No More Worry Wart

I needed a reminder of the sweet, promising days of June. How about you?

A group of friends and I are knee deep in a small group Bible study, No Other Gods by Kelly Minter. We meet at Debbie's house for a couple of hours on Friday mornings and have been having lots of "Aha!" moments.

We have laughed, and shared, and encouraged one another, and cried, and prayed.

It has been great and God is showing us things about ourselves that we need to confront and deal with.

We have learned that an idol can be anything other than God that we set our heart on....that motivates us....that masters and rules us....or that we trust, fear, or serve. They don't have to be inherently "bad"; they can be good things that keep us from what God desires for us.

I have known for a long time that I was a worrier. My husband says if there is nothing to worry about, I will make up something. I almost had a perverse notion that if I worried enough I might keep something bad from happening.

Doesn't make much sense when I actually see it in black and white.

I know worry is a sin because I am supposed to trust my Father and his plans for my life and the lives of those whom I love. I even have a whole stack of Bible verses on cards that I am memorizing to use as a sort of non-Catholic rosary. See, I have a problem with this.

Sin, yes.

Idol? I had no idea.

But now I do.

For me, worry has become my default emotion. It has become the elephant in the room. It has become the first thing I turn to. It has become the thing that robs me of a lot of joy in my life. It has become my focus.

Kind of sounds like an idol, don't you think?

This verse is my new mantra......

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

                                                                                            Philippians 4:8

I am working on letting go of the idea that things are in my control and trying to turn them over to God. He made the universe and knows the stars by name, so I think he can handle it, don't you?

If there are any other worriers out there, want to join me in letting it go?

(Here is a post I wrote about another Kelly Minter study.)

Linking up today to....

Imparting Grace