Janelle sat on the couch, thumb hovering over the Buy Now button. Same big-box site, same two-day shipping, same feeling she couldn’t quite name—convenient but strangely heavy.
She thought about the conversation at Bible study the night before. About stewardship. About where money sleeps at night. About how many Black-owned businesses in her own city were struggling for the same orders she sent out of town without thinking.
“Okay, Lord,” she whispered. “Show me another way.”
Instead of checking out, she opened a new tab and went to Black Pages International. This time, she searched by category: candles, skin care, planners, coffee. The page filled with names and faces—brands with stories, owners with families, products that looked just as good as anything in her cart.
She rebuilt her list, one item at a time. Coffee from a Black roaster on the West Side. A planner from a Black woman-owned stationery brand. Soap from a Black artisan she’d never heard of until tonight. A few things cost a little more. Some took a little longer to ship. But each click felt lighter.
At the end of the month, she looked at her bank statement and smiled. Her budget hadn’t changed, but her impact had. She could trace her spending straight to communities she cared about—owners she’d messaged, shops she’d reviewed, brands she’d tagged online.
The miracle wasn’t more money. It was alignment.
Sometimes worship sounds less like a song and more like a receipt—proof that your values made it all the way to checkout.
