as soon as I made that statement, I would find my new spiritual lifeline: seedling routines.

But let’s rewind for a moment and talk about everything that led up to this defining moment.

A steady spiritual start

The Lord was generous to me in my youth. I was blessed to be raised in a Christian home with two faithful parents who made faith a cornerstone of our family life. Every time the church doors were open, we were there. Through their example, I learned what it meant to be part of a church family, to worship regularly, and to serve and teach others about the gospel.

My parents’ example extended beyond church attendance. My mom chose to stay at home with us, and through her daily habits, I saw what it meant to live as a Christian woman. She constantly had her Bible open, studying and journaling. She taught me study techniques, like Bible marking and journaling. She gave me spiritual books and commentaries to read. By junior high and high school, I started adopting her patterns and studying my Bible became a cherished hobby.

My dad also shaped my spiritual upbringing. As the local minister, I heard him preach every Sunday and teach Wednesday night Bible classes. Through his sermons on the gospels, I found confidence in the truth of Christ’s story. His lessons on prayer taught me how to communicate with God.

Making Spiritual Habits My Own

At fifteen, I made the decision to become a Christian and was baptized for the forgiveness of my sins. From there, Bible study and spiritual habits shifted from being a hobby to an essential part of my spiritual health.

My spiritual growth continued through college. I joined a local church in Tennessee, attended campus devotionals, joined small group Bible studies, and even met a young man who shared my faith. He became the one I would end up marrying.

The Unexpected Arrival of Challenges

Spiritual life was going, dare I say, perfectly. But things took an unexpected turn when I became a mother.

In the spring of 2024, I started getting my bounce back after having my son. He was a beautiful, bubbly six-month-old baby. We enjoyed lots of walks outside, planted seeds for the garden, and I was finally starting to find a home routine that worked for me.

But one big problem still loomed: I couldn’t figure out how to support my spiritual health. Everything was so different. Going to church looked different. My personal quiet time looked different. Often I was so tired by the time baby’s nap rolled around that sitting to read the Bible would put me to sleep!

I felt confused and discouraged. I’d been a Christian for so long—why did I feel like I was starting over? Was I weaker than I thought? Maybe I’d reached my spiritual potential. Maybe this was as far as I could grow….

Discovering Seedling Routines: the Key to Sustainable Spiritual Habits

But that didn’t make sense. I’d seen my mother study her Bible faithfully while raising three kids. Surely I could figure out how to do the same with one. I waited for a multi-hour block of time to magically appear so I could finally sit down and fit in all my spiritual habits––beginning with reading, study, and prayer. I tried studying first thing in the morning or right before bed, but nothing worked.

The problem was that I was trying to go back instead of moving forward. I was forcing habits that had worked in a past season into my new one. It was like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

I continued spinning my wheels until one spring day when I called my dad and said the statement that opened this blog post. I feel like I’m a disappointment to God. I wasn’t spiritually growing the way I wanted to. And I was afraid of not growing at all. I was feeling the effects of a spiritually dry well. I didn’t want to be or feel like a disappointment to God. So I resolved to try new ways to prioritize my time with the Lord until I had replaced the fear of disappointing Him with the peace of pleasing Him.

Discovering Seedling Routines

Just a few days later, I found a Bible reading group aiming to read the entire Bible in 30 days. Call me crazy, but I thought, sure, I can go from struggling with all spiritual habits to reading the Bible in 30 days. What better way to spiritually reset? The group wasn’t trying to tackle a ton of spiritual habits all at once. It was just focused on a single item: reading the Bible.

(I’ll add here that reading the Bible in 30 days was a realistic possibility for me because I was at home, I didn’t have a traditional nine to five job, and because I was using the audio Bible in addition to reading my paper Bible. Please don’t take my personal story as some sort of benchmark that shows you must read the entire Bible in 30 days to be a good Christian.)

I didn’t manage to finish the entire Bible in 30 days, but I did finish in 34. I was surprised because it didn’t happen by sitting down for three consecutive hours of reading everyday. It happened because with 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there, and two more chapters before bed, I was able to read more the Bible than ever before.

It happened because instead of choosing music, podcasts, or movies, I chose to digest the Bible. By making that little shift in my lifestyle for a month, I was able to read the entire Old Testament and New Testament in a period of time I would’ve thought was impossible. And suddenly, I saw seedling routines for the very first time.

What Are Seedling Routines?

Seedling routines are the teeny tiny habits that build upon each other over time. Just like a seed starts small and slowly changes until it grows into a beautiful flowering plant, making small tweaks helps us create sustainable spiritual habits. The more seedling routines we plant, the deeper we take root in Christ.

Reading the Entire Bible Changed My Spiritual Habits

The 30-day Bible reading experience transformed my perspective. Now I was asking, what other areas of my life could change for the better with seedling routines?

• What if prayer was more of an ongoing conversation than a single essay to the Lord?
• What if Bible study was more like a walk through the garden with God instead of a sprint through the woods?
• What if the entire Christian lifestyle was weaved into our daily rhythms, instead of being separated from all the other responsibilities we have?

