A Graduated Worrier

TO READ: Philippians 4:6-9

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

Philippians 4:6

Now there’s a mouthful! “Don’t worry about anything,” Paul says blithely, as if it’s as easy as falling off a log.

When I was a little girl, I worried my shoes would shrink. After all, I had heard my teacher say my sandals were getting too small. When I was a teenager, I worried that I wouldn’t get a date. When I got engaged, I worried I might be in a car wreck the eve of my wedding. When I had my first baby, I worried he would fall into the washing machine and drown! When my children became teenagers, I worried they wouldn’t get a date (or get a bad one), or they might be in a car wreck on the eve of their wedding, or their children might fall into the washing machine and drown!

There’s no end to the possibilities for worry. You’ll never run out of things to worry about! Being a graduated worrier, I have had to learn some hard lessons about what worry does to me —and my family! Worry does not empty tomorrow of its problems; it simply empties today of its strength.

But more important, worry betrays a lack of trust in God’s care. That’s what really helped me to realize that lack of trust in God, the seedbed of worry, is sin! Now I can do something about that. I can repent of it and be determined to sin no more! My God delights to lend his strength to such resolve. “Trust me,” he says. “Don’t worry about anything.”