Take A Load Off

My son caught me: only half-listening to him during the car ride to school, again.

I am not a morning person.

I am especially not a morning person when said morning begins 13 minutes behind schedule, and includes two wet beds, plus the undeniable smell of poop in the air…

I found the source.
Let’s just say my ambitious baby girl learned how to take care of that obnoxiously saggy morning diaper on her own (she probably gets it from me).

A bath was required.

So we rode, in silence, to pre-k. Just kidding. However, my 5-year-old’s non-stop talking was drowned out by the various thoughts, buzzing around my head.

The house is a wreck.

Ugh. I left my coffee at home.
​
I wonder when we’ll hear back from our Realtor...
I’m going to be doing laundry all day.
What is that on my jeans?!
I need a vacation.
No one cares about anything I do.
I’d better check the bank accounts--

“Maybe we should just let God carry our stuff. Then it wouldn’t be heavy.”

Jolted out of my thoughts, I nearly stopped the car,  “What did you say, bud?”

“Oh, I said, God can do anything, so maybe we should just let Him carry our stuff.”

In all honesty, I have no idea what the kid was thinking about that made this pop into his mind. All I know is that God uses my “set-apart” middle child to speak to me in more and obvious ways, these days.

Restrained tears bubbled to the surface, carrying with them all of the frustration and anxiety I’d been holding onto for so many months. In that moment, God was revealing to me an error in my ways: somewhere along the way I had forgotten again that I was never made to carry it all.

I think we all do this, and I believe what God is reminding us today is that He did not design nor intend for us to bear the weight of constant cares. That is why, in His perfect plan, He sent Jesus, His son, to take the load off our shoulders.

Hundreds of years before our Savior set foot to soil, king and psalmist, David, penned these words, “Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” (Psalm 55:22)

I don’t know about you, but those words make joy and hope well up inside of me. One of the many ways the dictionary defines “sustain” is “to keep (a person, the mind, the spirits, etc.) from giving way, as under trial or affliction.”

The truth is that we do not need to bear ourselves up against trials and affliction— only allow the Lord to sustain us.

What weight are you bearing today? Parenting woes? Fear for the future? Financial disarray? Whatever the load, we can all gain from the spiritual insights of a child, “Maybe we should just let God carry our stuff. Then it wouldn’t be heavy.”

Friends, God can do anything. Our “weight” to Him is like a bag of cotton candy. It’s time to take a load off, allow the Lord to hold us up as we hold to His promise that “…He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.”


Word of the Day:
“Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” Psalm 55:22 NASB

Prayer:
Father, I’ve done it again… taken on a load I was never created to bear. Lord, I give it all to you. Bear me up against the trials of life. Strengthen me and make me secure in your hold. Thank you for sending your Son to take my burdens.
​In Jesus’ Name, Amen.


Author:  Katie Gibson

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