Day 351

Worry. We all do it even though we know better. Worry can't help a single thing but it can harm you in so many ways. It can make you emotionally off balance. It can make your good health bad or your bad health worse. It can make you spiritually blocked. It takes away peaceful sleep, precious moments that you can never get back. Worry is a whole lot like cancer and I believe in some cases it can cause cancer. Jesus tells us as His own not to worry in such a beautiful way in Matthew 6, not even to seek after the things we need because He knows our every need and if we truly seek Him first then all the things we need will come. It never says we will get all the things we want, but on that front, if the things you want, the deepest desires of your heart are intertwined with the desires He has for you than all you have to do is ask. He says we have not, because we ask not, or we ask halfheartedly. A life filled with worry is a life filled with turmoil and nobody wants that. But you sometimes have to ask yourself how to stop worrying, how to let things go. I think the first step to letting go of worry is to realize that you have absolutely no control over the things that worry you. I know that can scare you even more and increase your worry but not if you look at it from the right perspective. If we are not in control then who is? God is in control of everything. Trust Him and He will give you that peace that defies understanding. Trust Him and watch as the needs you were so worried about, the hole you dug so deep that you can't see the light of day are filled in the most obscure ways. Nothing is too big for God. Trust Him to meet your needs, and after all the decorations, sights, sounds, and smells of Christmas fade away keep the true meaning of it in your heart every day. Parents, watch your child grow and change daily and imagine what those first months, first years of Jesus' life might have been like. I can tell you I want to worry right now because there is so much to worry about. I hate being that way so I fight it. There are times when all i see is negativity, and that just causes a vicious cycle of negativity and suddenly you see the worst in everything and everyone. The wonderful thing is that there is a flip side to that coin and the same way you can find the negative you can find the good, positive, beacon of light in everything and everyone. My prayer for every day comes from Proverbs 31, "She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness." I don't always succeed and it breaks my heart to know I have been ugly to anyone but especially my children. I never want to be a cause of pain for anyone in any way. I know that, bar none, is the hardest part about being ill, seeing the pain it causes others. Lord, bless everyone who reads this post, meet them where their needs are, fill them with true love, true joy, and true peace, bring the desires of their heart to the center of your will! Amen!