“Adulting” can’t yet be found in a standard dictionary (I’m sure it’s just a matter of time), but it’s a word that is cropping up everywhere, from regular conversations at the office to Facebook memes.
According to UrbanDictionary.com, “adulting” means: “To do grown up things and hold responsibilities such as, a 9-5 job, a mortgage/rent, a car payment, or anything else that makes one think of grown ups.”
It has even become popular to remove the “ing” altogether, as in, “I don’t want to adult today.”
Let’s be honest. Adulting isn’t always fun. There are so many bills. Things break in your house, and if you own it, it’s your responsibility to fix it. When you get sick, you have to take care of yourself, and maybe even just power through it because someone has to take the kids to soccer practice and dance lessons.
Some days feel like an endless cycle of waking up early, getting kids dressed and out the door without anyone having a meltdown (that includes you), going to work, picking up the kids from school, scrounging up a 20-minute meal before youth group/choir practice/softball practice, coming home exhausted, and crashing into bed without 15 minutes to do the dishes that are piled mountain-high in the sink.
It. Never. Ends.
Lisa-Jo Baker writes for (in)courage, “I don’t feel prepared… I don’t feel like all my years between then and now have prepared me for how to properly respond. I’m lost in a grown up’s body without the relevant manual and tomorrow I have to keep being a grown up and where do grown up’s go when they feel as scared as their kids?”
Friends, this fear that we all feel at some point isn’t from God.
Baker realized this when she came across a sign that read, “You’re the God who moves the mountains.”
Baker writes, “I live my life like, ‘I’m the Lisa-Jo who has to move the mountains.’ I’m so stuck there that I start to believe it. Like Wednesday won’t come if I don’t make it happen by sheer force of will. And I wonder why I wake up exhausted.
“But I… stared at that sign and remembered what I’d forgotten. That there is a God who lives outside of time and who holds time and me and this planet and tomorrow’s laundry in His hands.”
"And it’s all on Him. It always was. He’s the God who moves the mountains."
Yes, we’re adults. We have to pay bills, and do taxes, and figure out insurance deductibles. But we are also children. We’re children of God.
“I still feel like a child because in the ways that matter most I always will be. And it’s a profound relief,” Baker writes.
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (1 John 3:1, ESV).
In the Crosswalk.com article “10 Simple Prayers to Encourage the Heart of the Working Mom,” Theresa Ceniccola offers this prayer for those needing motivation. It applies to all of us who may not want to “adult” today, not just moms.
“Lord, please fill me with faith and resolve to keep moving forward when I feel like giving up. Remind me of your will for me and give me the patience and endurance to stay the course, despite the many obstacles I face." Amen.
Carrie Dedrick is an editor of Crosswalk.com. When she is not writing or editing, she can usually be found teaching dance classes, running marathons, or reading with at least one adopted dog on her lap.
Publication date: May 27, 2016
