When You've Reached Your Limit

Charisse Tierney takes a step back and finds the good amid times of stress and challenge.

I watched my two youngest daughters circling around on the state fair ride. They alternated between concentrating on the ride and waving to me as I waited.

It was one of those rare, perfect days. Beautiful weather, good moods all around, just the right place to be with just the right number of people. It was just what my soul needed after a particularly stressful few weeks.

Anxiety had been threatening to get the best of me, and I was tired of feeling pushed to my limits both physically and emotionally day after day.

In the midst of a string of difficult days, I have trouble seeing the light. I try to convince myself that the feeling of overwhelm is my normal lifestyle, but it never lasts.

If I just wait, God always drops a golden day in my lap. The agenda for the day lines up perfectly, my kids get along abnormally well, the balance between work and play and relationships and alone time is just right. The overwhelm dissolves, the stress melts away, and I can breathe deeply again.

Just as the liturgical seasons rotate from fasting and penance to feasting and celebration to growing and changing, so do the days in my life. And with each season of fasting and each time of growing, God allows me to be pushed a little more so I can find my limits and reach just beyond them.

Just because I reach my limits, it doesn’t mean that I have failed. It simply means that I have felt the bittersweet pain of growth.

In the words of Thomas à Kempis:

In temptation and tribulations, it is proved what progress man has made; and there also is great merit, and virtue is made more manifest.

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With each season of fasting and each time of growing, God allows me to be pushed a little more so I can find my limits and reach just beyond them. #CatholicMom

If, with each challenge I face in life, I can see in myself a little more patience, a little more perseverance, a little more hope, and a little more joy, I can trust that progress is being made in spite of my human limitations.

And after running each leg of this great race, I am allowed to relax into the gifts of God’s golden days so I can face future trials with more strength than ever.

I don’t think I always suffer well, but He knows when I’ve been stretched just enough. He sees the good in these growing pains. And He refreshes me so I can begin again, ready to stretch ever closer to Him.

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