Episode 12 - The Superwoman Burden (Luke 10:38-42)

Have you ever gone to bed exhausted, slept through the night, and still woken up tired?

Many women believe they need more sleep, a vacation, or simply more hours in the day. But what if the exhaustion you're experiencing isn't physical at all?

In this episode, Val Mitchell shares her personal journey through mental, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion as she balances work, motherhood, church responsibilities, and the endless demands of everyday life. After reaching her breaking point, she cried out to God for help—and His response changed everything:

"I never called you to be Superwoman."

Through the story of Martha and Mary, powerful illustrations, and a practical exercise that transformed her life, Val reveals how many women are carrying burdens God never intended them to carry.

If you've been trying to hold everything together, this conversation will help you identify what's weighing you down, refocus on God, and begin walking in the freedom that comes from trusting Him with the things you were never meant to carry alone.

📖 Scripture: Luke 10:38-42

💜 Key Takeaway:
Just because you can carry it doesn't mean God asked you to carry it.

Welcome to Valetha's Greatest Moments with God, a podcast for women who desire to hear God's voice, find healing, and grow closer to Him.

Each week, Val Mitchell shares personal stories, biblical insights, and powerful revelations from her own walk with God. Through real-life experiences and practical faith lessons, you'll discover how God speaks in everyday moments, guides us through difficult seasons, and invites us into a deeper relationship with Him.

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Thank you for joining me for today's episode of Valetha's Greatest Moments with God.

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Until next time,

Hear God's Voice.
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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

How are you doing, everyone? I'm so excited that you are here. My name is Val Mitchell, and I am so, so excited that you are joining me today. Why are you here? I wanted to come on and share the learnings I got that I know is going to help every mother that is pretty much exhausted and retired, but yet we always find the energy that is needed to press forward. Amen. So I want to just ask you some questions. If you notice that when we were coming through with this, I was focused on the main question about um when you find that you're tired and you're mentally exhausted, but yet sleep is not enough. You go to bed and you're like still waking up exhausted. You go on vacation, thinking, oh, I'll just go lay on the beach for a while and that should clear my head. But as soon as you get back, you're drained again. And we all know that weekends are just two days out of the week. And those two days just get you just enough to breathe for a quick second and then having to jump right back in. Amen. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about why do we feel that if there were only enough hours in the day, or man, if I can just get more sleep, I would be refreshed, renewed, and I won't be so exhausted. Well, if you're like me, I had to learn the hard way, that none of those things never helped. I always still woke up the next morning just drained and tired and exhausted. But I learned something valuable. I learned that it wasn't the fact that there wasn't enough hours in a day. I learned that it that even though I went to sleep, I woke up and my mind was still spinning. So I still woke up exhausted as much as I did when I went down. I learned through taking it to God that it was what I was carrying. I know many women can relate because we feel that we're superwoman, right? We we get that title in the beginning and we think it's a good thing. Now, being a superwoman means that you can take care of the kids, you can take care of the household, you can cook your meals, as well as go work a full-time demanding job, coming through and juggling all of these balls all at the same time. Now, what if you're like me and you're a single mother, which means there's no one else that can help take the burden? So now you got to add on kids' activities, responsibilities, making sure they eat. On top of, if your job is like mine, it doesn't stop when you walk out the door. It carries into your life in the evening hours as well. And then what if you're deep in your ministry? We love God, we love Christ, so we join up to be volunteers for many activities, and those have demand well. And you start off strong. You start and say, okay, I got a calendar, I'm gonna prioritize, I'm gonna do Monday and Tuesday, focus on my corporate world, Wednesday and Thursday, focus on ministry, and then somehow slip kid activities and oh, by the way, got to clean the house, and oh Lord, they need to eat dinner all the time. And you forget about self-help and self-maintenance and making sure yourself mentally is taken care of. We start off strong thinking we got it, but the problem is it gets heavier and heavier to eventually you're gonna snap. I saw something when I was doing some studying on this, and it really, really just related, it illustrated to what it's like. Now, my friends know me. I love big purses. I love big purses because you can put anything in them. I think I got the got it way back in the day when um I used to go to a lot of baby showers, and you know you play the baby games, and they say, if anybody got a bobby pin, if anybody got a white, if anybody got um this in their bag, you get a prize. So from that, I know it's crazy, right? I learned I just start carrying everything in my bag. I had you name it, I got it because I got always out, always driving, always running around. I got kids that I'm dealing with. So if they need a snack, if they have a runny nose, if they have a headache, whatever it is, you can always find it in my bag. But the problem with the big bags, which I learned later in life, is they weigh on you. You get those indentations in your shoulder, and you're trying to carry that big old heavy purse all around, and it's to the point where the straps are getting thin and thin and where they end up popping because the purse was not designed to carry all that stuff, right? Well, look at it now in terms of the weight that you're carrying, that you are actually putting on over and over in your shoulders. You can take your life and then you start taking and putting extra things on top of you, work responsibilities and children's schedules and where they have to be and what time they have to be, and making sure they eat, and doctor's appointments, all that you're stuffing in your bag, right? Then, if if some women are married, but some of us are not, but we still have family obligations. I got a mother that I tend to, I got aunts and uncles, I got good friends that I tend to, all of that responsibility follows into your bag. Now, mind you, you haven't taken anything out. Let's add church commitment, financial pressures, bills got to be paid on time, groceries got to be bought. Have you seen the gas prices lately? All of that stuff has still is getting piled up into your bag. And then what do you think that is happening on top of that? This is where we start wearing that badge of honor, like I'm the superwoman, I'm gonna be able to carry all of this. But on the inside, what's going on is you're you're hurting and you and you're struggling, and just like that purse where the straps start to get thinner and thinner until they pop, and then everything fills out on the floor. I got to an emotional state where I was doing fine for a minute, but I ignored the warning signs, warning signs of blood pressure issues now coming into play. Warning signs of my weight just, oh my gosh, my weight was going crazy because I'm either sitting at a computer 24-7, grabbing something that's quick, fast, in a hurry. I'm tired all the time, so I'm getting a sugar rush or a caffeine brush, you name it. I was doing everything just to keep the mental at a capacity where I needed it to work, right? And I got to a point where I was so exhausted that I think I was sitting in, I was sitting in church and I just gave way. I was crying for no reason whatsoever. I was just so drained that if another thought had to be processed in my mind, I really couldn't do it. So that day when I went to church, I boo-hooed and I cried to God and I said, God, I can't do this. I mean, I was I was carrying this weight for years, thinking, oh, I'm good, I'm good, I'll just take some more B12 or I'll drink another monster drink, or you know, I'm good, I'll keep going, I'll keep going.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

