Women of Warren Vlog – That Hat Doesn’t Fit You!

good morning i hope your monday is off to a great start so i read a social media post a while back it was written by a mom it was so sweet and it's so tender and she was really pouring out her heart just over the heaviness of her role in her family and she called herself the keeper of all of these different pieces of her family and of her life and all of these key roles that she played and I so identified with the way that she felt and and just that heaviness that I often feel in my own life of the roles and responsibilities that the Lord has given me it can weigh so heavily on me and and so I really identified with all that she shared and then that very next Sunday we sang one of the songs that our war and worship team has composed called my keeper and the Lord so sweetly reminded me that yes Jenna I have given you some key roles and responsibilities to play in your life and and you need to do them diligently but do not forget I am not only your keeper I am also the keeper of all of your loved ones I am the keeper of your children. I am the keeper of your husband. I am the keeper of your family. I am the keeper of your friends, your co-workers, not you. He reminded me that that is a role that only he fills. That is a hat that only he can wear. That hat does not fit me. They read out of Psalm 121 that morning, which is just a sweet psalm of prayer and praise to the Lord and talks about the Lord as our keeper. I want to read Psalm 121 this morning for us. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord who made the heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber or sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. He alone is my keeper. but also the truth of Psalm 121. He is the keeper of all of those who I hold dear in my heart. I think as women, we have a tendency to take on roles and responsibilities that are not ours to bear. And I think it really, it all started back in the garden. If we go back and look, Eve stepped out of her role. It wasn't her job to know all and to be like God. That wasn't her job. Maybe even she stepped out of that role in her marriage, leading her husband astray. And when we do that, when we step outside of the roles and responsibilities that God's given us, or we take on more of that than we should, our peace level goes way down in our lives and our anxiety shoots up. The answer is to surrender that to the keeper, trusting him to do his job and remembering what our role is. I think it truly boils down to do we know who God is? Do we know what is his job versus what is our job? Because in order to know who I am and what my job is, I must first know who God is and what is his job and what is not my job. Galatians 6 2 tells us that we should bear one another's burdens and we should be grieved over sin and its devastation but our response to that when we feel those burdens well up in our hearts for those around us when we feel devastated by the sin that we see around us our response has to be to take that to the feet of the Lord, lay it on the altar before him. And then here's the hard part. Oh, we can't go pick it back up. We got to leave it there. Maybe we got to do that hour by hour throughout the day, taking what's heavy on our hearts for those around us and laying it at his feet. I don't know what key roles you might be playing in your life right now that do overwhelm your spirit sometime. I don't know, maybe you have adult children and your heart is grieved because you're watching them live in a way that you know doesn't honor the Lord. Maybe you are a young mom with lots of messes at home and little mess makers. Or maybe you're a mom of school-age children and you just feel the angst of trying to keep up with the home and the family's calendar. Or maybe you're caring for an ill-loved one right now. Maybe you're that co-worker who's always checking on everybody else, trying to hold the team together. Or maybe you're the Bible study leader who so has a heart for those women that she shepherds and you so diligently pray for what is heavy on their hearts and what they're dealing with in their life. But those different roles that the Lord has given us, we certainly have much responsibility, but we are not the keeper. We do not hold things together, and we must, we must remember that. There is a keeper. There is one who holds it all together, and it's not you, and it's not me either. So our challenge this week, as we start off our Monday morning, let's get out there. Let's serve our socks off. Let's love others and be the hands and feet of Jesus. but we are not the keeper of those around us they do have a keeper out of psalm 121 and he is a really really good at his job he alone can wear the hat of keeper so maybe this week just as we're told that iron sharpens iron as sisters in christ when we see one another taking on burdens and roles that are not ours, trying to be the keeper of all that around us. Maybe we can sweetly challenge and remind one another, girl, that hat, it doesn't fit you. I hope you have a blessed week. It is a joy to be with you every Monday morning. The only thing missing is your sweet face on the other side of the screen. But I know I'll see you soon and I hope you have a great week.

Originally published at warren.church.