A Prayer for Carrying More Than You’re Supposed to Carry
By Rachel Wojo
Bible reading:
“What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only exhaust yourself. The work is too heavy for you, you can’t do it alone.” – Exodus 18:17-18
Listen or read below:
I can still see the brick fireplace in our old living room. My special needs daughter, Taylor, thought running across the raised fire pit was the best game in the house. Back then, all those years ago, she was strong, she was fast, and she had no concept of danger. That was the hardest part of taking care of her: I could explain why bricks were dangerous until I was “blue in the face,” as my mother said. The explanations did not change his habits.
One day she slipped.
She didn’t fall hard and luckily she didn’t hit her head. But I saw her feet come out from under her, and for half a second I braced myself, and then something inside me snapped. I had a three year old child behind me. A nineteen month old child in the park. A newborn in the inflatable seat. And I realized, standing with my heart in my throat, that I had tried to be four people at once, and that one day soon it was going to cost one of them something that I couldn’t repay.
I don’t remember what I did next, but I do remember one particular thought. His safety is more important than mine pride.
For months, I’ve been telling myself that I should be able to do this. Other mothers took care of four children. The other moms didn’t need help. If I was the right kind of mother, the right kind of Christian, I would understand it. Asking for help meant I wasn’t enough. Asking for help meant I was failing. So I kept trying to carry everything by myself when my husband was at work. All the usual parenting duties plus constant supervision from Taylor. Oh, and laundry and meals. Honestly, I silently blamed God for not making me stronger.
But my friend, it wasn’t that God hadn’t made me strong enough.
I was carrying things that he never gave me in the first place.
In Exodus 18Moses does the same thing as me. He sits as judge for Israel from morning to evening, settling all disputes and answering all questions.
His father-in-law, Jethro, watches over him for a day and speaks: “What you are doing is not good.”
Not “You’re doing great, take your pace.”
Or if he looked like he came from my Appalachian roots, “Bless your heart, you are so dedicated.”
He says it’s bad for Moses and bad for the people Moses loves.
“The work is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone.”
He then tells her to only keep the things you can do and release the rest.
This is the part I missed for years. I thought the choice was between taking everything and giving up. I didn’t realize there was a third option, and that’s the one God actually offered: carry what’s yours and let him, through his people, carry the rest.
The day after Taylor almost hit her head on the bricks, I picked up the phone and asked her about respite care. When the respite worker began to arrive, my first reaction was not relief; it was sorrow. I cried because I felt like a failure. I cried because I thought asking for help meant I loved Taylor less than a mother who didn’t need help.
It took me a long time to realize that letting someone else carry some of the weight was the most loving thing I could do for Taylor, for my other babies, for my incredible husband, Matt, and yes, for me. Moses didn’t love Israel any less when he let the seventy elders help him. He loved them even more.
If you are reading this today and your shoulders ache from something that was never yours, whether it was another person’s choices, another person’s emotions, a burden of care designed for a team instead of a single person, a burden you shouldered because no one else would, then listen to what Jethro said to Moses and what God is saying to you through this passage. What you are doing is not good. The work is too heavy for you. God does not accuse us; He invites us to a different solution.
You were made to carry something. You are not made to carry everything.
And you were never made to carry anything alone.
Pray with me?
Let us pray:
Heavenly Father, I come to you today tired in a way that sleep cannot mend. You see the load I carried. I have things that are mine, and then things that I picked up somewhere along the way without anyone asking. I figure a stronger person could handle this and a better Christian wouldn’t need help. These are lies.
Lord, will You show me the difference? Show me what’s mine and what was never mine in the first place. Give me the humility to lay down the weight that does not come from You, and the courage to ask for hands to help me with the weight that comes from You. Forgive me for confusing exhaustion with loyalty. Forgive me for thinking I had to prove something to you that you already told me I didn’t do.
Thank you for giving Moses a Jethro. Thank you for putting people in my life who can see what I can’t admit. Help me remember that letting someone help me is not weakness. This is how You designed it all from the beginning.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
If you’re in a season where the weight feels heavier than your shoulders can handle, I wrote Desperate Prayers: Embracing the Power of Prayer in Life’s Darkest Moments exactly for this kind of day. This is the book I wish someone had handed me the afternoon Taylor slipped on those bricks.
Discuss today’s devotion with others in the Your Daily Prayer Thread on the pedestrian crossing forum.
Photo credit: Unsplash/Aaron Burden
Related Resource: Establishing a Rest Routine
For a long time, rest felt less like a gift and more like a sinful indulgence—something to be earned, something to be vaguely ashamed of, something that productive and faithful people didn’t really need. In a world that measures value by output, the idea of stopping seems dangerously close to falling behind.
But what if rest isn’t optional? What if this was never planned? Tonight, stop the hustle and bustle. Receive the gift. This is exactly what you were made for. Your evening prayer is a daily Christian prayer podcast from LifeAudio Podcast Network and Crosswalk.com. Each evening, the team behind Crosswalk.com offers a devotional and prayer to help you end your day in conversation with God. May these nightly prayers help you find the words to pray and focus your heart and mind on God’s love as you close out your day. If you like what you hear, subscribe at Apple Or Spotify so you never miss an episode!
