Why do we worry? An age-old question to which no one has come up with a satisfactory answer. Speculations include anxiety or fear, stress, negativity, insecurity, and any number of other issues that might bring a person to the threshold of worry. There are indeed some good reasons perhaps to worry, among them some faced by people in our society today: homelessness, hunger, joblessness, loss of retirement savings and others.
My mother was the consummate worrier. She worried about things that were already past and whether she could have done something differently. To those worries, she added those thing that had not happened yet. And to the top of that pile, she added her worries for today. Mama was a hand-wringer, had a quick Irish temper, and yet a faith as strong as Gibraltar.
She would have told you that the verse above from Matthew 6:26,
"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"
was something you could take to the bank and rely on as long as the earth spun on its axis. Yet, she continued to worry and unfortunately her worrying taught each of us three kids to worry and even some of the grandkids.
I wish I knew the answer to the question of why worry, but I don't. I do know that God placed in my life a man who has the ability to remain positive no matter the circumstances. We married 30 years ago, and slipping the wedding band on my finger didn't change me.
During the first few
years of our marriage, my husband gently and softly guided me into
understanding just how much energy and how much of myself I was giving
away to worry. Just like mama, I worried about yesterday, today and
tomorrow, even though tomorrow was still on the horizon. Over time, I
understood that he loved me so much that he wanted to see me give myself
more to God, our family and especially to him and our partnership.
I'm so glad I believed on this verse in Matthew, and I'm so glad that
more than once my husband said to me, "You know you're behaving just
like your mama, don't you?" That would do it!
Q4U: What do you worry about, or are you able to turn things completely over to God?
