“Hurry up.” “Grab your shoes.” “We don’t want to be late.” This is what Emma heard as she was racing down the steps. Wait, let’s be honest, she’s 15 - the only place she “races” is to be with a boy. Let’s try that again. She picked up her shoes that had been lying on the steps as she “leisurely” walked past them and headed to the truck.
It was moving day. My
mom had finally sold her home after months of it being on the market and it was
“all hands on deck” to help clear it out for the new owners. Emma put her shoes on in the truck then
complained that they were too tight and were hurting her feet. These were her band practice shoes and I had
just washed the filthy things and told her that maybe they had shrunk in the
dryer. I told her she’d be fine in a
little bit after they stretched back out.
As soon as we got to my mom’s house she took the shoes off
and said that she couldn’t stand it any longer.
The shoes were way too tight and her toes couldn’t take it. She has feet of steel and can walk on rocks
and hot pavement like no one I’ve ever seen, but it was rainy and the ramp onto
the moving truck was very slippery so she was limited on what she could help
with. She tried her best and was very
helpful, but was still not doing as well as she could have, had she had the
proper shoes.
When we got home, I told her to just throw those shoes in
the trash. They had holes in the toes
and were still quite dirty, despite the fact that I had just washed them. Later that afternoon when she was packing for
a trip, she called me up to her room and pointed to her band shoes in the closet. We were confused for a second, then quickly
realized that those must have been Allie’s shoes that she had picked up from
the steps earlier. Allie has the same
shoes but a much smaller foot than Emma so that explained the toe
crushing.
God reminded me that when I overcommit myself to too many
things, it is much like Emma trying to squeeze her size 8½ foot into Allie’s
size 6½ shoe. It doesn’t work out very
well. My intentions are good, but I
can’t really give it my best.
God tells us in Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at
it with all your heart as if working for the Lord, not human masters.” To me, that means, do everything with
excellence. Don’t give a half-hearted
effort. Get in there, do your best, and
be proud of what you accomplish. We want
to serve others and do good things for them, but when we say yes to everything
and everyone and don’t set boundaries for ourselves, we end up running around,
causing all kinds of stress and really not able to fully commit to any one
thing. We need to remember to say “yes”
to a few good things and do it with excellence as if working for the Lord and not try to squeeze too many good things into a limited space.
