Don't Worry, Be Happy

Today has been a good day for me. I had bible study this morning. How I love to spend time in His word with other believers. God gives insight to each one of us and I love to hear the thoughts of others as we discuss different topics. After study I had a hair appointment. I love to get my hair done. The lady that does my hair has become a wonderful acquaintance over the years. She has been the only one to do my hair since we moved to Clarksville. She is a strong believer and we have good discussions as she does my hair. I left her salon feeling good, you know when your hair looks good then you feel good too. After that I went to get my eyebrows done at Merle Norman. Laura, the sweet lady that works there, is also a believer and we too had a nice talk about the Lord. She gave me a lesson on how to make up my eyes and hopefully they will look as good tomorrow as they do today. I ran a couple of other errands and came home to await the arrival of my husband, who has been out of town for a few days. I can’t wait for him to come home!!!

As I played on the computer today I thought about what I would write about. I wanted to make the next entry on my blog, but my mind was a whirlwind of different thoughts. I could write about the snow that fell for a few hours this morning or I could talk about the feelings that I have for my children, I could write about my dreams, the beauty in creation or other various topics.

The more I thought about it, the more fretful I became. I wanted it to be just right. Soon, I realized that I was actually worrying about what I would write about. I then began to smile and laugh out loud because believe it or not the bible study that I am leading is titled; “Living Above Stress and Worry” how funny is that? Here I was stressing which was the very thing I was teaching about! Then, I remembered the thoughts that ran across my mind when I woke up this morning, “I am worried about the lesson today”, I once again realized how silly this sounded given the content of the study.

It is amazing how God reveals himself to you when you seek Him. I have been asking Him to show me areas of worry that I might not have even realized that I have. When you ask Him for things like that you better be ready for the answer. He has been showing me several ways that I do this and I have to admit some were complete surprises. Like today, I realized that I was worrying over something that is meant to be fun and instead I started to turn it into drudgery. He also continues to reassure me of my worth to Him. This is an area that I have always struggled in. I sometimes feel like an outsider looking in, never feeling quite good enough. I am assured by promises in His word that these feelings are not from Him and that He loves me unconditionally. I didn’t realize until this study that I worry about this. You see worry is something that you hold onto, pick at, chew on over and over again and sometimes it can even consume you. Worry is holding on and rehashing when there is no reason to. I have come to find that you cannot worry and trust at the same time. It is impossible to say that You trust Him about a situation and then continue to let this situation consume you. When we learn to surrender our problems and relinquish control over them and completely hand it to Him, we are filled with a Peace that is unexplainable. I know that this is a process. I know that I will hand over things to Him, only to take them back again. How wonderful it is to know that no matter how many times I do this, He will always be there to receive my cares and to reassure me that He is with me. What an amazing God we have. I am learning to trust in the small areas, like writing a blog, as well as the bigger areas of my life.

I would like to offer these words of advice:

Don’t Worry, Be Happy!!