To one day I couldn't go anymore. I couldn't even go.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

So when I was in church and I'm an altar girl, so I went to the altar and I cried, God, either take it away or God give me more hours in a day. God, refresh me when I'm asleep so I can actually wake up and not be still mentally exhausted. I asked him to do everything but what he was supposed to be doing. And from that, God spoke to me in that moment, and what he told me really just shocked me and it changed me forever.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

God said, I never called you to be a superwoman. I never asked you to carry all of those burdens that you have on your plate. I never asked you to do that.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

When I got that message from God, I really stopped because I looked at it as it's responsibility. I'm not doing anything extra, I'm maintaining a household, I'm diligent in my church because I love God, and I gotta pay my bills, so I'm doing the responsibilities of work. So when God said, I never asked you to be a supermoman, it really, really threw me off guard. It really did. So I had to go back, and I really had to sit back and think about that. But before I do, what do I always say? There is somebody in the Bible that has a similar story to what we go through, right? So, with that, I had to do some digging. I said, God, show me who in the Bible, let me pull mine out, who in your wonderful word that is doing what I'm doing, when you told them that's not what you asked them to do, and then how did they get through it? What did they do? Or what can I learn from them so I can apply it to my life? Amen. And surprisingly, I came across Martha and Mary. If you don't know that story, it's found in I'm gonna read it from Luke 10, and we're gonna start with verse 38. And I have the NIV version where it talks about Jesus visits Mary and Martha. So let me read it real quick. It's pretty quick. So as Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me. Verse 41. Jesus replied, Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, You are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed, or indeed only one.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

So we know the story of Mary and Martha. That story alone in Luke 10 is very, very famous, where Mary was the one that loved to be the hostess, and you can tell she she must have taken a lot of pride to make sure everything was right for her guests. She's probably in there cooking, she had to clean, she had to prepare the table. And she ain't just prepared a table, she probably wanted to make sure it looked a certain way, counted the number of plates, probably checking to make sure the back room is good, doing all of these things because she's being hospitable to her guests. Now, there's nothing wrong with that. And then her sister Mary, when Jesus was in the room, she instantly focused all her attention on God. So what Jesus came to show me, which I want to talk about with you, coming from that story about Mary and Martha. So Martha was serving, Martha was helping, and so she wasn't doing good things and she wasn't doing bad things.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

But the one thing we know about Martha was that she was caring too much, she had too much on her plate that drew her attention away from Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Jesus even told her, Martha, your issue is you're worried and upset about many things, but only a few things are needed. And out of that few, there's only one. What was the one thing that Jesus was trying to tell Martha when she came to him and said, I'm stressed, I'm tired, my helper, my sister ain't even caring to come over here to help me because she sees this workload over here.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Jesus said, You are focused on the wrong thing.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

I had to sit back and think about myself. And I really had to sit and look. Okay, God, I got all these responsibilities. I'm feeling like Martha. I got people in my home. They gotta eat, they need a clean place to stay. There might even be simple little things that's going on. I gotta make sure my guests are taken care of, God. What it what is it I'm supposed to be doing?

