Finding Your Anchor: Faith, Routine, and Reflection

In this week’s episode, we’re talking about what it means to Find Your Anchor — how faith, simple routines, and quiet reflection help us stay grounded when life gets busy or uncertain. We’ll look at how the smallest daily choices — a prayer, a pause, a moment of gratitude — become steady rhythms that keep our hearts rooted in peace.

NEW! - Companion Resource:
This month’s episode pairs with January’s eWorkbook, The Hero Within, filled with worksheets, tips, and simple tools to help you live out small deeds with purpose.

Transcript

Episode 199 - Finding Your Anchor: Faith, Routine, and Reflection

Welcome back to the back porch. Go ahead and grab yourself a cup of coffee or hot tea, pull up a rocker, and settle in for a nice visit.

For those of you who are just joining us on the porch, I’m Julie, and this podcast is just one piece of what I do. I’m also a blogger and a writer of both the non-fiction Simple Life series, as well as fiction – mostly in the suspense genre. If you want to learn more about that, just check out the show notes for links to my websites and my books. 

This year we are working on how to Be Someone’s Hero — A Year of Small Deeds, Quiet Strength, and Meaningful Impact through the lens of a Simple Life. Each month we’ll talk about how you can be someone’s hero in different areas of your simple life. And if you want to dig even deeper into the topics and apply what you’re learning, each month I’m offering a downloadable Workbook that follows along with the monthly conversations. In it you will find over 20 pages of thoughtful explanations, Tips, Checklists, Worksheets, a recipe, a simple DIY project and more. To get your copy, simply click the link in the show notes. It will take you straight to my shop.

 Now that we have the business end taken care of, let’s dig in to today’s episode – Finding Your Anchor – Faith, Routine and Reflection 

Now, before we go too much further, you may be asking yourself: How does finding your anchor help to be someone’s hero? 

Well, here’s the thing… most people don’t need a grand rescuer in their life. They don’t need someone sweeping in with capes and fireworks. What they need — what we all need — is someone steady. Someone grounded. Someone who brings a sense of calm simply by being who they are.

When you have an anchor — whether it’s your faith, your routines, your values, or your quiet moments of reflection — you become harder to shake. Life may swirl around you, but you don’t drift as easily. You don’t get pulled into every storm or tossed around by every emotion or circumstance. And that steadiness, that quiet rootedness, becomes something others can lean on.

You know those people who make you breathe a little easier just by being in the room? That’s what an anchored life does. It doesn’t mean you’re perfect or unbothered. It simply means you’ve found a center — a place inside yourself where peace begins. And when you live from that place, you naturally become a source of comfort, guidance, and strength to others who are still being blown around by the winds of life.

Finding your anchor isn’t just for your own well-being. It’s part of how you show up in the world. It shapes the way you love, the way you listen, and the way you steady the people around you. And that — in the simplest, most genuine way — is how ordinary folks become everyday heroes.

And about that anchor - When life starts moving fast, it’s easy to feel like we’re drifting. One moment we’re calm and steady, and the next, we’re swept along by the noise, the news, the endless lists of things to do. Before we know it, we’re worn thin, tugged in every direction, and wondering where that quiet sense of peace went. But here’s the truth I keep coming back to: we all need an anchor. Something strong enough to hold us steady when the winds of life pick up. Something firm, unshakable — rooted in faith and woven into the rhythms of our days.

For me, Faith has always been that anchor. Not the kind that keeps me from moving forward, but the kind that keeps me from drifting away. Faith reminds me who I am and whose I am. It brings me back to center when everything else feels uncertain. And the older I get, the more I realize — an anchored life doesn’t happen by accident. It’s built through intention — through small, daily choices that shape our routines, our reflections, and our responses.

You see, we’re all living in a world that loves motion — more plans, more projects, more noise. But motion doesn’t always mean progress. Sometimes, in our hurry to do more, we lose the stillness we need to hear God’s whisper. We lose the chance to pause, reflect, and realign. But when we build a life anchored in faith — a life with steady rhythms of prayer, gratitude, and reflection — we find a peace that can’t be shaken, no matter what’s happening around us.

There’s something deeply comforting about a good routine — not a rigid schedule, but a rhythm that helps us move through our days with purpose and peace. I think of it like a well-worn path through a garden. You’ve walked it so many times, your feet know the way. You don’t have to rush. You just follow the familiar steps, and before long, you’re surrounded by beauty again.

That’s what a faithful routine does. It gently leads us back to what matters most. Morning prayer before the day begins. A quiet cup of coffee while watching the sunrise. A walk outside when you need to clear your mind. A moment of gratitude before bed. Simple, steady acts that keep your heart anchored — even when the world spins.

