Renee:
A few years ago, someone asked me where I'd experienced the most spiritual growth.
My first thought was cancer.
Walking through breast cancer changed me in ways I never could have anticipated. It stripped life down to what truly mattered and forced me to wrestle with fear, uncertainty, gratitude, and faith. Looking back, I can see that season reshaped my priorities and the way I see the world.
But as I thought about the question a little longer, I realized my spiritual growth didn't end when cancer treatment did.
It has continued every single day in three places I return to over and over again: my marriage, parenting our twins, and building a business with Mark.
People often imagine spiritual growth happening on a meditation cushion, during a retreat, or while reading an inspiring book. While those moments certainly matter, some of my greatest lessons haven't happened in silence. They've happened in the middle of disagreements with Mark, while helping our teenagers navigate another stage of growing up, or while facing the uncertainty that comes with building a business together.
For me, spirituality isn't something separate from everyday life; it’s expressed through everyday life.
I've come to believe there are three classrooms that continually invite me to become more patient, compassionate, authentic, and loving.
Marriage, parenting, and business.
None of them lets us hide for very long.
Mark:
One of the reasons I love personal development is that it gives us language for experiences we've been having all along.
For years, I thought business was simply about strategy, marketing, and sales.
Then I realized something.
Business is one of the fastest spiritual development programs you'll ever enroll in.
Every fear of rejection. Every moment of self-doubt. Every uncomfortable conversation. Every opportunity to serve.
It all reveals who you're becoming.
Your business doesn't create your character. It reveals it.
The same is true in marriage and parenting. These three areas have a remarkable way of shining a light on the places where we're still learning to love more deeply.
Renee:
Marriage has certainly done that for me.
When two people commit their lives to one another, they bring far more than love into the relationship. They bring childhood experiences, family traditions, old wounds, different communication styles, different expectations, and different ways of handling stress.
At first, those differences can feel frustrating.
Eventually, if you're willing, they become invitations.
Marriage asks us to listen without becoming defensive, to love someone without trying to change them, and to stay curious instead of assuming we're right.
Those aren't just relationship skills; they're spiritual practices.
Mark:
Then there is parenting.
Before Eden and Xen were born, I thought my job would be to teach them how to live.
Instead, they've spent sixteen years teaching me.
They've taught me patience. They've taught me humility. They've taught me that children aren't projects to perfect. They're souls entrusted to us for a season.
As they've grown older, our role has changed. There's less directing and more coaching. Less protecting and more trusting.
Parenting continually reminds me that love isn't about control.
It's about creating a safe place for someone to discover who they truly are.
That's exactly how I imagine our relationship with the Divine.
Renee:
And then there's business.
People are sometimes surprised when we describe entrepreneurship as a spiritual journey, but when you stop and think about it, it's hard to separate the two. Building a business asks you to believe in a vision long before anyone else can see it. It challenges you to keep going when the results don't come as quickly as you'd hoped, to navigate uncertainty without all the answers, and to trust your intuition as you make difficult decisions. It also gives you countless opportunities to serve others and to choose integrity, even when taking a shortcut might seem easier.
More than anything, business has a way of asking a deeper question: Who are you becoming while you're building what you're building? Over the years, I've realized that success without alignment eventually feels empty. But when your work becomes an authentic expression of your values and the person you're becoming, something shifts. The business is no longer your identity or your measure of worth. Instead, it becomes one of the ways you live out your purpose.
Mark:
When I look back over our twenty-four years of marriage, I don't think these have been three separate journeys.
They've really been one. Marriage has made me a better father. Parenting has made me a better leader. Business has made me a better husband.
Each path strengthens the others. Each reveals another opportunity to grow. None of them requires perfection. Only presence.
When we resist life's challenges, we often ask, "Why is this happening to me?"
When we embrace them as opportunities for growth, we begin asking a different question:
"What is this teaching me?"
That question has changed everything.
Mark & Renee:
Whether you're married or single, raising children or mentoring others, building a business, leading a team, or simply discovering your purpose, life is continually inviting you to grow. The circumstances may be different, but the invitation is the same. The goal isn't to become someone else. It's to become more fully yourself, the person your soul came here to be.
Maybe that's what spiritual growth really is. It's not about escaping ordinary life in search of extraordinary experiences. It's about allowing the ordinary moments of life—the relationships, the challenges, the joys, and even the setbacks to transform us into the people we're meant to become.