It’s 6:56 pm on Saturday night and my phone rings.
I usually love when my phone rings and it’s my husband calling. My cell phone shows my favorite picture of him and it brings a smile to my face. Usually this smile continues as I answer and talk to him. But not tonight.
Why is my phone ringing in the middle of the dinner rush? I know there are a crazy amount of reservations tonight at the restaurant!
Turns out the power is out at the restaurant and he is calling to ask me to look into it online and send him a text with the details.
Of course it’s at this moment that all 3 children go completely crazy and my calm and quiet home turns into a home full of kids screaming and crying. Lovely. (I seriously think there is something magical about both the phone and the car that make my kids go crazy . . . more about that another time though.)
So I figure out what’s up with the power (or lack there of), calm the kids down and then have a second to think. I immediately start to worry. While my husband in the midst of the craziness seems calm on the phone, my stomach immediatly begins to hurt, I feel like I’m going to throw up and I start shaking. Oh, anxiety, how I hate you.
This is something I really struggle with – worry and anxiety. This is definitely the area of my life in which I seem to constantly have to work on. . . every hour, minute and second of the day. Just being honest here.
Philippians 4:6 says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” So I prayed. I prayed for wisdom for my husband and his staff, I prayed that the power would come back on as soon as possible. I prayed for safety for all those involved. And I prayed that I would not worry about my husband and how he was doing. While I know we are to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6), bearing does not mean worrying.
After praying I calmed down, went on the with the night for a few minutes, thought about my husband again and the anxiousness came back. So I prayed again . . . same verse, same requests, same peace.
This was my night (and morning as I write this). Repeat the above a trillion times . . . I say this verse to myself so often I think I’m going to have my friend over at Rustic Pine Designs make it into a sign for our living room just to remind me constantly. (That would actually be a great Mother’s Day present, hint, hint.) Today I should probably write it with a sharpie on my hand.
Worrying about how my husband is doing will not solve anything. Numerous times in the Bible God says we are not to worry about the future and to trust Him. He also says He will give us peace. Really! He says it a lot! Matthew 6:25-34, Luke 12:24-34, Matthew 11:28-30, John 14:27, Colossians 3:15, 2 Thess. 3:16, Psalm 55:22, Phil. 4:6 (again) . . . the list goes on and on.
So while I write this post, more for myself than for others, I NEED TO REMEMBER to cast my cares upon Him. So while the restaurant is big, the problem seems big, in the scheme of things happening around the world, it’s small. Fortunately, nothing is too big or small for the God we serve!
