"Overwhelmed" Is A Choice

Baby is screaming bloody murder, kids are bickering, and bedtime takes two or more hours to get everyone settled! These have been the daily events at my home over this past year, since the birth of our fifth child. It has been a challenging year, as our son, Lewis, has thrown us through a loop. From not sleeping or napping well from day one till today, to a two month battle with bronchitis, to tongue tie and nursing challenges, we have been a bit stretched like we haven’t experienced before with our previous babies. It’s been a constant journey of laying my burdens down before the Lord, seeking His wisdom, and crying out for help.

God has been changing my heart to let go more and more of my tendencies to get stressed out easily with this busy and challenging season of littles, bedtime struggles, homeschooling, sibling squabbles, training, and constant home maintenance.

“Overwhelmed” is a choice. A choice that I can submit to or cast the temptation on the Lord.

“Overwhelmed” is a feeling. A feeling only becomes part of you when you allow it to take up residence. Feelings are not what’s true or real that God has called my mind to focus on. I am called to think on “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil 4:8).

Truth is the truth of Scripture as opposed to the lies of the enemy. The enemy wants me to wallow in the lie that this is too much for me. Living in a state of “overwhelmed” means I loose sight of joy, and God’s sovereign and good plans for me, and I’m depending on my own strength instead of His. I’m submitting to a lie when I allow “overwhelmed” to take over. The Bible is true, not my feelings or my thoughts.

Overwhelmed is fear that we can’t keep up with our calling. But “God gave us not a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Tim 1:5-7). God did not give me more than He would also supply the grace for me to handle.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 says:

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

“Every time you hold your thoughts and feelings up against God’s standards of what is true and what is real…and then choose to ‘think on these things,’ you are loving God with all your mind. With His help, His Word, and His Spirit, you can triumph over negative emotions, damaging thoughts, and destructive attitudes.” - Elizabeth George, Loving God with All Your Mind

Stay strong in the Lord today dear friends. It’s a beautiful life. Do the next thing and keep a quiet heart.

Do it immediately;

Do it with prayer;

Do it reliantly,

casting all care;

Do it with reverence,

Tracing His Hand,

Who placed it before thee with

Earnest command.

Stayed on Omnipotence,

Safe 'neath His wing,

Leave all resultings,

DO THE NEXT THING.

- Old Saxon Poem, Quoted by Elisabeth Elliot

Thankful for the book, Pitchin’ A Fit by Israel & Brook Wayne and Loving God with All Your Mind by Elisabeth George, from which I drew these thoughts.