Open your Bible and read Luke 12.
When I came to verse 14 of Luke 12, I had to reread it a few times because it was so counterintuitive for me. This verse holds an incredibly liberating truth for us as Christian women. Hear me out…
We Do a Lot
Most of the women I know do a lot – work outside the home, raise children, homeschool, volunteer, serve at church, spend time with friends, care for extended family, keep house, cook, clean, pay bills, run errands, organize events, host guests… You know what I’m talking about.
Few women do all those things, but most of us do a lot of them!
We do these things largely because of love. We love our family, we love our friends, we love our church, we love our work. And for many of us, we do these things because we love Jesus. And that’s good. It is as it should be!
The trouble is that we often overcommit ourselves. Or we do so much that it’s impossible to do any of it well. Or we do too much and burn out. (Guilty. 🙋♀️)
Now, I’m not talking about emergency situations when survival mode is necessary. It happens. I get it.
But the Christmas season is a prime example. On top of everything else we do all year long, we add shopping for gifts, wrapping gifts, baking, writing Christmas cards, mailing packages, attending Christmas events, hosting Christmas events, and more.
So what does this have to do with Luke 12?
Jesus Didn’t Do It All
Read verses 13-14 again. Here it is in the New Living Translation:
“Then someone called from the crowd, ‘Teacher, please tell my brother to divide our father’s estate with me.’ Jesus replied, ‘Friend, who made me a judge over you to decide such things as that? (Luke 12:13-14, NLT)’”
What happened here?
Someone asked Jesus to do something for them, and He declined!
Think about this. Jesus is God. He was fully capable of doing what was asked of Him. He could have done it. But He chose not to.
“Can Do” ≠ “Should Do”
Friend, not every need that’s presented to you is a call to action. Just because you can do something doesn’t automatically mean you should do something.
Sometimes you need to say “No”.
Sometimes you need to delegate.
And it’s not just because of “self-care”. It’s not just because you’re human and only have so many hours in a day.
It’s because, sometimes the thing that needs to be done is something for someone else to do.
Maybe setting the table for supper is a job for one of your children. You could do it. But so could they.
Maybe picking up a gift is something your teenager could do. You could do it, but so could they.
Maybe wrapping gifts is something a friend loves to do and finds therapeutic.
Maybe someone who loves you would find great joy in helping you with some of the things on your plate.
This is super practical stuff. And it’s harder for some of us than others.
But when you find yourself feeling like your plate is too full, think of this brief exchange in Luke 12 and remember that even Jesus didn’t do everything He could have done.
