How Long Are You Gonna Hold It?

I received an email that I have read several times before and thought I would share it with my friends and blog readers and random visitors too...

A young lady confidently walked around the room while leading and explaining stress management to an audience; with a raised glass of water, and everyone knew she was going to ask the ultimate question, 'half empty or half full?'...but she fooled them all... "How heavy is this glass of water?," she inquired with a smile.

Various answers were called out, from 8 oz. to 20 oz.  She replied, "The actual weight doesn't really matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."  She continued, "and that's the way it is with worry and stress. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we just won't be able to carry on."

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden - holding our concerns longer and better each time practiced. So, as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don't carry them through the evening and into the night...pick them up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment. Relax, pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short.  Enjoy it and the now 'supposed' burden that you've conquered!"

My favorite part out of all of this is Life is short. Enjoy it.... because ultimately thats what we are supposed to do. God wants us to have an abundant and joyful life. Its not meant for us to just exist and not live and truly enjoy our lives... As the passage stated, if we carry our burdens all the time sooner or later we wont be able to carry on. I've been found guilty of carrying a burden that I wasnt willing to let go of, and its almost like a weight attached to your leg, and you're having to DRAG yourself forward. You cant move freely with too many things attached to you and weighing you down.  I'm trying to let go of some things so I wont feel like anchored down and cannot move forward. I want to be able to skip freely through life, taking time to stop and enjoy the scenery along the way, smell the roses, so to speak...

Dont allow life and burdens to weigh you down so much that they began to defeat you. At the end of the day, our CHOICES are what determine what burdens we have, which ones we hold on to, etc. So if we, (myself included) can learn to make better choices, maybe we can take some of the weights off, and rest even if for a moment and pick them up when we're refreshed and rejuvenated and better yet, not have to pick them up at all. As long as your hands are free, may as well fill them with something thats more pleasant than a burden to carry around.

~Mo~

Just my 2 cents.