Traveling Light

Traveling with kids means traveling heavy. You know how it is–even one overnight stay means more baggage than TSA runs through security for an overbooked flight.

For the first of our three (yes, three!!!) overnight trips this summer, the girls and I visited my parents while my husband attended an out-of-town graduation on his side of the family. The gear I hauled along included diapers, pull-ups, bedding, snacks, toys, an extra car seat, a pack-and-play, changes of clothes, more changes of clothes, my twenty month old’s giant stuffed horse, a large canvass tote of additional stuffed animals, and the potty chair (an absolute essential.)

Then, just because we weren’t packed in tight enough, I also transported to my parents’ house our broken screen door. (That’s a story in and of itself. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for sending me back with a repaired door.)

I realize that our “vacations” entail leaving a cluttered, overfull home to travel in a cluttered, overfull vehicle. And then when we hit our destination, we transform it into a cluttered, overfull mess in about 60 seconds. (Sorry, Mom and Dad!)

While driving our packed minivan, I wondered how I could enjoy peace, calm and tranquility…even in the midst of all the clutter.

If my mind was decluttered, truly decluttered, then despite all the stuff that inevitably surrounds me, I could always travel light.

What clutters up my mind?

Anxious thoughts–“big” worries–break in like an intruder. (What if such-and-such terrible thing were to happen??) Annoying “little” worries crowd in on me…whether I’m at home (These projects I have to do around the house will never get done–ugh!!) or on the road (These children will never get to sleep for me in an unfamiliar place–ugh!!)

Then there are the nagging feelings of what I should have done differently as a mom, or as a spouse. Situations I didn’t handle so admirably. Decisions which, in retrospect, weren’t the best.

Clutter. And, unlike the stuffed “sleeping buddies,” the potty chair, the extra bedding, and the massive supply of diapers and pull-ups, it is clutter that serves no purpose. I’m being weighed down, mentally, by so much stuff that I don’t need.

It’s not easy, though, to stop lugging it around.

I arrived home from my parents’ house before my husband returned from the graduation. I started unloading the van and carting all the gear into the house. Then, suddenly, the light bulb went on and I stopped short. “Hey! My wonderful, helpful husband will be home soon… why don’t I just let him handle the baggage?”

You know, I would have thought this a terrible thing a few years ago. Stick my husband with the bags when I’m perfectly capable myself?? I have no such reservations now. And he actually wants to do these manly kinds of chores to help me out. Sometimes he’ll even ask me, “Why didn’t you leave that for me to take care of?”

It reminds me of Someone else in my life. He’s with me even when my husband is not…at home, on vacation…wherever the crazy busy of momhood takes me. He offers peace, calm, and tranquility no matter my surroundings. He actually wants to take the baggage…in fact, there’s nothing He wants more.

When my mind is cluttered with anxious thoughts, He whispers, “why don’t you just leave that for me to take care of?” From any worry, He gives me real freedom.

When regrets crowd out the joy of the present, he reminds me, “All you have done wrong I have paid for already. All the decisions that seemed faulty, I have worked out for your good.” From any regret, He gives me true rest.

Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7)

Without any reservations, I can hand Him the baggage, which in truth I can’t handle myself. I give it all to Him, every day, as often as needed. I don’t have to travel heavy through this life. At His invitation, and by His power, I can travel light.