Heavy Lifting

Favorite Proverbs: #31 Heavy Lifting

Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up. Proverbs 12:25

If you’re not okay right now, could you tell someone you trust?
If someone around you isn’t okay, what kind word could you offer them today?

There's no good way to get a grip on a runaway train of anxious thoughts.  Maybe that's what makes them so heavy on the heart.  Like a oversized load of laundry you're trying to carry in one trip to the washer, it's a wiley burden.  Just when you think you have a precarious hold, you look down only to discover you've missed an errant sock, and if you bend down to pick it up, you somehow drop another one from the towering pile.  It can be a comedy of errors if your mood is right...or the straw that breaks your fragile facade into a million pieces.  Yes, the laundry is dirty. You know that, and you're trying to take it to the right place to fix that.  If only you could get there.

How precious are the words of a friend.  A friend's encouraging words can enter into shattered mess of a pile gone terribly wrong and knock that runaway train right from its tracks.  A kind word can be an extra hand that picks up the errant sock, allowing you to keep your tenuous grip on the way to the washer.  A kind word can change the soundtrack and somehow make a tragic moment into a comedic one.  (Have you ever had a friend rescue you from frustration and tears by dissolving you into a pile of giggles?  I have.  It's the best kind of rescue.)

I'm definitely blessed to have friends I can reach out to when I'm struggling.  The hardest part is admitting that I need the help.  The thought of my friend's hands on my errant socks?  It's embarrassing.  But a friend won't air that laundry, they'll help you carry it to the washer.  And the thing is, I know I wouldn't be bothered in the least if the tables were turned.  It's a sock.  There's nothing to be ashamed about.  That's just life.  Why is it so much easier to give help than receive it? (Especially when anxiety is involved.)

My prayer is to have the bravery to be transparent with those who have my trust, and to have ears to hear and eyes to see when someone might need a hand themselves.  Not to carry the whole load. There's someone whose hands are big enough for that.  Just to pick up a sock or two on the way.