This shift in mindset reminded me of the differences between annual and perennial plants.

Annuals bloom beautifully for a single season and then die when the frost comes. But perennials remain strong year after year because their roots are tucked safely underground during the winter months.

Our spiritual habits can be perennial if we want them to be. If we plant spiritual seedling routines, we’ll take root in Christ, and our roots will stay firm when the wind blows. Interruptions to our normal schedules—illness, caregiving, moving, career changes—may require us to get creative with our spiritual habits. But if we hold fast to our spiritual foundation and intentionally make time for the Lord, we’ll sprout back up when seasons return to normal.

How to Start Planting Seedling Routines

It starts with one small shift at a time. Whether you’re feeling invigorated to tackle growth or discouraged by your previous lack of growth, keep in mind that you’re not expected to accomplish years’ worth of growth in a single season. The more small shifts we make over time, the more we’ll increase our growth.

If you’re ready to start making shifts, we can use what I call the Spiritual Prosperity System––a three-step system that allows us to analyze where we’re at spiritually, where we want to be, and how to get there. The three steps of the Spiritual Prosperity System are: Ponder, Plan, Pray.

The Spiritual Prosperity System

Ponder

Before planting a field, we first take inventory of our supplies, right? We can’t expect to grow a beautiful flower garden if we don’t have seeds or soil. The same is true for spiritual growth—we need to assess where we are before planning where to go.

Take a moment to reflect on your spiritual habits or intentions. This step is essential because it helps us gain clarity on what’s working, what’s missing, and where we want to grow. To get started, I encourage you to grab a pen, paper, and timer. Say a prayer to clear your mind, then answer the questions below. Set your timer for 2-5 minutes per question so you can complete all three questions in a reasonable time:

• How would I describe my current spiritual state?
• How would I describe my ideal spiritual state?
• What areas do I want to grow in spiritually over the next 12 to 18 months?

As you answer your questions, list out specific actions you could take to pursue spiritual growth. We’ll pick our seedling routines from this list. This could include things like journaling prayers regularly, following a daily Bible reading plan, or committing to consistent church attendance.

Not sure where to start? Scroll to the bottom of this article for an inspiration list of seedling routines.

Plan

Now that you’ve outlined areas for growth, it’s time to create a plan. This is where we turn your reflections into actionable steps you can track as seedling routines.

On your piece of paper, assign each goal a number and letter to indicate frequency:

• D for Daily
• W for Weekly
• M for Monthly

For example:

• Journaling prayers? Maybe 2M for twice a month.
• Bible reading for 10 minutes? Perhaps D for daily.
• Attending church services? For me, it’s 2W for twice a week!

Be honest about what’s realistic for your current lifestyle. Sometimes our zeal leads us to overcommit, and we end up doing none of it well. On the other hand, we may need to reevaluate our current lifestyle to prioritize spiritual growth.

Once your plan is mapped out, look over a monthly calendar to decide where you’ll slot weekly, daily, and monthly items into your schedule. Then you’ll have a tangible way to track progress and see growth unfold.

(If you’d like to better see what the planning process looks like, you might enjoy my prerecorded workshop, How to Pursue Spiritual Growth. Click here to get free access.)

Pray

Prayer is the most vital part of spiritual growth because God is the giver of our growth. He gives us direction. Without Him, we wouldn’t know what we are striving for.

Jesus tells His followers in Mark 11:24, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.“

And 1 John 5:14 says, “And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.“

What could be more aligned with God’s will than deepening our relationship with Him? Let’s not forget to pray to Him about our spiritual growth because it’s a special opportunity we have—one we could easily take for granted.

Moving Forward with our Seedling Routines

After pondering, planning, and praying, we’re set up to start planting spiritual seedling routines. If you took the time to write out your list of growth goals and assigned it a frequency, it will be fairly easy to track your progress. You’ll be able to look back a month from now and see:

• Did you have those two prayer journaling sessions?
• How many days of the month did you read your Bible?
• How many church services did you attend in the last few weeks?

These three steps will help us create rhythms that allow for sustainable spiritual growth that withstands changing seasons.

Over time, we can continue to layer on seedling routines, to add in more spiritual habits and grow in our faith. If you want a more in-depth conversation about spiritual habits (or as some call them, disciplines), click here to read my Spiritual Disciplines 101 article.

And if you’d like consistent spiritual content to show up in your email inbox as a polite reminder to seek the Lord, then join my free email newsletter, The Garden Party!

So what seedling routine will you start pursuing first? Share it in the comments below—I’d love to hear from you!

A List of Inspirational Seedling Routines to Get You Started:

• Read one Psalm or Proverb as soon as you wake up or with your morning coffee.
• Set a timer and read the Bible for five minutes, three times a day.
• Pick a day of the week and designate that day to writing a prayer to God.
• Choose a chore—like dishes or laundry—and make that chore a reminder to pray as you go about your day.
• Put a Bible verse on a post-it-note on your mirror and fridge; read the verse and pray about it every time you see the note.
• Listen to the audio Bible as you drive.
• Pick a day of the week to send a local church friend or long-distance Christian friend a letter (or even a text) of encouragement.