Adults can learn a lot from children. Have you ever listened to a child pray? They will pray about anything and everything. They will thank God for pets and pray if their pet dog or hamster is sick. They will pray about friends or a lost toy.Adults, on the other hand, sometimes only want to pray about the big things. The little things they think they can take care of themselves.
Children are mostly not afraid to admit when they need help from an adult, whether it’s to tie shoe laces or help with their homework or know what to do about a friend that suddenly doesn’t want to be their friend any more.
Someone recently gave this definition of stress. ‘Stress is the result of thinking you’re in control of anything.’ When we think about it logically, we realize that is the case. Some things just come upon us and nothing we could have done would have stopped them happening, things like illness, accidents, unexpected friendships or windfalls. We just have to accept them and realize the only person who knows all of what is going on and how it fits into the perfect plan is God. We can’t control our days, so why waste time worrying about things. But we do.
I know I’ve been doing my share of it recently, getting stressed about making sure everything is perfect with the editing of my novel Streets on a Map to be published shortly. In the end I came to realize that I could do one of two things. I could stress over it or leave it in God’s hands.
It’s a bit like receiving a gift. You can either accept it or reject it. Watch a child when they receive a gift. They can’t wait to open it. God has given us a gift. He tells us to cast all our cares on him because he cares for us. 1 Peter 5:7. Will you choose to do that instead of stressing over the things you can’t control?
Take time now to read Matthew 6:25-34 and let the truths sink into your heart.
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