When a circumstance happens that’s out of your hands, the common phrase that you hear is, “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle”. I’ve personally been given many circumstances that fall into this category, and I dare to say, it’s a lie. If I had to go out on a limb, I would even say that maybe you have experienced this as well. Although this saying is intended to be positive or helpful, I feel like it’s a filler for those moments when you truly don’t know what else to say. Living in an extra special world, I have had my share of moments filled with comments like this. At times, it’s hard to find the correct response.
“Thank you?” Doesn’t seem appropriate.
“Why me?” Doesn’t seem to fit, although, I guaranteed if you found yourself in this situation, you’ve asked it.
I think when we find ourselves in a spot where we never thought we would be, it’s not because we can handle it. It’s because we are about to be fully immersed in our flaws and weaknesses and we pray we come out alive. Prior to my son, I was the most impatient person I knew. Parenthood has a funny way of finding your flaws and smacking you in the face with them.
Parenting in an extra special world, is 10-Fold. When milestones become inch-stones, which sometimes becomes the stones that you trip on, Patience is a laughable trait. How about organization? For someone who is complete opposite of a type A mindset, imagine coordinating over 12 different specialists, 5 different therapists, appointments and procedures on top of the normal paddy cake and ABC’s. Is it easy? Nope. But great things happen when you get out of your comfort zone. Which is why I don’t believe God gives his greatest battles to his strongest warriors. I think when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, when we allow our flaws to show, we open ourselves to the grace that is given. The grace that gives us permission to say, we have no idea what we are doing. Sometimes we just have to wing it, because we know it’s not up to us anyways. I do not believe God gives us what we can handle. I believe God gives us our teachable moments to help us grow. To help us learn and to help us becomes better people. I believe he finds the raw weakness in us and builds us up.
It’s not always pretty, in fact , some days, it’s really really ugly. The magic happens when you come to discover that God may give you more than you can handle, but he always handles what is given.