SPEAKER_00 15:09

What it was the instruction that he gave her, he told her the same thing to look at your sister, look at Mary. What is Mary doing? And that you should be doing the same thing that she's doing. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

So when I went back to God and I said, Okay, God, I said, what is it that I'm carrying? What am I doing? Because yes, I'm worried about all of this because I don't want any ball to drop.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

God gave me specific instructions.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

He told me, okay, I want you to take every priority that's on your plate, things that you're even caring about that's that's bothering you, that you're worried about. And I want you to write it all down. So I went and did that. I I wrote down, okay, at my job, I got two projects that are due on Friday. I got my manager that's on my tail about getting these assignments done. So I went and wrote down everything that's going on at work. And mind you, that was a long list. Then I looked at, okay, gotta take the kids to the basketball game on Tuesday, got to run this responsibility, and I wrote down everything I call myself the unpaid Uber driver had to do with my kids. Then I went to okay, the church wants Bible study on Tuesday. They want me to take the notes. I gotta be there at seven. Okay, then I got this responsibility. We've got um outreach going on at three o'clock. Gotta make sure we got enough t-shirts. So I wrote all of that down. So after I finished, that was a long. I'm like, yeah, Jesus, do you see this list? And then after I did that, he came to me and he said, What's missing off of your list? What's on there that you didn't show? And I'm looking, I'm like, oh yeah, Jesus, I probably missed the priority. I probably missed some. So I'm going through my list and I'm looking like, okay, there's there's my work, there's the kids, there is um the church activity, there's my family. God, I don't see anything. I you know, what did I miss? Because it is a lot. What did I miss? And he asked me, he said, I don't see on your list where you're actually enjoying some quality time with your son, where you're just focused on him and just enjoying them.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

I was like, Oh, yeah, that that's not on my list.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

And then he said, I don't see you're on there where you just took a day just to get some rest and not even pick up anything to, you know, get a good eight hours sleep for once. I don't see that on your list either. And I was like, Oh, see that either. And then he said, Well, I don't see you making dinner for your family where you're sitting down all at the table and just fellowshipping and you know, hearing laughs and stories and hearing how their day was and spending quality time with them.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

I said, Oh, no, that ain't no day either. And then I really, really felt bad. So God came back, and then what he said to me, he said, let's look at your list, and then I'm gonna give you my list. Now, when I saw his list, it was very, very short. It was spend time with him, it was reading my word, it was spending quality time with my son and with my family. It was take a day of rest.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

And I sat there, first I felt bad because I was like, if I do not do these things that are on my list, I'm gonna get in trouble. I won't be able to eat, I won't be able to pay the bills, my kids are gonna be late, the church will be screaming, and any what is on my list is all I kept hearing.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

So I agree to step back and to give God my list. I gave him all of my responsibilities. And I took his list and I went already said I would normally do with my list.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

Okay, a day of rest. Okay, I'm gonna pick Saturday after five o'clock, shut down and just sit and just relax. What a schedule, I think what we do now, Sunday dinners where I call the family over and we'll have game night, and then we'll have dinner and just spend quality time with my family.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

So I took his list and scheduled and prioritized it.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

When I did that, surprisingly to me, with me giving God casting those burdens onto him and then picking up what he said which was most important, I noticed a huge shift in me, and even how the things that I had to get done, it was like it wasn't that hard to do. Things were falling in line. Like with work when I had 20 responsibilities, all of a sudden my boss was redelegating stuff out, or I found supernatural energy just to quickly get things done, where it didn't take it uh a long thought time to really map everything out. I invited God into my space into my list and shifted my attention, just like what he said to Martha when he said, Mary has chosen what is better and it is not taken away from her because she wasn't worried about many things, she was only focused on the one.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

I hope this message resonates.

SPEAKER_01 22:09

I hope that it allows you to really think about what you are carrying, what huge stack of responsibilities that you alone are holding on to. That purse I talked about. Is it so much stuff that you got stuffed in there that the straps are about to break? I'm gonna leave you with a homework assignment. I want you to do just like what God told me to do. Take out a piece of paper and write down all of your responsibilities, things that you're worried about, things that need to get done. Things, even if it's financial birds, I got this bill that's due on Friday, and I'm really trying to figure out how it's gonna get paid.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Write it down.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

And then what I want you to do with that list, and if it was like mine, it's probably got a couple pages. It was a thick list.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

I want you to go sit with God.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

I want you to take that paper, go into I keep harping on prayer clauses, a space designated for you and him uninterrupted, where you can sit with him and say, God, this is my list. This is the things that are on my plate. These are all the things I have to get done that's worrying me. And then I want you to be in that space until you hear God show you what is his list and what you should you be working on, and what should you give to him and allow him to say that famous word saying, This battle is not yours, it belongs to the Lord. Some things we got on our plate we shouldn't even do. Just like God can't. I never called you to be a superwoman. I never asked you to take on all of this stuff. Just like Martha, he said, Martha, you're worried and you're upset about many things, but only a few are needed. What is that few things that God is going to share with you that this is all I want you to work on?

SPEAKER_00 24:44

And all this other stuff, give it to me. And I'm gonna help you out with it. I challenge you to do that this week. Join me here.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

We're gonna have a brand new topic we're talking about. I can't wait to see you then. All right, thanks for joining.