Wednesday; January 15

I was reading through some quotes about anxiety the other day and came upon some interesting ones.  The first anonymous quote observed, “Anxiety is a lot like a toddler.  It never stops talking, tells you you’re wrong about everything, and wakes you up at 3:00 a.m.”.  While this was rather humorous, there was another one by C.H. Spurgeon that really struck me, “Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strengths.”  Wow – how insightful was that!  Being a self-proclaimed expert on the impact of stress and anxiety I have found that worrying about stuff in the future rarely helps me to be successful today.  In fact, investing effort in fixing stuff that hasn’t happened yet only zaps the strength we need to deal with the real problems of the here and now.  Jesus would tell His early disciples, “And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?” (Matthew 6:27).  This simple concept can be expanded out to challenge anything that stresses us out – does worrying about anything that hasn’t happened yet help us fix it?  Sure, there may be times when preparation might mitigate future problems, but stressing about it doesn’t. 

Let’s invest our energy in what we can control.  When we do that, we’ll be more rested and relaxed for what we will end up facing in the future. 

Think About It!

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