Encouragement for the Mom Feeling the Weight of the World

Last week was an intense one for our little family. We started it with our youngest being admitted to the Children’s Hospital after almost a month of vomiting. There is no misery like seeing your babies hurt, and not being able to stop it. That was our reality for a month. His hospital stay was short and minor, but hospitalization after a month of helplessly cleaning your two-year-old’s vomit is still enough to wear on any mama.

As the week continued, no sooner than we settled back at home, the phone rang. Our foster care worker’s name appeared on the screen. We had been waiting for this call for three months. Taking a deep breath, I answered, knowing that our world was about to change. There was a two-month-old baby girl that needed us, we were to pick her up that afternoon. With no time to prepare, we were becoming a family of five and being thrown back into the depths of the newborn stage. On top of adjusting to this new reality, we were faced with the weight of her story. It is one that breaks you. It’s heavy. I hurt for her, and I’m broken for her mom and her dad who both love her so much, but are not able to care for her right now.

In one week’s time, we were confronted with the brokenness of the Children’s Hospital and the Child Protective Services Office. Both are broken places, and in both places, I felt so much weight on my shoulders.

The weight of sickness.

The weight of newborn pressures.

The weight of mom guilt for not being able to be everything my little people need from me.

The weight of trauma.

The weight of broken families.

All of this weight pointing to one thing: we live in a broken world.

Do you feel the weight too, mama?

Maybe your world has been spiraling like mine. Are you carrying a baby with an unknown future, unsure what awaits when the baby makes its earth side entrance? Maybe you feel the weight of the sleepless nights and never-ending days of baby and toddlerhood. Do you feel buried beneath the piles of homework, parent conferences, and struggles of IEPs as you navigate through your child’s struggles in school? Are you on the brink of the teenage years feeling the days slip away?

Whatever it is, I’m sure that you can relate. As moms, we carry the weight of the world far too often.

If you feel weighed down by the pressures of motherhood and the brokenness of the world we live in, take heart. In the trenches of motherhood, I am often encouraged by the words of Jesus in John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (ESV).

Did you catch that?

Jesus has overcome the world.

He has overcome the sickness, the pressures, the guilt, the trauma, the brokenness. Jesus. The One who is our advocate and friend.

Not only is Jesus an overcomer, but He walks with us in our brokenness. First Peter 5:7 tells us to “Cast all of our anxieties on him because he cares for (us)” (ESV). The Savior of the world wants to carry our burdens. How amazing is that? We were never supposed to carry the brokenness of this world alone.

However, if you are like me, I know that actually sharing the weight of my burdens with Jesus is easier said than done. My fierce Enneagram 8 self likes to handle things on my own, but the truth is I can’t. I can bear if for a while, but eventually, I break because I too am living under the curse of brokenness that entered our world with the first sin.

God’s answer to the brokenness of the world was Jesus, and Jesus is still the answer.

I don’t have to carry the weight of the world (or even my little world) on my own, and neither do you. In fact, we can’t. But Jesus can. He is our overcomer. The overcomer of the weight of the world. Hand your cares to Him today, friend.

Blessings,

Stephanie Roberts