Worry warts, worry cuts, worry burns, worry lives

Worry.... "I can't help it, I just have to worry it is who I am!" a mother told me recently. The problem was that her worry wasn't helping anything, it was actually so bad that it was driving a wedge between her and the rest of her family that she was worrying about. Of course the more there were annoyed with her worry and pulled away, the more she worried about them.

Worry is one of those things that many people feel like is simply a part of their make-up, part of how God originally designed some people as different as others. I don't know if this is true or not, but I do know that God doesn't want worry to stop us from living our lives. In fact he talks specifically about this in several places. Matthew 6: 25-34 talks about why we should not worry but the final verse (34) is the best. 

         Jesus says "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get

         worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with 

         whatever hard things come up when the time comes." (The Message)

Ohio newspaper woman Regina Brett recently wrote down her 45 Lessons she had learned during her 50 years of life. I wanted to share with you lesson number 40. 

"If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back." 

In the larger perspective of life here on earth, most of us have very little to worry about!  When we worry we take our eyes off of God. This is the bottom line, worry is breaking our concentration on what God has for us right now and placing it upon what we don't even know yet.  Furthermore, when we worry we tell everyone around us that "my problems are bigger than your problems" and thereby breaking down relationship with our family, friends and support system that are the exact people we will need in order to pull us through the next set of life's challenges.

If your life is peppered with out-of-control worry pray about it. Give your worry to God and look to what He has for you this very moment. Talk to someone, a friend, pastor or counselor about your worry to help give you tools on how to live every moment to the fullest. Don't give up! Most people who have lived with worry have done so for years and years, it won't go away all at once, but keep working on changing this pattern in your life!