Hey friends!  This morning as I drove to work, NO ONE was on the road.  Ya’ll.  It was so nice.  No school traffic.  No one is about to run you over because they are more in a hurry than you.  I wondered what was happening??!  Why is no one working?  Then, it hit me.  Spring Break.  And that immediately got me thinking about today’s motivation.

I am a planner that likes to wing it (does that make sense)?  Anyway, I am not much of an overpacker or overthinker.  But let me tell you who is…my mom and my sister!  My sister is not as bad as my mother.  My mother brings an entire pharmacy everywhere she goes for “you never know when you will need cortisone cream.”  (like we far from the nearest Walmart 🙄).  She is the queen of “just in case.”  Just in case you need a bandaid.  Just in case we suddenly become a completely different person who falls down while having a belly ache and a head ache, which has never happened in my 46 years*.  But you never know! 😂

And then what happens?  

She takes another piece of luggage for the “just in case items”. And nothing ever happens.  And she ended up dragging around way more than she actually needed.

But isn’t it funny… how we do the exact same thing in life?  Let’s talk about it.

  • We pack worry about things that haven’t even happened.  
  • We carry guilt from things God has already forgiven.  
  • We hold onto hurt that we were never meant to keep.  
  • We take on responsibility that was never ours to begin with.

And then we wonder why we’re so tired.

Maybe we’re not just tired… maybe we’re overpacked.

The Bible tells us in Hebrews 12:1 to “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,.”  That means some of the weight we’re carrying? We were never meant to keep it.

Some of us aren’t exhausted because life is hard…We’re exhausted because we’re carrying things God never asked us to carry.

We keep trying to fit it all in—fear, control, other people’s opinions, past mistakes—and then we’re surprised when we feel weighed down.

Spring break is a simple reminder: you can’t take everything with you.  You have to choose.

So let me ask you—what are you holding onto that it’s time to leave behind? What would happen if this week, instead of trying to carry it all… you finally let some of it go?

Because here’s the truth: You were never meant to carry everything.

So maybe this week, we stop overpacking.  Maybe we trust God enough to set some things down.  And maybe… we finally travel a little lighter.

I hope you all have a wonderful, fun and safe Spring Break week!

Love you all,

Jennifer

*For the record, I adore my mother.  I LOVE that she cares so much about other people’s needs. I wouldn’t trade that for the world.