It’s so easy, isn’t it? To find yourself consumed in trying to carry the weight of the world. Knees buckling under the pressure as you gaze down the road ahead. Wiping the sweat from your brow, your feet sink in the mud beneath you, each step heavier than the last. You look to your left and there’s unearthed corruption, acts of violence, and freedoms being chipped away at. You look to your right and there is another heartbreaking story and maddening truths. And while you wish for dryer ground just up ahead, for just a moment of release, a place to set your load down and take a breath, something inside tells you not to expect it. 

These days it is easy to be consumed by it all. The more I witness of society’s spiral, the more exhausted I feel when I lay down at the end of each day. They have felt long and bleak. And holding on to hope has sometimes felt like an impossible feat. Because how can we ever come back from all of this? But maybe that’s just it. Despite feeling completely unprepared for what most days seem to bring currently, you were made for such a time as this. We both were. 

But the heaviness of the world? That darkness that seems to swirl all around like a thick black smoke? We can’t find our way with it. There will always be things outside of our control. And as much as I would love to be on the frontlines of every worthy fight and cause, we were never meant to take it all on. We were never meant to do it all.

So put it down. 

Fix your eyes on what is most important. Your heart, your mind, your physical strength. Because no warrior ever made it through the battle with a weak foundation. Safeguard yourself, safeguard your heart, safeguard your family. Wield your sword for the things that matter above everything else. Gird up your loins and hold the line at home. Silence the outside world while you do it. Your children and your family need all of you in these days. Every single piece of you.

And the moment you feel your strength renewed and fresh breath in your lungs, take on the next fight you find just outside your door. Let your battle cry be heard. Because those little ones hollering the same battle cry? The ones finding their footing within your footprints left behind as you lead them through the chaos? Their future depends on you. These days are about so much more than what is on the surface. The battle raging is about good versus evil and don’t think for a second that it isn’t. We are in a spiritual war of biblical proportions. But we were made for such a time as this, remember? And to raise dragon slayers in the time of actual dragons? They write books about that stuff.

So gird up your loins, mama. And hold the line.

I’m right there with you.