Stress is a powerful thing. For most of us, it can take over our everyday lives in the blink of an eye. It’s safe to say that if worrying burned calories, most of us would be in the best shape of our lives.
To be completely transparent, I am not a huge worrier. If you were to ask my mother, she’d tell you that I’m going to live forever because I don’t allow stress to consume me. From what I’ve seen from others though, and sometimes in myself, we let the stress of things get to us so badly that sometimes don’t realize how small these situations are.
My main question is, how much of this worrying actually helps?
There is a difference between being responsible and constantly expecting something to go wrong. Planning ahead is a good thing. Caring about the people and things in our lives is a good thing. But there comes a point when worrying stops being useful and starts stealing our time.
We need to stop worrying about tomorrow, because it makes us forget to enjoy today.
We miss the conversation because we’re thinking about what needs to be done later. We don’t fully enjoy supper because we’re thinking about tomorrow’s schedule. Meanwhile, life is happening right in front of us.
The truth is we are never going to have everything figured out. Our job is to find the joy in the unknown. We have to learn that there will always be bills, another deadline, another decision and another problem waiting around the corner- and that’s just life.
But there are always the good things.
There will be unexpected belly laughs, morning where the weather is perfect, good conversations, favorite meals, and the list goes on and on. These are the days that we end up remembering most, the ordinary ones.
We shouldn’t let the things that might happen keep us from enjoying the things that are happening.
Take a deep breath, remind yourself that not every problem has to be solved immediately. Not every mistake needs to replay in our heads. Just tell yourself, “It’ll work itself out, it will be okay.”
If the good Lord is willing, tomorrow will come whether we spend tonight worrying about it or not. We might as well enjoy today while we’re here.
