It was a tearful conversation with one of my girls a few weeks ago, as we chopped up veggies for dinner. She was lamenting her lack in a certain area that her sister happens to excel. I don’t remember all that we talked about that day; but I do remember drawing her attention to the fact that God gives every person different gifts. We have the choice to embrace and cultivate them or spend our energies wishing for a different skill set. And I was struck that no matter what your season of life, everyone struggles with this to some degree. We pass our days in status updates and squares of life lived out on the tiny screens in our pockets, and think how easy it seems for everyone else. And wonder what in the world is wrong with us. We can become so fixated on what we feel we lack, we lose sight of what we have been given.

I loved this passage from Humble Roots :

“When you recognize that you love something and are gifted to do it, you must also immediately recognize that you do not love everything, and you are not gifted to do everything… You are free from the responsibility of feeling like you have to ‘do it all.’ You are free to do only what you have been made to do…”

As a culture, we are obsessed with this concept of ‘doing it all,’ aren’t we? As if that were some goal attainable. But what if we stopped focusing so much on the ALL and instead took stock of what it means to be faithful where we are? What if we spent less time looking longingly at what everyone else is doing and more time using the unique giftings we have, for the good of those around us? Doing what we were made to do. Doesn’t that sound like the very essence of freedom?

What if we, as women, took more time to celebrate and encourage publicly (and in our hearts) the women in our lives embracing their gifts + loves and using them? How much less bitter and divided and lonely could we be?

What if we spent less time scrolling through social media, and more time pursuing the work God has called us to? Let’s use what we’ve been given and use it well. Do the next thing and do it as best we can. Let’s live in the good of grace, freed from the pressure of “doing it all.”