burdens and loads

I've been musing on a passage in Galatians. Here it is, and I'll bold the reason it's been sticking with me.

1Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. ²Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. ³If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, ⁵for each one should carry his own load.

I found it striking that so close together we are exorted to both carry each other's burdens and to carry our own loads. It seemed to me, then, we had better have a pretty clear understanding of what constitutes a burden and what constitutes a load.

What load looks like: what you think of yourself, how you think of your actions, and not comparing yourself to somebody else. The key for my understanding seemed to be in not comparing yourself with others.

It seems like I have often been the other way around - slow to carry another's burden and quick to carry their loads - compare myself to them, think I have to live up to their actions, or thinking myself superior for my actions. I still find myself automatically thinking, when I hear a person saying I should or shouldn't do something, that I must do or not do whatever it is they are saying. At one point I realized that to follow all the shoulds and shouldn'ts that life throws my way would require me to never sleep plus add another 10 hours to each day. everyone has an idea of what my life should look like. I can't take their loads. I have to carry my own.

But that's my take on this passage. And I'm curious if others see something different in here.

[Incidently, while I was purusing different versions and paraphrases to try to dig into this a bit, I cracked open my first Bible - The Children's Living Bible - and noticed a page where kids could list important events. Here are four of mine in italics (with my thoughts today)
-Received Christ, 1975
-Recommitted my life to the Lord, Camp, August 19, 1979 (because I had backslidden so much when I was 11 - you know, the drinking, the drugs...)
-July 30, 1980 - Accepted Christ and really meant it (Apparently I was just kidding the other times)
-My commitment April 18, 1981 (I have no idea what this means. But I committed.)

After 1981 I apparently finally believed that I really believed. Or I got a new Bible and stopped writing in that one.]