No worries......

Most of you who know me know that I am a big worrier. I worry about EVERYTHING. It's just something I was born with. Part of my DNA. However, the older I get and the more I get involved and grow in relationships with others, I have come to realize just how blessed I am. I have seen so many people go through very difficult hardships-- everything from financial issues to losing very close family members unexpectedly. I have been working VERY hard on trying not to worry so much about stuff I may have no control over, and things that are the "small" things.

This is not going to sound like a big deal to any of you, but I just wanted to share it and have this to look back on as a reminder.... Yesterday as it was time to go pick up Brennan from school, I was dragging my 2 year old out the door kicking and screaming--literally-- and trying to keep the dog from running out the door, and it seemed like I had run a half-marathon just getting out to the garage to pick up my son a mile down the road. I was running later than normal after the drama, too. I sit down, put my key in the ignition and.... NOTHING. The van was deader than dead. Normally I would have freaked out. Of course, I forgot to mention that this was the ONE day that my husband took our extra car to work instead of his company car. So I was stuck. My husband was at his office downtown and I had NO car. Instead of panicking, I picked up the phone and told Chad what was happening, to which he was promptly able to leave work and rescue his son at school. And he wasn't late picking him up.

But then I had the van to worry about. Was it a dead battery or was it the more expensive alternator? Now we were going to have to fork over money to replace whatever it was. However, I was unusually calm about it. My boss has a saying when something goes awry in our day and I have started using it as my philosophy when something unplanned throws a monkey wrench in my day. That saying is: "If that's the worst thing to happen all day, we are going to be OKAY!" So that's what I told myself.

When Chad got home he checked the van, jumped off the battery, and the situation was fine. Our hood had somehow been opened and the light that comes on automatically under the hood had been on since the last time it had been driven.... which was 24 hours before. It just drained the battery. So, no new battery to replace and no expensive alternator to worry over.

I find myself worrying over our cars because one is 11 years old and the other is 15 years old. (Don't laugh because they are both PAID FOR!!!) And sometimes it concerns me with the mileage and the age, however our Camry has 222,000 miles on it and it runs beautifully. Which is another way God has proved he will take care of us when we are good stewards of what He has entrusted us with.

On the way to dinner last night with my coworkers, I was driving in the rain, listening to K-Love and thinking about how I normally would have been stressed out before I even knew the whole situation. Then as clear as a bell I heard in my head, "Mandy, this was an example for you today. I am always going to take care of things no matter how big or small". And it dawned on me that the situation was out of my control, yet I never worried one bit because I knew that the situation would be worked out without my worries added to it.

Which is why I have started collecting beautiful little birds to display around my house. It reminds me of the verse in Matthew:

Matthew 6:25-34

Do Not Worry

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^a]">[a]?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.