Have you ever been secretly scared that if you stop worrying, the very thing that you were afraid might happen most definitely will? That somehow the energy generated from your fretting is the force field keeping the dreaded outcome at bay, and if you lower the force field for even one minute … blam! Annihilation. Devastation.
The end of the world as you know it.
If you’re like me and the majority of folks, I’ll bet you’re picking up exactly what I’m putting down right now.
Yep, worry makes the average woman’s world go round. We have watched our mothers and grandmothers worry themselves into a tizzy, and we’ve learned to do the very same. Fretting and stewing and fussing seem perfectly normal because we’re so used to it. We’ve fooled ourselves into thinking we’re doing the responsible thing by agonizing over our dilemmas.
And the scariest thing is that we’re passing this legacy of lunacy right on to our children. When will the cycle ever be broken if we don’t do something about it?
Worry is a type of fear that loves to masquerade as responsibility. By dwelling on our troubles, we think we’ll somehow become enlightened with magical answers that will change outcomes that previously were inevitable.
Is there any other way to intimately care about our family and friends besides obsessing over their problems?
Well, actually there is: “Don’t worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done” (Phil. 4:6, NLT).
Debora M. Coty is the author of 10 books and a newspaper columnist, orthopedic occupational therapist and tennis addict. Follow Debora on Twitter @deboracoty.
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