Pray with Thanksgiving

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God.  Philipians 4:6 NIV

Anxiety is so pervasive in our society.  Even young children are dealing with unhealthy levels of anxiety. I wonder how much happier we would be if we would simply follow these instructions. Give thanks to God, and pray to him about your problem or worry.  Then let it go.  I think it is almost a default for many of us to worry and fret, but what a waste of time and life to be anxious about what might happen.

My mother is 93 years old.  She lives alone. Many things could happen to her and sometimes I fall into worrying about her. When I catch myself at it, I remind myself of the futility of worry. It simply wears me down and it doesn’t in any way help my mom.  In fact, if I use up energy worrying, I have less energy to spend on caring for her. I tell myself to deal with today.  If today is OK, then I need to be thankful that she is having another good day. You can love someone without worrying about them.