how do you do it?

“I don’t know how you do it.”

“As a single parent – how do you do it?”

Yeah, I’m fairly confident the statement or the question is delivered as a compliment of sorts.

And yet.

It never feels like one.

“You’re braver then me.”

No. I’m not.

My choices are different, maybe.

Because they have to be.

“I don’t know how you do it all.”

I don’t either.

Mostly, because I’m not doing it all.

I’m not often even doing my tiny corner very well, in fact.

But that’s not really the point here.

We look at any life circumstance that isn’t ours and sometimes feel grateful. “Wow, glad I don’t have to go through that situation.”

We see what someone else has conquered or overcome and we can think to ourselves, “I could never live through that fill-in-the-blank experience.”

Except, of course the truth is we could.

We don’t want to. We hope we don’t ever have to.

But we could.

You could. I can.

Because sometimes life just demands that of us.

For a season. For what may feel like your whole life.

It’s a one foot in front of the other, I don’t want to live in a pit until I’m dead so I better find another option sort of decision that we find ourselves making when the choices grow limited.

I was reminded recently of this quote by John Piper that really resonates with me.

Occasionally, weep deeply over the life you hoped would be. Grieve the losses. Then wash your face. Trust God. And embrace the life you have.

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