What to Do When Your Schedule Feels Overwhelming - iBelieve Truth: A Devotional for Women - September 2, 2026
“Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.” - Proverbs 4:25-26
When my schedule feels overwhelming, I have learned to fight the need to prove I can gut it out, push through, or press on. Because in my own strength, none of those things are possible. Not when motherly waives of emotion in certain seasons of life (like preparing to drop my oldest off at college at the opposite end of the country) creep up on me and cause my knees to bend past their capacity.
There are days when I am reminded of the façade of my own mental toughness. When I don’t pop awake at the crack of dawn (and I LOVE the crack of dawn), that’s typically my first clue. Day after day grew harder, and I knew why. Keeping all of the balls in the air at work and home was difficult. All work I love to do, but the capacity level is capped, no matter how much passion I have for all of the things and people in my life. This morning, my pivot crashed into my humanity.
“Overwhelmed.”
I put it in my browser's search bar and waited for the results to populate my screen. “When you feel overwhelmed, your brain experiences a stress response that makes it hard to focus, think clearly, or cope. Stop what you are doing right now, take a slow, deep breath, and remember that you do not have to fix everything at this exact moment.”
…you do not have to fix everything at this exact moment. Priorities. I teach this principle to my daughters extensively. When priorities are out of whack, life tends to whack us back to reality. But my priorities were in line …so why was I falling off the rails? Legalism had snuck into my system of surviving. Yes, life derails when our priorities are misaligned. But sometimes, even when they are rock-solid, a wave of emotion can still sweep me off my feet.
Playing in breaking waves near the ocean's shoreline taught me this. My daughters were toddlers; we were jumping around in crashing waves when suddenly one knocked the sand out from under my feet faster than I could brace myself! A rogue wave. I laughed at the sheer force of it as I pulled myself back together.
In life, it’s not so funny when I’m trying to pull my feet back under me after a rogue wave of emotion destabilizes my priorities, routines, and processes. I don’t want to admit that I can’t push through, gut it out, and keep going. I’m still an athlete at heart. But I remember those races that didn’t go my way, despite my best physical and mental preparation … race-day execution … getting knocked to the ground unexpectedly is hard to recover from.
These waves of motherly emotion have ebbed and flowed throughout the different seasons of my daughters’ lives. This one feels different. I find myself holding on to God for dear life. Sitting with Him longer. Talking to Him more. Feeling like I have so much to learn and grow from …and my lack overwhelms me each day as I uncover more areas of me that need the light of Jesus to liven.
This verse in Proverbs was part of a trail in my devotional time one morning, and reminded me to keep holding on to God for dear life. The ESV Global Study Bible notes, “The idea that the eyes should look directly forward suggests determination to remain in the right way. When a person turns his eyes away from the path, he is likely to stumble.” Even when the wheels fall off, the waves knock me off my feet, and I’m shoved to the ground unexpectedly by my own human limits – I hang on to God. He fights for His own. And who are His own? Me. And everyone who has received Christ as their Savior and is determined to follow Him …to keep looking directly forward – at Him. To remain in the right way …following Him. No matter how hard. No matter how many times we need to slow down … even to a stop … and reset. …I do not have to fix everything at this exact moment. I can’t. But I can rest in the arms of my Savior, my Redeemer, the Rock in whom I trust, the Fortress in whom I pour my heart out to, and my Refuge in whom I find protection, a safe hiding place where no enemy can find me.
The waves pass. I get back up from being knocked down. And the emotion matures as I filter it through God’s truth. I will miss my daughter. She is my best friend. But not my first priority.
Let’s pray …
Jesus, thank you. For leading me, holding my hand, and breathing life back into me when I overextend my capacity. I love you so much. Help me through this season. Help me to steward the things you’ve placed in my life well. All glory to you, my Salvation and my Hope.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
What truth from today’s devotional is God using to encourage your heart? Share your reflection and join our conversation in the iBelieve Truth Devotional Forum.
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Noah-Buscher
Related Resource: How Faith Finds Us When Life Takes a Detour
Joining us this week is worship leader turned viral comedian Heather Land. After growing up in the shadow of her mother’s decades-long addiction, Heather reflects on how this painful season—alongside her unexpected shift from the worship stage to the world of comedy—taught her that while our paths may take unforeseen turns, our core calling to encourage and uplift others remains constant.
Later in the episode, we’ll hear from Rachel Kessler, an Episcopal priest and Kenyon College chaplain who completed her PhD in medieval studies at the University of Toronto before pivoting to seminary after hitting academic burnout, then built a following as the “Nerdy Priest” on TikTok after a student secretly downloaded the app on her phone.
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