This morning I woke up out of a peaceful slumber at the crack of down to my screaming, yet adorable nine-month year old baby, Danny. He has just started teething; so needless to say, he has been quite irritable, with sufficient reason.

As I carried my 22 lb. baby down the stairs, half asleep, I was amiss to see my house completely disheveled. Dishes were piled high in the sink, dry and crusty from the night before. My husband, Chris and I, had ran out of dish detergent yesterday.

The laundry was also piled up on the front living room furniture. At least it was clean, I coaxed myself.  I stood there frozen, completely overwhelmed.

I stared outside and longed for my comfy bed upstairs, and needless to say, putting the sheets over my head. Danny’s shrieks immediately brought me back to reality.

It was Sunday, so I was already feeling stress. Sundays are like a pre-game show before the big game, that is, a start of another Monday morning in High School (teaching that is). Today’s checklist looked like something like this:

Shower/get ready

Go to church

Pack up the baby

Clean dishes/kitchen

Put laundry away

Read for pleasure

Grade papers

Plan a week of lessons for school

Write for pleasure

Watch the Packers Game

Make dinner

Relax?

My day took a turn for the better when I arrived at church and listened to the reading. “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” Phil 4:6-9

I exhaled and felt a little bit lighter. It was a great reminder for me to make Jesus the center, of everything. Not the laundry, not dinner, not even preparing for school.

I felt my priorities shift and I could see things clearly. How simple it really was.

Trust Jesus. Give all of my burdens to Him. In this way Jesus reminds me of Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback of the Packers, who takes the ball and runs with it, and all we have to do is snap it to him. And let go.

As I sat in church, I visualized giving Him every obstacle in my path and every burden that weighed me down. I imagined Him taking each one. I could feel the tension ease and my breath begin to steady, slowly.

Throughout the day, as I scurried through my tasks, I paused to be mindful of my stress. When I felt overwhelmed, I tried to remind myself that Jesus had already received my burdens in his hands. I forget that, too often.

That is the difficult part about prayer. We pray, sometimes over and over and over again. But we forget to trust Him and let go, if only for a moment. Isn’t that the point?

I felt peace. That was my touchdown.