Life Coaching: Stopping Your Worry

I am a worrier. I fret and stew, toss and turn, mull and analyze. I am not proud of this fact. I often find myself awake late at night, wrinkling my sheets from my restlessness, staring at the ceiling, playing out and replaying scenarios over and over again in my mind. “If they say this, I’ll say that” is a frequent theme for me. I plan my responses to imaginary conversations just in case I ever have them. And the sad part is, those conversations NEVER happen in real time. Only in my mind…

Why do I do this? I think it’s a desire to figure out what’s gonna happen so I won’t be surprised. I can be prepared. I can brace myself for the worst. Subsequently, this type of thinking hinders spontaneity. And it hinders faith. It hinders trust. It hinders me from walking fully in God’s presence in the moment.

What about you? How often do you worry? How often do you worry about things that have already happened? How often do you worry about the future? How do you prepare for your future? How we deal with the unknown speaks volumes about our character. As I just revealed, my character is lacking in this area, but I’m working on it.

When we go fishing, we take that fishing rod and cast our line out as far as we can go, OR we cast our line where we think the fish will be. We attempt to maximize our chances of catching a fish. When we “cast our cares on Him,” (1 Peter 5:7) we take our cares to the place where our chances of success are greatest—into the arms of Jesus. To let go of the burden of our worries is to walk in freedom. Liberty comes in the care-free life.

My prayer today is that we are walking in such a manner that we’re not allowing worry and stress to ovettake us on our journey. We are free. We are prepared, not by letting our minds roam all over the place, but by preparing our hearts for the coming of the Lord. And not just His physical appearance, but the manifest example we have been living our lives as pleasing vessels to Him by loving Him and loving others. There are two commandments in the New Testament, and the entire law of the Old Testament hangs on these: Love God, love others. We cannot fully love if we don’t do these. And we can’t live a free, whole, centered life until we do. I am striving for that. How about you? God bless you, my dears!