Carrying Each Others Burdens

Perhaps it's a personal conviction that I need to improve on helping others carry their burdens or perhaps it's a personal conviction that I need to let others help me carry my burdens. Perhaps it's both. Either way I cannot shake this thought of carrying each others burdens. I'm going to stick with the analogy I used in a recent status on my Facebook because it's just one that makes it all make a bit more sense to me. I don't watch a lot of TV but I do like nature shows which is a bit ironic I suppose because I will get teary-eyed just seeing a dog limping (true story) and yes I have cried watching Bambi, Fox and the Hound, Land Before Time, those commercials for St. Jude, seeing people I care about go through stuff etc. Not sure what label to put on it but it would seem I am emotional, tender hearted, sensitive, have a dysfunctional feeling setting (haha!) etc and/or all of the above. Now that I told that one on myself moving on to the fact that I was recently thinking about burdens and how heavy they can get. My brain being what it is (whatever that mess is) suddenly went to the thought of elephants...yes you read that correctly, elephants. My most favorite animal of the wild is a tiger but elephant is close. I have in particular had a fascination with the dynamics of how they work together. In particular for this thought when a predator is out to get a baby elephant.  The other elephants watch out for the baby elephant when the mom is eating or whatever and they are known as allomothers. Now if you have ever seen footage of the predator stalking a baby elephant, of course the predator knows that will be a fantastic meal and it in theory should be an easy meal to get. The baby elephant is defenseless for all purposes it doesn't even realize that there is a predator after it or the danger that it is in. It has a target on its back. But when the mother elephant and the allomothers realize what is going on they know the danger they know what is about to happen and they will do everything they can to protect that baby elephant. So they make themselves a barrier between the predator and the baby elephant. They do whatever is necessary to chase away the predator and protect the young elephant. It hit me when I was thinking about this, actually a few things came to mind, and sometimes we are the young elephant and sometimes we are the ones that make up the barrier to protect. We all have burdens at some point and to some degree. We all have a predator that tries its best to take us down and attacks for the kill when it gets us down. That predator can come in many different ways but however it comes at you its sole purpose is to destroy you. When we are carrying those heavy burdens and just spiritually, emotionally, physically and mentally distracted and drained from these burdens the target on our back for the predator to see gets bigger and bigger. And here's why I think it is so very important for us to carry each others burdens because if you have those people then they become your allomtohers if you will and they can become that barrier. That barrier may be to pray for you, to listen, to simply say I understand I have been there, or a number of other ways. Shoot just a simple hug can make a world of difference. I apparently have a reputation of people thinking I don't like hugs it's false. There is even a couple of people that well just getting to see them makes it the best day ever but to get a hug just helps. Because you see I think at the core of all burdens is that tactic of the predator to make you feel fear and to feel alone, to isolate you from those allomothers and let the load get so heavy that you want to give up and you at the very least feel completely and utterly destroyed. As a Christian of course I know that I need to take my cares and such to God and I know that God is always there for me and He will bring me through. I also believe that God places people in your life to be those allomothers for you and He places people for you to be like the allomother. Now that is weird for me to write because I am single and have no children but I still always want to have empathy and also help them carry their burdens even if it is something that I haven't been through. Yes it is absolutely great when you can find someone that can say I understand I have been there here's what I did but at the same time you know not all of those elephants that are in that barrier to protect that baby elephant have had a baby of their own yet they still have that love, that want to protect and help carry the burden of what the momma elephant is going through and to be there for that baby elephant. I guess my point is you don't have to be a certain age, you don't have to have a certain label or a certain amount of labels to carry anothers burdens. You just have to be there. Simple as that. You know you may tell me something that you're going through and I may have never had to deal with that but I pray you never hear me say that I don't have time or that I don't care. Now you may hear me say I'm sorry you are having to go through this I can't even imagine but you have my prayers, you got my shoulder to cry on, my time to listen to you and such. We may not have the same burdens but I can understand that heaviness, that feeling of fear, despair, loneliness, discouragement, etc. And thankfully I can also say I can understand having those allomothers show up in my life and have the patience to stick around and help me by making those barriers of taking the time to I think its safe to say pray for me, listen to me, give me that simple hug and even just by doing things with me even if it is just sitting and talking. So as I put in the status a most sincere thank you to those that have been there to help be a barrier when the predator has tried its best to attack and utterly destroy me and I hope that in some way some how I have and will always be there to carry anothers burdens. I will end this with a couple of verses from Galatians that really hit me when I last read them...

     Galatians 6:2-3: Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.  For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.