Hey there, mama. I feel like this topic calls for a collective deep breath. Oh, how burdens hang heavy on us.

Being a mom and a person inhabiting planet earth is a glorious endeavor. Well, of course not every moment feels glorious, but it truly is a gift. Tantrums, potty accidents, squabbles, burnt dinners, and all. I’m reminding myself as I write. I don’t always remember.

But, wow, there are times you and I get weighed down by all the roles we play, all the people who need us, and all the pain life can bring. Sometimes our life feels like it’s whizzing past at a speed we will never catch up to, and we feel trapped under a heavy load we can no longer lift.

Sickness, relationships, kids, keeping a home, work, ministry, physical pain, and the like.

I can so relate.

I have been carrying around some seriously heavy loads myself. But the thing is that I let them add up like a huge dog-pile on my shoulders without ever releasing them. It’s like the baggage truck is packed full on the tarmac, but never empties out onto the waiting plane full of passengers who are hoping their bag makes it on.

This is how I’ve been existing. Packed full, never emptied. Jesus waiting, with me never willing to transfer the load.

I guess I haven’t fully understood what Jesus meant when he invited us to cast all our cares on Him.

I thought I did. But I was wrong.

It seems so elementary. The mistake I’ve been making is that I’d pray about it, (well, most of the time) and then I’d take it right back and worry about it all over again like it was my job.

The heaviness never left, and neither did my fears.

But in this new year, when the heaviness was about to break me, I decided I needed to immediately evict the things that were getting me down before I became a crazy mama. And so I did.

Without giving it much thought, I grabbed a fresh journal, of which I have many, and wrote “things that feel like heavy burdens:” along with the date on that first page.

Then I started dumping everything that felt wrong for me to be carrying. All those things that were sucking the life out of me. There were bullet points and lots of them.

headaches… chronic neck pain… a child’s mysterious rash… a friendship… health… fear of failure… difficult circumstances, and so on…

When I was through, I prayed over each one, giving them all over to Jesus knowing He’d know just what to do with them.

Hello, fresh air. Hello, lightness.

There is something that happens when I physically write them down. Not to commemorate them, or to worship them, but to get them out of my head.

I’ve kept this pattern up these weeks. It’s helping so much. Whenever the fears and worries start to make me feel cramped and hunched, I open to a new page, add the date and the title, then start scrawling and praying. I ask Jesus to take my burdens, to work in these situations, and then thank Him. Because I know He is doing these things.

How crazy favored are we? The King of Kings knows our name and is happy to take the stuff we don’t know how to handle and turn it into something inevitably good in His time.

Maybe this will help you too, dear mama carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders. Maybe you need a visual like I do to fully give your worries over. Sometimes I write the same things time after time and I’m fine with that. It’s the releasing that counts. Not how many times you worry about the same thing.

Just keep handing it over. Jesus is never bored with you and your same old story. He welcomes it. And you.

Someday soon we’ll be able to look back at these situations and witness God’s faithfulness firsthand and in our own handwriting.

Two questions:  Have you struggled with letting burdens dog-pile on your shoulders? Have you found a method or way to remember to give them over to Christ that works for you?

Thank you for sharing. May your soul be light and your day be full of fresh air. 

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Amanda Bacon

Amanda is a stay-at-home mom of eight kids and has been married for sixteen years to the most helpful man on the planet. She is an adoption advocate and encouraging voice for moms everywhere.

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Latest posts by Amanda Bacon (see all)

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