She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
"Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all."
Proverbs 31:27-29
When I have a lot of tasks to complete, I have a tendency to feel very overwhelmed emotionally, and I can feel paralyzed by not knowing where to start. My husband, Michael, is a great encourager, and he once comforted one of our teary-eyed children, who (in the style of her mother!) was overwhelmed by something she was trying to learn in her school work. He asked her, "How do you eat an elephant?" She, of course, had no idea what her Daddy was talking about, but the question sounded so funny to her little ears, that her tears quickly turned to giggles. Michael went on, "If you had to eat a great big elephant, you couldn’t expect to eat the whole thing in one meal! You’d just eat one bite at a time." He explained to her that when we are given something BIG to do, we shouldn’t focus on completing the WHOLE task right away, but simply take "one bite at a time." He reminded her of many big accomplishments that she had made, and pointed out the little steps that had gotten her to that point. He then helped her break the overwhelming task at hand into "bites," teaching her to look at a difficult situation with a healthy perspective.
The phrase, "How do you eat an elephant," has become a motto in our family since that day. Michael will repeat it to me during those difficult moments, and I have repeated it out loud to myself many times when I have felt that I just couldn’t keep up with the tasks at hand. That motto is my reminder to stop and break the "elephant" into "bites." Once I get my emotions in check, I can determine, realistically, which of my "to do" items are most important for the time being, and tackle those first. I may not get to finish "eating the elephant" in a single day, but progress will be made, and more importantly, my spirit will be quiet and peaceful in the process.
