i gotta get it together. i find myself whispering this phrase to myself multiple times a day.

• when i have 5 minutes to get out the door and i know it will take us 10. i gotta get it together. 
• when i start one thing on the to-do list and get sidetracked by another. i gotta get it together. 
• when i forget about something i said i would do. i gotta get it together. 
• when it’s 5:30 and i realize i forgot to get the chicken out to thaw. i gotta get it together.
• when i’ve just started a work project and it’s 9pm. i gotta get it together.
• when the laundry has been sitting, wet, in the washer for two days. i gotta get it together.

sometimes it feels like the weight of all these things, plus 142 others, sits on my chest like a huge elephant. i have a great husband. i have friends. the best neighbors. a supportive family. but still, more often than not i feel like i am going at this alone. why?

i fall into the trap of thinking, “if i don’t do these things, who will?” who will pay the credit card, clean up, make lunches, call about a bill, grab the groceries, sign folders, and settle arguments if i don’t?

somedays, it is all i can do to actually keep it together. you too?

some of my favorite Bible verses are long. i can never remember the exact wording, and forget it when it comes to repeating them when i am feeling overwhelmed. but a few years ago i stumbled upon this one:

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. Colossians 1:17

so short, yet so exactly what i need every time i think to myself i gotta get it together. this verse reminds me that i am not really in this alone. i am not meant to hold all these things together by myself, even though sometimes it feels that way. no, God is not going to swoop down and put my laundry in the dryer, but it helps knowing He cares that i am doing it. that i am taking care of my family. that He doesn’t care that i am perfect at all of it. that’s the only opinion that matters, right? it is so hard to remember this. but it is true.

if i ask Him for a better attitude about things, offer stressors up as a prayer for someone else, or just pray that i can let some of these things go without the mom guilt, that feeling of having to keep it all together goes away a LITTLE bit.

maybe you feel like this too and can commit this short verse to memory today. together, we can let go of some of that control we think we have and remember that God has already gone before us in this day.