Hi Friends,
I spent the day with my professional horse trainer daughter today. She helped me with our horse program at Carr Lake School, then we went to see a donkey (she evaluated him!). And we got a new donkey (the pictures of of her and the new guy). She's come a long way since she was a toddler, but both her and I still struggle with carrying too much all at once. Here's a story about that...
Too Many Toys
“Stop! Wait!” My heart thudded in my throat as I rushed up the stairs toward my toddler daughter. She stood at the very top of the staircase, ready to descend. At least I assumed it was my daughter. All I could see were two little legs sticking out from a giant pile of stuffed animals. The pile consisted of every toy animal that Bria owned. She carried them all, her body completely blocked by the mound she clutched in her arms.
“Nooooo! Not another step!” I reached the top and snatched her away from the stairs. “What are you doing?”
“Mumph, murf, umpf, urg.”
I tugged a couple fluff balls away from her face.
She grinned. “Mine!”
I sighed and looked closer. Not only were her arms filled with animals, but she also held her princess purse, a hat, her favorite socks, and who knows what else. “You can’t carry every single thing you own all at once.”
She scowled and clutched the heap tighter.
“Especially going down stairs. It’s not safe. You could fall. Big owie!”
She didn’t drop a single thing. “Mine.”
I shook my head then proceeded to gently remove one thing after another from Bria’s grip until she held a reasonable three items. She fussed a little, but as we walked back to her room and placed the animals, hats, socks, and purses back where they belonged, she relaxed.
I patted the top of her dresser. “Everything’s right here in its place, for when you need it,” I assured her. “But for now, three things are enough to carry. Okay?”
She huffed, but didn’t disagree. Then she tucked two toys under one arm and gripped the other in her hand.
I extended my arm for her to take my hand with her free one. She did, and we walked back into the hallway and descended the stairs safely, together.
This wasn’t the first time Bria had overpacked her arms. A couple days before, she’d staggered around the living room with her giant stash of stuff. A week before that, she believed it absolutely necessary to move all her toys from the bedroom to the bathroom, in one trip. I didn’t approve of her methods those other times, but going down stairs with a pile too big to even see around was way beyond the limits.
Bria didn’t understand limits.
She gets that from her mom.
It’s true that I don’t carry all my toys in my arms at once, but I do tend to schedule days and weeks so full that I can’t see around the heap. And it certainly isn’t safe to tackle the ups and downs of life carrying such a load. But like Bria, I somehow think I should carry all my life-things at once until I, too, am hobbling around my daily life with a giant load of to-do’s that blind me to dangers, others, and even blind me to joy. I simply can’t see around everything I’ve gathered up in my arms.
So lately, God’s been calling out to me, “Stop! Wait!” as he travels up the stairs to gently remove things from my over-filled arms. It seems that I understand “too much” just about as well as Bria does, which is hardly at all. I need my heavenly Father to teach me. So sometimes, he’s been canceling things for me when he thinks I’m overbooked and in over my head. Sometimes he lets me stagger around the living room until I figure out that too much is too much. Sometimes he quietly points out that I can leave some things in their proper place and just carry the few things that need attention now.
And hopefully, I, like Bria will learn the right amount to carry at once. Hopefully, I’ll recognize what is safe, and what causes me to not be able to see where I need to go.
These days, I’m pondering Psalm 118:5-6 (NIV): “When hard pressed, I cried to the Lord; he brought me into a spacious place. The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid…”
He brings me to a spacious place, a place where I can see, where I can breathe, where I can face the ups and downs of my life with one hand in his. He brings me to a place where my arms are no longer so full that I can’t see him.
The Lord is with me. I just need to stop carrying everything all at once.
