When Stress Reveals Who’s Really in Control

Stress has a way of telling on us.

It shows up when life gets heavy, when responsibilities pile up, and when the expectations—ours and everyone else’s—start pressing in. But here’s the thing I’ve learned the hard way: stress isn’t always about what’s on my plate. Often, it’s about who I believe is responsible for holding it all together.

When I’m trying to manage everything in my own strength, stress runs the show. When I release control and trust God with the outcome, peace begins to take its place—even if nothing changes immediately.

For nearly three decades, I worked in Human Resources—often in fast-paced, high-pressure environments where emotions ran high, decisions mattered, and people were watching more than they were listening. In HR, you don’t just manage policies and processes. You model posture. How you respond in uncertainty quietly gives others permission to either panic—or breathe.

At the same time, I was a single mom. Working a job that required weekly travel and long hours. Carrying responsibility at work and at home. And whether I realized it or not, my coworkers, my employees, and my daughter were all learning something by observation:

How do you search for peace in the middle of the storm?

People would often ask me, “How do you do it?”

And for a long time, I didn’t have a polished answer—because the truth is, I couldn’t do it on my own.

That question eventually became an open door to point people back to Jesus. Not in a loud or performative way—but in an honest one. The kind that says, “I don’t have a secret formula. I have a Savior.”

Psalm 37:5 in The Passion Translation says: “Give God the right to direct your life, and as you trust Him along the way, you will find He pulled it off perfectly!”

That verse reminds me that trust isn’t passive. Trust doesn’t mean we stop showing up, stop leading, or stop doing the work in front of us. In HR, I still had to make hard calls. As a mom, I still had to be steady. Trust meant I did my part—but I stopped carrying what was never mine to carry in the first place.

Control says, “I have to make this work.” Trust says, “God, I’ll follow You—even when I can’t see the full picture.”

And often, our stress level is the clearest indicator of which voice we’re listening to.

What I’ve learned—through leadership, motherhood, and faith—is that peace is not the absence of pressure. It’s alignment. It’s knowing where responsibility ends and surrender begins. It’s leading well without absorbing everything as your own.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed today, maybe the invitation isn’t to do more—but to surrender more. To give God permission to lead, guide, and redirect as He sees fit. Because when we trust Him with the direction, He is faithful with the destination.

You don’t have to hold it all together. You were never meant to.

xoxo Kennette

Still Faithful.

Still Moving Forward.