Overwhelmed?

Are you ever overwhelmed?
For me, the days I'm NOT overwhelmed are getting fewer and farther between.

As a mother of 2 teenagers now, I am constantly on guard against what may be around the corner for them. Any offered advice or guidance usually ends in one of us sighing loudly since the "I've learned all I want to from you" section of their brains has now fully developed.

As a wife with an outside job, I am welcomed at home with dirty laundry and unfinished projects that fall to the bottom of the long list of things that took my energy hours before I came back home. The unending responsibilities of a home and family can, at times, send me running for the comfort of my bed, curled in the fetal position.

As a worship leader and full-time employee of a church, I am forever chasing Sunday, while being tripped on the other days of the week along the way. Fighting the guilt that sometimes comes with ministry when you realize the effort you've expended isn't yielding the result you had hoped or the next holiday/emphasis leaves no room to breath and reflect on what God just allowed to happen.

Finally, as a writer (yes, I said it), I am faced with the choice each day...to write or not to write. Internal dialogue of the other things that need my attention keep me from recording the dialogue my characters are screaming in my head. Why would I spend time writing anyway? Who's gonna read it anyway? Choosing to do any other activity inevitably results in the weight of shirking the calling of telling this story, whether anyone reads it or not.

So today ... I write. I write to thank God for his blessing of family, sighs and all. I write to thank God for the many piles of clothes we have to wear and the means to clean them. I write to acknowledge (again) the ministry at my church or home was never mine to begin with. God allowed the contacts and position and each day is about opening my mind to His agenda.
Finally, I write because NOT to is rejecting a gift God allowed me to have. A few minutes a day, or a few hours a day is better than not at all and makes me feel closer to Him.

Whether anyone ever reads it, while the clothes turn in the washer, I write. Today, I accept my calling mother, wife, worship leader and writer (and whatever else the day throws at me) and as God to help me filter the demands of the day through His plan for my day. Suddenly, I 'm not so overwhelmed.