Mirror Mirror ~ Why am I so worried?
Introspection — what better way to start a week.
Question — Do you find yourself worried?
In my childhood worry may have been my best self-defense. I certainly would not have had hope. Hope for what? But, worry? Of course. Days or nights were not safe in my home. Why not worry? I should have been scared — and, I was.
When I first entered counseling with a great doctor that understood, we chatted about this great cloud of worry that followed my days and hunted my nights. As we explored, it had now just become a “constant drip” in my life. I didn’t even know why I worried — I just worried all the time. Sometimes, I still do.
The cause of worry is easy for me to figure out. There wasn’t a time of safety in my early years — no where did safety exist. Of course I worried. My biggest hope was to just be ignored by the whole lot of my family. It was the best way to not be hurt — stay hidden.
Today, my anxiety is much better. I can add hope to my worry and it helps. It helps a lot.
Do you worry?
Jesus talked about worry in Matthew 6. His words help me.
Do Not Worry (or at least try)
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?
26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life ?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.
29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you-you of little faith?
31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Originally published at https://prisonerbynocrimeofmyown.com on May 1, 2023.
