Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. Hebrews 12:13 NIV
How much willpower would you say that you have?
A children’s story about a frog and a toad centers on a plate of delicious cookies the animals couldn’t stop themselves from eating. “We need willpower,” says Frog. “What is willpower?” asks Toad. “Willpower is trying hard not to do something that you really want to do,” says Frog. Who can’t relate to that? Just one more sweet. Binging one more episode of a show. Or, rolling over in bed for “just five more minutes.” Studies confirm that, “Around the world, when adults have rated themselves on two dozen positive qualities, self-control has ranked dead last.”[1] Clearly, willpower works, until it doesn’t.
But successful people don’t rely on willpower. Two-time Olympic gold medalist, Alistair Brownlee moved closer to the trails and pools where he ran and swam. He made sure his equipment and shoes were ready before every workout. He didn’t just try harder, he set his life up so that he didn’t have to. He minimized the need for willpower in the first place.[2]
This wise way of living is found in God’s instruction book for our lives, the Bible. Scripture gives us a picture of how God teaches us to arrange our own everyday lives. It says, “Make level paths for your feet” (Hebrews 12:13 NIV), or “Give careful thought to the paths for your feet,” so that you can “be steadfast in all your ways” (Proverbs 4:26 NIV). Life is hard but often we make it even harder for ourselves.
Frog and Toad eventually made “level paths for their feet.” They didn’t keep sitting around the cookie plate—they scattered the remaining cookies on the grass for the birds. Each of us knows the bumpy paths that make it harder for us to exercise self-control. What do you need to do to make those paths level for your feet today?
[1] Angela Duckworth, “Willpower Doesn’t Work. This Does.,” New York Times, December 28, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/opinion/willpower-doesnt-work-this-does.html.
[2] Ibid.
