Worry

by Kay Heitsch

Today I posted, "Worrying is a total waste of time. It doesn't change anything. All it does is steal your joy and keeps you very busy doing nothing."

I was a BIG time worrier. I said I couldn't help it; because it was just the way I was. Plus, I had plenty of things to worry about.

When I became a Christian, I bought a Good News Bible. I asked the Lord to teach me what I needed to learn. I bought some colored pencils and started to highlight what was standing out and getting my attention.

Guess what? At first, almost everything I highlighted was about not worrying. This made me smile because I knew God had my number. Later I read that there is 365 text about not worrying in the Bible. So I knew I wasn't the only one with the problem.

After reading in the Bible that worrying was something God didn't want for me for my own good, I worked on not worrying. But it was a bad habit, and I didn't seem to know how to break it. Plus, I didn't know God well enough to be sure I could really trust Him.

A few years down the road, I started to attend a church. I'd heard about Lent, but it wasn't something I knew anything about. I knew people who told me they gave up chocolate or some other thing for Lent, but that's all I knew.

One Sunday before Easter, the pastor asked people to write down what they wanted to give up for Lent. I wrote down, "Worrying."

From that day on, things started to change. I became serious, and I mean serious, about not worrying. Every time a worried thought came to my mind, I'd pray, "Thank you, Lord, for working on this situation." Then I'd drop it, leave it, let it go!

I won't say that 'worry thoughts' don't come to my mind because they do. But I've learned to say, "Thank you, Lord, for working on this situation."

Truthfully, giving up worrying has helped not only my mental health but my physical health as well.