Hey y’all! I’m Jenna, and I’m so glad you’re here! Welcome to Happily Ever Hustling—a space where faith in Jesus, family, and the everyday hustle come together.

A little about me: I’m a pastor’s wife, a girl mom, a middle school science teacher, a Disney enthusiast, and an enthusiastic—though slightly below-average—CrossFitter. Life is full, busy, and beautifully chaotic, and this blog is where I share it all.

At Happily Ever Hustling, you’ll find real-life moments, biblical encouragement, and just a touch of pixie dust. Whether it’s navigating motherhood and marriage, balancing work and workouts, or finding God’s grace in the everyday, this is a place for you.

Join me each week as we chase a Christ-centered happily ever after—one hustle at a time!

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“I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” – Psalm 27:13 (ESV)

We’re all chasing our happily ever after. It may look different for each of us, but deep down, we’re all striving for it. Yet, have you ever looked around at your life and thought, This is hard!? This is not what I signed up for. Where’s the fairytale ending I was promised? This isn’t how 20-year-old me imagined life would turn out.

Right now, we find ourselves in a season—let’s be real, we live in this season most of the time—where we just feel run ragged, as my grandmother would say. And I do what many of us do: I try to fix it.

The daily hustle never stops—kids, the house, the spouse, the job, the church, the bills, the groceries, the never-ending list of extracurriculars. Why is deciding what’s for dinner so hard? And don’t even get me started on all the school dress-up days! For goodness’ sake, can we just wear normal clothes for one week of the year?!

But I’m a Type A problem solver. If life feels chaotic, I assume I just need a better system. Maybe I need those organizing hacks influencers push on Instagram. Maybe I need another checklist to keep all the chores in order. That’s it—that will fix things! Or maybe I need to exercise more, eat healthier, or finally drink enough water (why is that so hard?!). Who needs sleep, right? I’ll just pull myself up by my bootstraps and get to work.

And honestly? Getting my life together never hurts. I’ll even be sharing some of my best tips and tricks here each week! But let’s be real—no amount of organization, efficiency, or self-improvement actually fixes the root of the problem.

The Self-Preservation Trap

So when all my efforts fail, I shift gears. Maybe the problem is that we’re doing too much. Maybe we just need to slow down. Say no more. Close our circle. Stay home more. Help ourselves more and others less. Stop giving so much and start taking back what we deserve.

But after all that effort, we look around and realize—the joy isn’t here either.

So what’s the answer?

Two Competing Voices

In today’s world, we hear two main voices telling us where to find joy.

1. The Hustle Harder Voice – This one tells us to chase our dreams, grind non-stop, and run ourselves into the ground in the process. It says exhaustion is a badge of honor. Work harder, achieve more, and then you’ll be happy. Most of us Millennials grew up hearing this voice loud and clear.
   
2. The Self-Care Above All Voice – The second voice swings in the opposite direction. It tells us to remove anything that doesn’t “serve” us, avoid hard things, and live only for what makes us happy. It says if life feels stressful, we’re doing it wrong.
   

The strange thing? Neither of these voices are found in Scripture.

What Scripture Actually Says

Instead, the Bible gives us two very different truths:

1. We Are Called to Die to Ourselves

Jesus doesn’t call us to self-promotion or self-preservation. He calls us to pour ourselves out for His glory, not our own. Philippians 2:17 and 2 Timothy 4:6 remind us that we are to be “poured out as a drink offering.” Just as Jesus gave Himself up for us, we are to live for Him.

We’re really good at hustling—but often, we’re hustling for the wrong things. We work overtime for bigger paychecks, nicer homes, and dream vacations. We pour ourselves into making our kids the next Chipper Jones or Simone Biles. We chase fitness goals, hoping to run faster or lift heavier (spoiler alert: no amount of CrossFit will make me good at wall balls).

But while none of these things are bad, none of them are God things. If we give the best of ourselves to everything else and offer God our leftovers, we will not find our happily ever after.

It will end badly.

Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses. Behind closed doors, the Joneses are miserable. Don’t buy into their Instagram highlight reel.

If we want to experience the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, we must first empty ourselves—so that we can be filled with Jesus.

And that? That’s hard work. It means loving the unlovable, serving when no one notices, and pressing on even when it feels like nothing is changing. But Scripture promises us that God’s Word never returns void (Isaiah 55:11), even when we can’t see the results in our daily hustle.

The answer isn’t to stop hustling—it’s to hustle for the right person.

2. God Promises to Fill Us

The beauty of the gospel is that we don’t pour ourselves out in vain. God fills us in return. And He doesn’t just fill us once—He fills us from a cup that never runs dry.

It’s like your Disney resort refillable mug. IYKYK.

In John 4, Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well and tells her:

“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.” (John 4:13-14)

Then in Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus invites us:

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest… For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

And as the Israelites groaned under 400 years of slavery, Exodus 2:25 simply says:

“God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.”

He knows, y’all.

He sees. He knows. And He wants to carry our burdens for us.

That truth should humble us to our core. It should bring tears of relief to our eyes.

God sees. God knows. And He invites us to cast our burdens on Him.

The True Happily Ever After

We’re all striving for our happily ever after. But we won’t find it in self-promotion or self-preservation. The only place we will find it is in Jesus.

So let’s hustle—but let’s hustle for Him.