Mindy drummed her fingers on the table, and stared at the phone willing it to ring. It had been two hours since her daughter left the concert in Toronto.

Jeremy walked into the kitchen. “Do you think the longer you gawk at the phone, it will ring?”

“She should be home by now. Where is she?”

“Mindy, you know what the traffic is like on the 401. Stop worrying.” He grabbed a cup from the cupboard and poured himself some coffee.

“But, what if they ran out of gas?”

“She would call.”

Mindy got up and paced. “What if her cell battery is dead?”

“Stop, would you. You’re going to give yourself an ulcer one day from all the worrying you do.” He put cream and sugar in his coffee and stirred.

Mindy plunked herself into the chair. She placed her elbows on the table, cupped her chin in her hands, and stared at the phone. Again.

Jeremy shook his head and walked downstairs.

How many of you can relate to Mindy? Are you a worry wart? Do you stress yourself out for nothing?

I have to admit, there are times I do.

And I’m ashamed of myself, but I just can’t help it! Where’s my faith?

What do we worry about? Finances, health, safety of our families, our marriages. You name it, we obsess about it.

For me, I stress about my health. If I have the smallest ailment, I think there’s something terribly wrong.

Why do we do this to ourselves? They say that 80% (or more!) of what we worry about never happens. So I ask again, why do we continue to do it?

Are we afraid to give up the control in our lives? Definitely.  Afraid to trust God with all areas of our lives? Probably.

I also believe it’s partly because we’re scared of the unknown. We think we’re going to fall head first, spiralling into that proverbial black hole. What is around the next corner? Are we waiting for the other shoe to drop?

God feeds the birds and dresses the lilies in all their splendour, so He’s more than capable of taking care of His children. We need to simply trust and give Him control. Stressing ourselves over every little thing does absolutely no good.

What would happen if we stopped worrying? For one thing, we’d be healthier. Stress can do strange things to our bodies. I also feel we would be more content and at peace.

Peace has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?  How about it? Let’s give our worrying over to God.

Matthew 6:34 (NIV)

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”