Recently Tianna called me in tears and said, “I’m tired of this!”
“Tired of what, exactly?”
“Yesterday I felt great—invincible. Today I feel tearful and discouraged. I wonder if I’m strong enough to do everything that everybody expects of me.”
We went through the changes in her life in the past few months: she was getting divorced, her young child was requiring more attention and changes in child care, she was moving to a new home, she was just barely learning to feel and implement Real Love, her job had changed, and she was embarking on a spiritual path unlike anything she had done before.
When I was a young man, I had strong legs. On my first day of weightlifting class, they kept loading weights on the bar, and we discovered that I could put 550 pounds of steel on my shoulders, squat to where my butt touched my heels, and stand back up.
In subsequent classes, I also learned that when walking with that amount of weight, the slightest misstep or turn of a foot could cause me to lose my balance beyond recovery. Hence the necessity of spotters, one man on each end of the bar to steady, catch, or guide the bar should the weightlifter begin to lose control.
I explained my weightlifting experience to Tianna and said, “You’re carrying 500 pounds on your shoulders right now, and you’re finding it difficult to maintain a steady balance. I wonder why.”
She got the point, she smiled, and she quit feeling bad about her ups and down.
In order to grow in strength, we have to increase the loads we carry. In the process, however, our steps sometimes become unsteady, especially on uneven ground. If we remember this, we become discouraged far less easily.
Replace your fear and confusion with peace and happiness.
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