It amazes me that another year has come and gone. In so many ways, I feel like 2025 was a year of rebuilding and ramping up. Lots of projects started, lots of progress made, but this year I want to finish some things–I want to follow through on them.

Follow Through v. Follow-Through

Here’s a quick grammar lesson:

We write follow through (vb. two words, no hyphen) when referring to the action of working to completion or finishing a swing.

We write follow-through (n. with a hyphen) when referring to the task itself, referring to our stage of completion on that project or to the part of the swing that happens after hitting the ball.

(Yes, I had to look that up before writing this article. You’re welcome.)

I grew up playing fastpitch softball, from rec league through travel ball and from high school into college, even having the opportunity to play against the 2004 US Olympic team, manning third base opposite my childhood hero Lisa Fernandez. So you could say that I know the importance of follow-through, both in the swing itself and in deliberate practice toward a goal.

But adult life provides a greater amount of variability and distractions than did my school-and-sports focused youth. Homemaking and homeschooling in particular are vocations that involve wearing many hats. Add to those hats a few exploits beyond your front door and you’ve got a recipe for burnout if you’re not careful. Or if not burnout, at least a dizzying amount of proverbial plates spinning, balls in the air… you get the idea.

When it comes to a ball in the air, I happen to know that follow-through can make the difference between a solid hit to the outfield or a mere bunt. To balk at the end of a swing is to strip all previous effort of its power. My job isn’t to merely keep endlessly juggling. Getting a ball rolling or up in the air is great. Keeping it moving is even better. But at some point I’d really like to knock one out of the park.

This requires the very thing that I struggle to do at times. It requires decisive follow-through.

Life can go in any number of directions, but it can’t go in all of them. So at some point, I have to choose to focus on something and see it through to the end.

Looking Back, Bringing Forward, Following Through

Last year, my word of the year was Stability. I began 2025 with a knee injury, and it’s taken most of the past year to recover strength and stability in my knees.

I also focused on basic routines, my husband and I revamped our financial management system, and I had to say “no” to at least one amazing opportunity because it would have been the straw that broke this camel’s back (when taking extra time out of your schedule to calculate whether or not you can take on a new responsibility triggers an autoimmune flare-up, you know it’s time to say “no”).

So, what did I have in mind when I chose follow-through as my 2026 word of the year? What balls do I have in the air that I’d like to hit hard rather than freeze up and bunt?

1. Health – Just as the primary focus in 2025 was health-related (my knee!), the primary application of my 2026 word of the year is my health: particularly to lose weight and reduce inflammation. So far this year, I’m on a 114-day streak of entering what I’m eating in My Fitness Pal (and am about 1/4 of the way to my weight-loss goal), and my husband and I got thorough bloodwork done through Function Health. One result of that testing is that we’re pretty confident I have Celiac disease. (Woo-hoo!) So my gluten-free regimen just got a bit more stringent.
   
2. Helping My Husband – This looks like continued faithfulness with the financial plan, managing our home well, and even helping him with some biblical counseling situations.
   
3. Connecting with My Kids – This includes practicing piano and taking lessons from my 14-year-old (I’m definitely his worst piano student–follow-through is severely lacking here!), reading the creative works my boys produce, and helping them navigate the exciting and exhausting adventures of their teen years.
   
4. Writing – Eliminating excuses, just sit down and write. [Like this article. Finally!]
   
5. Big Secret Project – I’m not revealing what this is yet, but suffice it to say, there’s a big undertaking on the table that’s been months in the making. And I’m excited to share with you…soon. Right now’s it’s mid-swing and gaining momentum.

Bible Verses on Follow-Through

The Bible doesn’t exactly use the word “follow-through”, but it does speak directly to motivation, perseverance, and effectiveness, which are all components of a good follow-through. Here are some of the verses that I’ll be meditating on as I seek to follow through on my commitments this year:

In all labor there is profit,
But mere talk leads only to poverty.
Proverbs 14:23

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Hebrews 12:1-3

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.
2 Timothy 4:7-8

But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.
Luke 8:15

The one who is faithful in a very little thing is also faithful in much; and the one who is unrighteous in a very little thing is also unrighteous in much. 
Luke 16:10

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.
James 1:22-25

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Romans 5:1-5

For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
Romans 8:24-26

For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Romans 15:4

Fix Your Eyes and Follow Through

Did you catch the connection between perseverance and hope in those passages from Romans?!?

Hoping for something yet to be prompts our perseverance, but perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures also give hope. So, being rooted in the promises of God, I have hope. That hope ought to drive my perseverance–my follow-through–on the good things that God has called me to do. And then that perseverance, along with the testimony of Scripture, will strengthen my hope all the more! God is so good.

My hope and perseverance are rooted ultimately in the work of Christ on my behalf (see that Romans 5 passage above). The hope of the glory of God comes from the gospel. But perseverance in trial produces further hope. Which is still, ultimately, a result of the love of God poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. >squeals of delight< It’s a cycle of greater hope, greater faith, greater perseverance…but the source of it all is the grace of God in Christ. Praise be to God.

This ties back into the name of my blog: Kept and Keeping. I’m kept by God’s grace–I’ve been saved by the work of Jesus. My sins are forgiven due to His sacrifice on the cross, and His righteousness credited to my account through faith. I’m now a child of God and He holds me securely. There’s hope.

But He is also at work in me–I’m keeping the faith by His grace and by the power of His Spirit. There’s perseverance.

This means that I continue to both repent of sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but it also means that I seek to walk out what I believe, producing fruit that brings glory to Jesus Christ.

The Christian life requires follow-through.

The incredible thing I’m seeing in these passages of Scripture is that God gets the glory for the good works He produces in me, but I also get some encouragement from it! Praise the Lord!

So, those practical goals that I have for the year are opportunities to follow through, to fix my eyes and run the race set before me, to persevere through trial, rooted in the grace of God in the gospel of Christ, for the glory of God. My hope set on heaven producing fruit here on earth.

What’s your word for 2026? Do you tie it in with your goals for the year? Or is it just a source of inspiration? I’d love to hear about it!

If you’d like to try Function Health as a new member, you can use my referral link to get $25 off (and I get a $25 credit). My husband and I have been pleased with the sheer amount of tests we’re able to get for a fraction of the cost and the ability to see all of our results in one easy-to-navigate dashboard complete with suggestions for following up on our results. This is a paid referral program, but I wouldn’t share it if it wasn’t something I used and valued.