I AM. . .a mom.

I heard a bump against the front door one afternoon and opened it to find my daughter nearly toppling under the weight of her bulky and very heavy social studies project from school. We had worked together on the hands-on project at home, which included a mosaic set in concrete on a wood base. Her dad had lugged it to school one morning the previous week.

Now, helping her unload the heavy project, and then her weighty backpack, I let her know I would have been happy to come and pick her up from school, rather than her having to lug the thing home via the school bus. “My teacher said we had to bring it home today, no exceptions,” she puffed. Okay. “So why didn’t you call?” I asked. She shrugged, massaging her tired arms. “Didn’t want to bother you.”

I reached out to give her a hug. And as a parent, I cringed, because it would have been so easy for me to help. I would have been glad to step in and driven over to the school to make it easier for her, but I didn’t know, and she didn’t call. And I felt sad, knowing I missed an opportunity to do what I love to do as a parent. Help my kiddo.

Even without our telling God, though, he knows all about the struggles we face. He, too, is ready to step in and bear the weight for us, but often we try to carry it all on our own, forgetting or refusing to ask. Does he also cringe, watching us try to do it all ourselves, knowing how easily he could help lessen our difficulty? Do we hesitate to ask, thinking we don’t want to bother an already busy God?

So many of life’s situations mirror spiritual ones with lessons we can learn. And so often we breeze right past, trying to maintain our independent status, ending up worn and bruised from the struggle we shouldered on our own.

I AM. . .God. Your Father. I have some pretty big shoulders.

He will remove the burden from our shoulders (Psalm 81:6).

His yoke is easy and his burden is light (Matthew 11:30).

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens (Psalm 68:19).

As a child of God, maybe it’s time for us to give up some of the weights we are trying to lug and lift and to let God get involved and “parent” us as he so deeply desires to do. And perhaps in doing so, we will find ourselves better understanding the love of our Father who takes great delight in doing what he loves to do as a parent–help his kiddos.