About this time every year when summer is winding down and school is gearing up, my thoughts turn toward the college freshmen.

We have several friends who have children starting their first semester on their long road toward a degree. That first semester of college has to be one of the most overwhelming times in our lives. There is something about the feeling you get when walking into that very first class on a college campus. Overwhelmed is an understatement!

I recall starting many a semester and receiving five, sometimes six, syllabus (or is it syllabi?) It was almost too much to wrap my mind around to see a semester's worth of tests, papers, projects, labs, homework, due dates all compiled into one packet.  It felt overwhelming to see just one class worth of work, but to be multiply that times five classes was almost too much to absorb in one sitting. The thought of doing all those assignments in one semester just seemed overwhelming. I remember that first week thinking to myself, "This cannot be done. It is impossible. There is no way I will ever finish all this work." 

One of my husband's professors, upon realizing that his students were feeling overwhelmed, posed this simple question to him, "How do you eat an elephant?" My husband just stared back as if this surely was a rhetorical question. The professor responded, "One bite at a time." 

That is biblical and true ... as are all things biblical! Unfortunately, some days we are convinced that we aren't just trying to eat one elephant, we're trying to eat an entire circus!  Either way … one bite at a time.

That is a great strategy for so many things that life throws at you. In total, so many of the things that are set before us seem overwhelming and if we aren't careful, it will defeat and depress us. We are so sure there is no way that we can finish the mountain of stuff that life has stacked up before us. On those days, and there will be many, we have to step back and remind ourselves to take one step, one task, one moment, one day at a time. In the course of time, those days become weeks and then weeks slip into months and then we are past the half-way point. Things are starting to look a little brighter. We have a glimmer of hope. We think we might just survive. We keep on pressing forward. Then before you know it, the light at the end of the tunnel is blinding us. Finally, we reach the end and realize that it was not easy, but it was achievable. 

So back to the college freshmen (and I'll have one of my own in less than a year … eke!) Hang in there. Take each day as it comes. Don't get too far ahead of yourself. Remember what JESUS SAID (and those two words should make you perk up and listen!) in Matthew 6:34, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."  No truer words have ever been spoken!

So when you are standing at square one and staring at a plateful of elephant, remember … one bite at a time.