You can handle it…Oh no you can’t!




I heard a speaker say once that “We can handle it.” She said it again “Yes, we can handle it…through Jesus, of course.” She added the last part about Jesus almost as an afterthought. As I sat there listening, I thought about what I just went through in my own life. Looking around the room at all the other women, I thought, what have they gone through, or what are they going through right now? Can we handle it? I say “No, we cannot handle it.”

Speaking as a parent of four children, two boys and two girls, I am raising them to move out. I do not want them living with me forever. I want them to make decision on their own and maybe to start their own family and be confident in their decisions. Yes I want to be a part of their lives and be there for support and guidance. To watch them grow into young men and women while they develop their own walk with the Lord and to witness what plans He has for them.

My relationship with God I see very differently. More along the lines of that time when my 2 year old child did not want to go into the nursery. She held on to me for dear life. As the nursery worker was trying to release her death grip from my clothes and I was untangling myself from legs wrapped around my body, my daughter was determined to stay with me no matter what. I see myself as the child and the world trying desperately to pull me away from God.

The way I see it, God does not want us to get so “grown up” that we move out and stop calling him as much. I can never feel like I have it “handled” and that I do not need God. I need Him for everything, not only the big stuff that comes and flips my life upside-down, but more importantly the daily things that happen on a regular basis that train me to turn to God for the “big stuff.”

Could this “I can handle it” mentality be resulting in women trying to keep up with other women who look like they are “handling it” better then themselves? Am I more concerned with looking the part of “handling it” then just admitting I need Jesus and I can’t handle what is going on in my life? Once I realize that I cannot handle what is going on I will quickly turn to the One who can handle it, my heavenly Father.

I will keep training my children to be independent while my heavenly Father is training me to be continually dependent on Him.