Writer Lorrene McClymont has published a personal column describing how the ordinary demands of life can feel heavy, even when nothing dramatic has happened. She writes that the pressure to keep many responsibilities in motion at once can become overwhelming.
McClymont lists the usual stresses she identifies: pressures involving children and family, ageing parents, work and financial strain, and health issues. She describes these as a series of demands arriving one after another that gradually wear a person down.
In the column, McClymont says that when she feels this way she tends to believe everything rests on her alone. She writes that she has tried to control matters her husband is responsible for, although he did not ask her to, and that she has managed her older children in what she describes as an unhealthy way.
She also says she has made unwise decisions at work while trying to address problems that did not actually exist. Her conclusion is that the harder she tried to control her world, the more out of control it seemed, and that she was not at her kindest when doing so.
McClymont writes that she often neglects her time with God when she falls into this pattern. She describes spending time with God as more than a task on a list of priorities, and says that making time for God in the morning reminds her that she does not have to control everything or carry life's burdens alone.
The column quotes Matthew 11:28-30, which McClymont describes as one of her favourite passages in the Bible. It reads: «Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.»
McClymont suggests readers who feel weighed down by life write the passage on a card and place it on a mirror where they will see it each morning. She writes that rest comes when people let go of tightly held control.
McClymont is a writer and photographer who shares material on rest, faith and family on her blog Moments to Rest. The column was supplied to several regional and faith-oriented outlets.