As women, we often find that life can become overwhelming with all the many “hats” we must wear, such as those of wife, mother, daughter, teacher, and employee. While each of these roles are wonderful and fulfilling, trying to keep them all balanced is taxing and overwhelming from time to time.
The Lord reminded me of His simple solution for this through my daughter. I have an amazing, crazy, and wild two-year-old girl. She is super independent but is also in the stage of life in which she is learning so many little things. On one of those “mom days,” when the children were in rare form and there were too many tasks to try to finish, I was completely exhausted after working all day. Yet, with two little ones and a house full of chores, I was fully aware of the fact that a mother’s work is never done. As I hurried to put away the clothes I had just finished folding, my daughter followed right behind me, mimicking my every move with careful precision. I suddenly took note of the fact that she was learning to do a meaningless task by copying me. I realized then that these tasks God has given me to do would not seem so overwhelming and impossible if I would simply copy Jesus. There are many attributes of Jesus that we can copy. When life gets overwhelming with even the good things, we just need to copy Jesus.
Jesus was a Man of prayer.
Matthew 15:36 says, And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. This is one of many accounts we find in Scripture of Jesus praying. He prayed to heal people and He prayed in the garden. Although Jesus is God Himself, He prayed to give us an example to follow. By His example, no matter how overwhelmed we might feel, we should stop to pray.
Jesus was a Man of compassion.
Matthew 20:34 says, So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him. Jesus showed us through His example how to have compassion. Sometimes, it can be difficult to have compassion on people when we ourselves are burdened. We tend to get “tunnel vision” focused on our own troubles in the tough times, especially while trying to make it through a store without our toddler yelling, “I need to potty!” We must keep our focus balanced, even when life is overwhelming, because we may never know what a small gift of compassion toward others in a brief moment can do for them or how it can help us, too! May we never forget to pause in the midst of our busy lives to show kindness to and have compassion on those around us.
Jesus is our Friend.
Proverbs 18:24 says, A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. As Christians, we have the greatest Friend of all. Jesus will never leave us or forsake us. Jesus is the perfect example of what kind of friend we should strive to be. When life is crazy busy and overwhelming, we may find ourselves not trying to thrive but merely trying to survive. This is when a small encouragement from a friend means the world to us and gives such needed hope. We should endeavor to be this kind of friend to others––being encouraging, being uplifting, or simply being there for our friends.
With our many hats to wear, life can still feel overwhelming at times, even if it is filled with all the things we always dreamed of having. Let us remember to be like my two-year-old daughter when she did not know what to do. She simply copied her best example. Next time we feel overwhelmed, let us just copy Jesus.
by Jessica Jackson