Do you ever have those days where a tiny little thought catches hold of you and, before you know it, it’s multiplied and sent your whole morning spinning?
Last night, the ceiling in my son’s bedroom fell down.
Actually, it wasn’t quite as dramatic as that (thankfully!) It was just part of the coving. It bumped him on the head though so by midnight he was sporting an egg shaped lump on his head.
He went back to sleep and I spent the next few hours worrying about him, the ceiling and anything else my little mind could drag up to waste energy on. I did my usual trick of lying there, asking God to please let him be ok and then remembering those nightmares I’d had earlier in the year.
It was not fun!
What ifs and worrying about things that I have no control over. I did the same thing when I was waiting for the results of a routine medical check up. In the time it took for the results to arrive, I’d planned my entire funeral!
This morning I woke up to the thought that you could ruin a whole life worrying about what might happen. I also remembered something my mum once told me:
“You’re given the strength to cope with whatever happens in life. You’re not given the strength to cope with the what ifs.”
In other words, deal with today and let whatever may happen tomorrow, happen tomorrow.
Jesus said it too.
“Don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Every day has enough trouble of its own.”
It comes back to this idea of enjoying life, one day at a time. Looking for the things that are delightful about each new day. Eye contact as you chat with that person you love. Giggling over the silly stuff.
I heard it said that if you can worry, you can meditate. I suspect the same can be said of prayer. What if, instead of worrying about the maybes, we gave it all to God?
If you’re a natural worrier like me, this might feel easier said than done but you know what? You don’t have to do this on your own. You can go forward living each day with delight, but it’s a whole lot easier to do that if God helps you.
What if each new day started something like this:
“Dear God, Thank you for today. You know all that stuff that I all too easily worry and fret over. Please help me to leave all that stuff with you and to enjoy each moment of today. Thank you :-)”
Zig Ziglar said:
“People often say motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”
I say relaxing and enjoying the gift of each new day doesn’t last either so that too needs to be done daily.