I’ve found that when my routine slips away, everything else feels a bit off-balance too. Maybe you’ve felt that. The house feels messier, the mind feels busier, and the soul — well… it feels restless. But when I return to my rhythms — prayer, reflection, taking care of my home, doing what’s in front of me — peace follows. Not because everything suddenly gets easier, but because my heart remembers where it’s anchored.

Faith is what gives meaning to those routines. It’s what turns ordinary habits into holy ground. Washing the dishes can become a quiet act of gratitude. Folding laundry can be a prayer of thankfulness for the ones you love. A daily walk can become time spent in conversation with God. When faith anchors your life, even the simplest moments become sacred.

Reflection is the part we often skip. Life gets busy, and we move from one thing to the next without stopping to ask — how’s my soul? What is God teaching me in this season? Where am I drifting, and where do I need to come back home? Reflection doesn’t have to be complicated. It might be journaling a few lines before bed. It might be sitting quietly in your favorite chair and letting your heart settle before the Lord. It might be a slow drive home with the radio off, letting your mind and spirit breathe.

When we make time to reflect, we start to see the threads of grace woven through our days. We notice answered prayers we might’ve missed. We see how God’s hand has guided us — gently, patiently — even when we weren’t paying attention. And in those quiet moments, we’re reminded — we’re not drifting aimlessly. We’re anchored in something deeper, something eternal.

Maybe right now you’re in a season that feels uncertain. Maybe there’s change, or loss, or too many unknowns. It’s in those times we need our anchors most — not flashy faith or perfect plans, but quiet trust and steady rhythm. That’s when your routines — your prayers, your reflections, your small acts of faith — hold you fast.

Think of the sailor who drops anchor before a storm. The waves may crash, the wind may roar, but the ship doesn’t drift. It holds firm because it’s connected to something stronger than itself. That’s what faith does for us. It connects us to God — our unshakable Rock — so that even when life gets stormy, we can stand firm, calm, and steady.

And just like any anchor, it only works if it’s dropped. You have to use it. You have to take the time to pause, to pray, to rest in His presence. A ship can have the strongest anchor in the world, but if it’s never lowered, it can still be tossed about. So, we have to be intentional — carving out moments of stillness in our days, choosing to ground ourselves in God’s Word, letting His truth steady our hearts.

Sometimes we think we have to wait for the big moments — the retreats, the quiet weekends, the rare breaks in the storm — to feel anchored. But the truth is, anchoring happens in the small moments — in choosing prayer over panic, gratitude over grumbling, rest over rushing. It’s in those tiny, daily acts of faith that our roots grow deep.

And when we build those rhythms, something beautiful happens — we become anchors for others, too. When people see your steady faith, your calm in the chaos, your peace in the storm — it gives them hope. Your quiet strength can become the safe harbor someone else needs. Not because you have all the answers, but because you’ve learned how to stay grounded in the One who does.

So maybe it’s time to look at your own days and ask — what anchors me? What routines draw me closer to peace? What moments of reflection help me see God’s hand at work? And what might I need to let go of — the noise, the rush, the endless striving — so I can hear His still, small voice again?

An anchored life doesn’t happen all at once. It’s built slowly, faithfully, one simple act at a time. It’s in the quiet morning prayers, the Scripture whispered before bed, the pause in the middle of the day to say, “Thank You, Lord.” It’s in the decision to live rooted — not in fear or hurry, but in grace and truth.

When you take the time to discover and hold onto your anchor, you don’t just change your own life — you change the lives around you. A steady heart has a way of settling the room. A grounded person gives others courage to slow down, breathe, and find their own footing.

Being someone’s hero rarely happens in loud, dramatic moments. Most of the time, it’s the quiet strength you carry, the way you stay rooted when life gets shaky, and the calm you offer without even realizing it.

Because when your life is anchored — in faith, in simple rhythms, in reflection — you’ll find a peace that holds, no matter how strong the storm. And that peace, that steady presence, becomes a gift you carry into the world — a quiet reminder that no matter how the tides may turn, there’s always hope, always grace, always a place to rest.

When you know where your anchor is — and you return to it often — you become a living invitation for others to find their own. And in a world full of rushing and noise, that simple gift of steadiness might be one of the greatest acts of heroism there is.

NEW! - Companion Resource:
This month’s episode pairs with January’s eWorkbook, The Hero Within, filled with worksheets, tips, and simple tools to help you live out small deeds with purpose. Find the link in the show notes!