I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed.  And down-trodden.  And burnt out.

Then the Lord was gracious enough to reveal to me a passage from the Bible that has turned my life up-side down.

Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say:  Here am I.
If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail. – Isaiah 58:9-11

The reason I was suffering in the darkness of my despair was because I was being just a *bit* self-centered.  I kept focusing on The Mommy.  “When will I get some Mommy-time?”  “Why does The Mommy have to do all the work?”  “The Mommy never gets to do anything SHE wants to do.”  “The Mommy has such a crummy life.”

Boy, was my land sun-scorched.  My garden was drying up.  And my waters were failing.  I was crying out for help, but the resounding silence that echoed back was  maddening.

I had to read and meditate on that verse for at least a week before I realized what God was trying to tell me.  Piece by piece, the verses started speaking directly to me.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk” – Could that possibly have something to do with the way I’ve been treating my husband lately?  The way I expect him, after a grueling day of trial and error and error and error in his research, to sweep me off my feet with the washing of dishes and the tending to the children?  My unfair expectations were oppressing him – because they affected the way I treated him.  I would point my finger.  I would be malicious in speech.  Yes, that that verse was written for me.

“And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed” – The hungry?  When are they NOT hungry?!  With a baby nursing every couple hours and three meals a day to provide to the other members of my house, it didn’t take long for me to realize the application in this verse.  And “oppressed” here could also apply to my little drama queen lovely toddler, who is learning obedience day-by-day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute, and believe it or not, she doesn’t always like it.  She believes with all her heart that she is being oppressed.

And I have to “spend” myself in their behalf.  Spend!  As in “all gone.”  “Nothing left.”  “Empty.”  Just what a burnt-out mommy wants to hear.  Thank God the verse doesn’t end there.

“Then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday” –  How does a person who has “spent” herself so entirely on her family have any light left, let alone receive more light from her expenditures?  It’s one of those biblical conundrums.  Quite comparable to giving your last dime to the offering plate, not knowing how you’ll be able to afford the expenses of life.  The Lord gives open permission to test him in tithing.  I invite you to test him in this as well.

“The Lord will guide you always;” – Good.  Because I sure can’t do this on my own.

“He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land” – I knew I was sun-scorched before I even came across this verse.  I need his satisfying fulfillment.  I need my needs to be met.  Who better to meet them than the one who created my inmost being?

“And he will strengthen your frame” – Any burnt-out mommy knows weakness of frame.  When you don’t have to strength to stand.  You have a frame made of Jell-O.  An exhausted, squiggly, wiggly frame.  This is the verse that first caught my eye when I read this passage.  I knew at that moment that this passage was for me.

“You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail” – When I picture the garden in this verse, I don’t see pretty-but-pointless flowers.  I see a vegetable garden.  An orchard of fruit trees.  Beautiful when in bloom, but also necessary for the nourishment of our families.  When we spend our all in behalf of our families, we are given the water of life.  Not so that we can hoard it for ourselves; not so that we can simply feel “good” again.  But so that we can pour it back out on our loved ones, thus receiving even more!

Write that passage down and tape it above your kitchen sink.  It makes for good reading while washing dishes – believe me.