When I Worry I Can’t Think Straight

The other day I was talking to a friend of mine. I could tell she was very worried about stuff happening in her life. Actually, it was happening in her adult children’s lives and was causing her much heartache.

How many of us, as women, as Mother’s, have heartache from and for our children.?

It could be our children are ostracised from us. There is no longer a relationship there. It could be our children, young and older, are suffering, struggling in their own lives, and this affects our hearts, our minds, our peace. We often take on other people’s problems and this causes us to worry so. The sorrows of a “Mother’s heart” is something we all bear. You don’t even have to be a mother. Even Mary the Mother of God had sorrows she bore for her Son Jesus.

I’ve often felt the scripture in Matthew’s Gospel 6:25 which states:

Therefore, I tell you do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body…

Matt 6:25

…… should be also stated:

“Therefore, I tell you do not worry about your children’s lives, what they will eat or drink or about their body…” .… and I know we can extrapolate from the Word of God, but this particular worry can “eat us up.”

In this particular situation, my friend was SICK with worry. It was affecting her physically, mentally and so spiritually.

An occurrence a day later showed me exactly what was happening. Willow, my 5-year-old granddaughter, was having swimming lessons. She has moved up into the next stage/class so has a new swimming teacher. The new teacher was instructing her on how to stroke with her arms and how to kick better, then also showing her how to float on her back without sinking, plus how to do tumble turns and a myriad of other things to do with swimming. 

This is the second week in this new class and slowly but surely Willow was taking on board all of the instructions and was improving. But the floating without sinking she was struggling with. Afterwards she said to her Mum, “All these things, (instructions), were going on in my brain that I could not concentrate.” Wise words from a five-year-old!

She was overloaded and could not have a clear mind to even think right. This in many ways is what worry can do. We become overloaded with the emotion of it all. Trying to find solutions to difficulties where we cannot. It can make us physically sick.

We can be overloaded with just the frequency of it all, the amount of the problems…….

It’s never easy when we think about the problems and hoping often against all hope that it will turn out all right in the end.

But that is the Walk OF Faith!

Faith NOT in ourselves but in an Almighty, Loving God who cares about each and every one of us. Our relationship with Our God is built on trust. Do we trust God for our lives?

So, do we trust God for our children’s lives?

He actually loves them more and more perfectly than we can, so do we entrust – handover – our loved ones to His Loving Care?

It appears so easy to our frail beings to worry endlessly about the what-ifs and worst-case scenarios. But I’m encouraging you to stop for a minute and do what Jesus suggested time and time again.

Cast all your anxiety on Him, because he cares for you.

1 Peter 5:7

Let it go.

Give your children to the Lord.

Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.

Matt 11:28

The Holy Spirit instructor may be giving you the correct instructions to help you but if you are overloaded with worry, you will not hear him. Take the time to look after yourself.

When I was working as a pharmacist I would often share with the Carers (often spouses ) of cancer patients, of dementia patients, of disability patients… “Make sure you care for yourself too.” You need to care for the Carers, otherwise if you get sick or can’t cope etc. who is going to care then for your loved ones?

So, one of the lessons Willow’s sharing reinforced again in me was:

TRY not to worry, otherwise you don’t have a clear mind to even think straight and care or be productive at all in the circumstances.

May these jottings from my journal inspire you to believe in and fall in love with Christ- the hope of the world, as stated in Jeremiah 17:7, ‘Blessed is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the Lord and whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord!’

Love

Rosemary

Every week groups of ladies meet together to chat about the things I raise in my weekly blog post and to chat about life in general. We call these ‘Heart Connect’ groups. If you would like more information please click HERE.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Do you have trouble trusting God with your children’s lives? Do you worry about them all the time?

Why do you think it’s hard to entrust your children to God?

How can you cast all your anxiety on God, the Almighty, who wants to care for you?