When is the last time you fretted about something? If you're anything like me you just did that right before you opened this email!
To this situation we all know too well, I want to insert our word this week: worry.
Worry: to experience mental distress or agitation resulting from concern usually for something impending.
You might worry about what we will eat for dinner. You might worry about traffic. You might worry about test results from our doctor. You might worry about a friendship we think might be beyond repair. You might worry about growing old alone. You might worry about that person in our life who is swimming in consequences of her poor choices.
You worry. You worry a lot. We all worry more than we know. And before we know it, worry creeps into every little corner of our lives.
In the Christian tradition, Jesus had a lot to say about worrying.
Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? (Matthew 6)
A friend of mine with several teenagers at home once told me: “What would I do with myself and my time if I didn’t worry?” And it's true. if we can't do anything else, we can worry, right? The act of worrying is its own form of comfort.
Yet, here's the truth: while worrying offers us an easy outlet for our stress, it offers us nothing in the long run.
To worry robs you of the contentment you could have if you let the outcome be the outcome. Because you know what?
Often many of our worries simply don't come true.
I love what author Mark Twain offers when he says, "I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them have never happened.”
And this week, I want your days to be filled with more peace, so consider this . . .
Take a moment and write down on a piece of paper a couple of things bothering you. Hold this paper in your hands. Tell God how you are feeling. Pause to consider the WHY the situation is bothering you. And then afterwards rip up the paper and put it in the trash. Let this be a symbol to you of letting go and allowing God's presence to be in your life.
XO
Elizabeth
P.S. Do you have someone in your life (or you) who is struggling with mental health and wellness? I'd love to keep talking with you about worry and share with you more of my own journey with depression. Read this.
