Worry.

Thanks to the biggest loser challenge I'm competing in with a few girl from work, I've been up since 6 (getting a workout). As I was reading over my bible study lesson for tonight's small group I had to pause for a few minutes to share a few thoughts about worry with you.

I don't consider myself someone who worries often. In fact, I'm scared of few things. I'm eerily comfortable with the fact that I will not live forever and that like everyone on earth my days are numbered. I love my life and I'm living it to the fullest and it is rare that I fear anything or really have a cause for worry.

I was struck however by the comment the author makes when she asks if we ever worry about something because we're convinced that will keep it from happening. As I searched my own heart for the answer to that question it was all so obvious. The example she gave was worrying about her parents while they were on a trip and when they returned safely feeling on some level as though her worrying kept the bad things from happening to them.

I worry about my Dad during football season. He's on planes every other weekend, flying all over the US. I worry that if one time I forget to pray for his safety something horrible will happen. It will be the day of his flight and panic will seize me as I go about my own day and I will have to stop and say a little pray for him to make sure he'll be ok. This 'fire insurance' style of worrying and praying pleases not.

In Proverbs 12:25 it tells us 'an anxious heart weighs a man down'. Who wants to be weighed down with worthless worry? More than that I needed the reminder (read: kick in the pants), 'Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?', as said in Matthew 6:27. I know that I have not added a single hour to my Dad's or my own life by my worry. God will certainly not punish me for forgetting to worry. Why not then, use my prayers for more constructive conversation?

Worrying is like a rocking chair - it gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere. Many of us have heard it said but how many of us have taken it to heart?

In the book, Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, the author lists What We Worry About...

40% are things that will never happen.

30% are about the past - which can't be changed.

12% are about criticism by others, mostly untrue

10% are about health, which get worse with stress

8% are about real problems that can be solved

Love,

B

(Note: these thoughts were brought on by the book Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World written by Joanna Weaver).