When you can’t do it all {it’s ok!}

[pinit]

Monday, at 7:57 a.m., while the kids struggled with boots and snow pants and hats and mittens, I had this nagging feeling that I was forgetting something. This time of year I always feel like I’m forgetting something.

‘Tis the season to remember all you don’t have. Not enough time. Not enough energy. Not enough money. Not a happy enough family. Not enough creativity. Not enough organization.

I knew there was something I was supposed to do. An important obligation. Something…

And right in the midst of stuffing lunches in backpacks and making sure I’ve signed all the home work papers, I remember.

It’s my day to send in a snack for T-Rex’s whole class.

I dash to the cupboard and fling open the doors as boxes of cereal hastily shoved in tumble out. On my hands and knees, I search for food. Do I have 24 of anything I can send to school?

6 granola bars.
4 packs of applesauce.
2 bags of un-popped popcorn.
1 box of fancy crackers.

Just as I was ready to give up hope, I spied a blue box in the back of the cabinet. Fruit chews.

I don’t normally buy fruit chews, because honestly, even though they say they have fruit in them I don’t believe the packaging. But Kedron has been craving them since his thyroid cancer surgery.

So, being the good wife that I am, and wanting to help my husband recover, I bought a box of fruit chews. Not just not any box, but an 80-count box of fruit chews from Costco. I’m a great wife.

(Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve been snacking on them in secret…)

The box was half full. I haphazardly counted 24-ish little blue packets, tossed them into a grocery bag and shoved them into T-Rex’s backpack in between the lunchbox and tennis shoes and football.

(My chiropractor loves my children.)

As the kids trekked through the snow to greet the bus, I had a flash of panic. I’d sent in fruit chews for a snack. Nothing fancy. Certainly not healthy. Probably not a big enough snack. I usually plan ahead and send in cheese sticks or bananas or oranges. But today, they got a small bag of fruit chews.

I’m so tired of running the race of trying to hold it all together and be more and do more. I keep telling myself that it doesn’t matter, but then in moments like these, I’m faced with the ugly fact that it does, and that I still have so much growing to do.

Rather than scrambling to be more, have more, do more, what if we simply just were? I suppose the trouble with that is that many of us think that what we are isn’t good enough, worthy enough. That’s certainly been my battle.

But who is it that really says we aren’t enough? Certainly not our heavenly Father. Certainly not the One Who sent His own Son into humble circumstances. Certainly not the One Who…

came into a stable not a palace,

to a young virgin, not a princess,

Who sent His birth announcement to shepherds, not princes and kings.

Who says what you have isn’t good enough? Who says you aren’t worthy enough?

Your enemy. The one who wants to hold you hostage to a false statement of insufficient funds. The one who’d rather you hide and hole up and not unleash the greatness that is you.

Advent isn’t about our scarcity. It’s about God’s supply. It isn’t about what you have to offer, but about what He’s offered you – all the resources of His kingdom, His love, His acceptance, His joy, His peace.

We were never meant to do it all or be it all.
Instead, we were meant to find our all in Him.

That’s my focus for this season. Join me?