Many Hats

Here's another little something, probably from May, 2009:

God asks each of us to wear many hats in life.  The hats vary in size, color, build, design, and décor.  Some hats have pretty bows, some have a flat appearance, others may include a strap for security.  As women we sometimes wear three or four hats at a time, trying to balance them while walking on the tightrope of life.  The hard hat seems to be the best choice on days when we know that tough times may arise, yet we want to wear our feminine finery too.  That hat with the beautiful floral band says, “I’m a woman, and I want others to know it.”  You may be saying to yourself, “Hats?”  Yes, hats.  Hats are those roles in life that we have each and every day as daughters, sisters, mothers, friends, employees, Christians, etc.  Each role is represented by a different hat.  You wake up on any given morning and without knowing it have five hats on the minute you set foot out of bed.  You are a wife, a mother, a daughter, a friend, and most importantly, a Christian.  All these hats are vying for the top position in the stack.  You know that you need to spend those precious 15 minutes with God to feel close to Him and get His insight, yet the baseball cap that reads I Love My Kids is wailing from down the hall telling you that breakfast needs to be prepared.  Then your favorite little beret that you know your husband adores pushes into your mind with urgency saying, “What about lunch?  Don’t you need to get a lunch ready for your honey?”  The noise in your head continues to increase as you remember the conversation you had yesterday with your dear friend.  Your straw hat wants to remind you that Clara really needs to have coffee with you because she’s in the worst storm she’s ever faced in fifteen years of marriage.  As you reach the bathroom to take a look in the mirror, one last voice perks up from the stack on your head and says, “Hey, what about me?  I’m over here.”  It’s the little knit cap from childhood.  You forgot to call your mother yesterday on her birthday.  By this point you’re ready for a good cry and maybe a pint of your favorite Ben & Jerry’s.  You close the bathroom door, lean your back against it, and think, “What am I going to do?”  Before you make it to the roll of toilet paper to tear a piece off, one thought enters your mind very clearly - Cast your cares on me for I care for you.  You pause as if to listen again for the voice and realize that nobody spoke, at least not out loud.  What you heard was a very special voice from Heaven.  As if to clarify that it truly was God speaking to you, another thought comes - Rest in me.  That’s when you realize something else that you have forgotten in the midst of rushing here and there.  I am a child of the King!  That hat always needs to be on top, and then I won’t have to walk the tightrope alone.