Devotions from the Kitchen Table

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. — Galatians 6:2 Some days, dinnertime is a breeze. There are no wrecks on the commute home, the kids don’t have any homework, and you are right on track with your meal plans for the week. You walk in the door to the smell of pot roast and potatoes in the slow cooker and throw together some homemade bread just because you can. Yes, some days you rock at this thing called life. Then there are those other days. The commute home takes an extra thirty minutes, and you drove the last ten with your fuel light on. Your spouse is out of town, and your children inform you that they have a science project due the next day that they haven’t started yet. You have no idea what it was you had planned to make for dinner with the pitiful offerings in your pantry. These are the days when the delivery person is your friend. It doesn’t matter if the delivery is pizza, Chinese, or sandwiches — you just need someone to help shoulder the dinner burden. During some seasons, life feels under control. Our kids are healthy, our marriages are happy, and our jobs are fulfilling. We’re blessed with time for family vacations, date nights, and friends. Our social media posts are all beach photos and funny memes, and life is good. Then there are those other seasons. We don’t spend much time on social media because tears in the shower are not as pretty as toes in the sand. The car breaks down, the toilet overflows, and an unexpected bill comes in the mail. We feel disconnected from our spouse, and the kids are passing around a stomach bug. In those moments we need someone to come along and carry some of the burden. The beauty of the body of Christ is that no one is meant to bear their burdens all alone. To fulfill the law of Christ is to come alongside another person, link arms, and take on some of the load. We are so much stronger together. Let’s look around and see who is weakening under the weight of a burden, and let’s carry it for them. It might be as simple as having dinner delivered to their door. You knew that this life was too much for us to do alone, Lord. Open my eyes to ways I can carry another person’s burden. Excerpted from Devotions from the Kitchen Table by Stacy Edwards.