I sat stone still, wide-eyed, nibbling on a carrot, picking at a half eaten bologna sandwich, and watching with terror as a traumatic event that would forever impact my life unfolded out before me. Our toilet flooded.
I was 5 years old, and to me, that was the worst thing possible. I kept imagining it getting worse and worse--what if we used up all of our towels and it still was flooding? What if it flooded our house and we were trying to swim to safety in it? What if it suffocated us, filling up to the top of the house, burying us alive, swimming under water? What if we managed to live, but all that water completely destroyed our house and we were homeless? What if it washed away all of my carrots and I starved to death? As I said before, it was a very traumatic event.
I know that I certainly worry too much in life. I worry about an upcoming test, I worry about people, I sometimes even worry about if I’m worrying too much! Matthew 6:25-34 is a beautiful passage for when I’m worrying too much. One of my favorite verses in that passage is verse 27, “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”. That’s a pretty powerful verse. It makes me back up and ask myself if worrying was worth it. It makes me wonder if I wasted time pointlessly worrying about something that was going to happen whether or not I worried about it.
In the end, it turns out I’m still alive--not swimming frantically in a house that is quickly filling with water from our toilet. We still had clean towels left over. We still had a house to live in. And, most importantly, I still had my carrots to enjoy munching on. At that time, I was so stuck on the present that I couldn’t see through my worries. My worries clouded my vision. Don’t let your worries cloud your vision, see past them. Anytime you feel the urge to start worrying, start praying for someone instead. That's a hobby that you won't ever have to question its worth.
Kayla Joy
