by: Kimberly Chastain , MS, LMFT

Are you a worrier? I think it comes with the job description of Mom. Seems like there is always something you can worry about. As a child I memorized Philippians 4:6. This is what I memorized, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything pray." Recently, I rediscovered this verse and found I had not done a complete memorization. The verse says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Did you catch the big point I was missing? "With thanksgiving." When you pray to God about your worries are you also thanking Him for all your blessings? For me it has given me a whole new way to think about my worries and prayer. For example, you can start out something like this, "God, thank you for choosing me as your child, providing food to eat, my home, my husband, my children, and all the many blessings You have given me. Because, You have been faithful in the past and You always keep Your promises, I know You can handle this worry _________ of mine right now. Lord, I give it to You. Thank You again for Your faithfulness. When we spend more time thanking God for all the things He has done for us our worries seems small in the hands of a really big God.

Recently, we were reading in Genesis with our children and I found an excellent example of not trusting God with your worries. We were reading about Lot and his daughters. If you will remember after God rescued them from Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot's daughters were worried they would not have children or a husband. So, they got their father drunk and they "laid" with him in order to have children. My children's first reaction was "gross". Hey, I agree. Then, I pointed out something even deeper about this passage. Lot's daughters had just witnessed God rescuing them from total destruction. God chose their family and no other to live. How powerful and amazing. How special they were in God's eyes. Yet, after witnessing the marvelous and destructive power of God, who saved them from utter destruction, they could not trust God to find them husbands. Oh, how that must have grieved God. The God who saved their lives certainly can be trusted to find them husbands. But, no they didn't trust God and decided to come up with their own plan. I'm afraid we are guilty of the same "type" of sin. Not trusting God to come through for us and we scheme to figure out a way to make it work.

Dear Reader, whatever your worry is today you have a God who chose you and loved you enough to send His only Son to die for you. Do you not think your God cannot handle and work out whatever is worrying you? You have an awesome Father who is just waiting to take all your worries and continue to show His faithfulness. Give your worries to Him and leave them there.