Put your Worries in a Box

I once received excellent advice regarding a stressor I was dealing with. This was a stressor that would stick with me for over a year. It was to be a marathon, not a sprint.

This person told me that I needed to begin to think about putting my problem “in a box.” There would be times when I could do something about the issue, and times when I could do nothing. In the times that I need to take action, I should take the problem “out of the box,“ take care of the issue, then put it “back in the box."

When there are times that we can do nothing about our problems, we rob ourselves of joy by worrying about them. I agree that these issues are often very important. When it is time to take action, we certainly must. Yet when there is nothing more we can do about it, we need to corral our worries. Worrying never solves any problems, it often simply leads to new ones.

Worry sometimes encourages us to do things that are not smart. Worry sometimes clouds discernment, and makes us less able to see truth. Worry sometimes makes us feel worthless and unworthy. Worry robs us of the things we can do now, by making us stay focused on things that we can do nothing about.

I believe that worry is inspired by our enemy. It is true that the Holy Spirit will convict us when we do things we shouldn’t, but that conviction usually leads to good fruit. Worry usually leads to bad fruit, and serves no useful purpose.

How do we overcome our feelings of worry? By consciously focusing our minds on the things of God! Philippians 4:8 is an excellent place to start. "Whatever is good, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think on such things." The struggle we are going through is not good, but there still is good in the world. God will use the stressers somehow for his good purpose. God still loves us through it all. We still have a reason to hope! We must find the sources of hope, and meditate on those things.

Friends, put your worries in a box! When it is time today to take action on your struggles, trust the good counsel around you and the indwelling Holy Spirit to help you know when that needs to occur. Say your apologies. Offer forgiveness, to those who wronged you and to yourself.  

Don't wait for your problem to resolve before you start to find joy again in the world.  As you search for things to be thankful for, your worries will corral themselves.  

Finding Joy in the Christmas Season

I came to recognize last week that I was not yet in the Christmas spirit. That conclusion left me rather sad.

This is a very busy time for my family, and sometimes it seems like we are treading water through homework, end of semester projects, and Christmas band and choir performances. Not to mention the holiday duties to purchase presents, send Christmas cards, and attend Christmas parties. There is a strong challenge to have the "busyness" rob us of the joy of these Christmas activities. We must fight against this.

Christmas can be a difficult time of year for many people. Sometimes people mourn love ones they have lost. Sometimes people struggle financially to buy presents for those they love. Sometimes people are just under a lot of stress, and the holiday hustle and bustle takes away what is left of our coping strategies. There must be a way to overcome this.

I decided it was time for me to look for and grab onto the joy of the holiday season! Purchasing and giving gifts pale in importance to understanding and acknowledging the beauty of what God did for us by sending his son to Earth. Helping our children understand the importance of the Christmas story is the best gift we could ever give them. At Christmas we purchase and give gifts out of appreciation, to show others a small piece of the love that God gave us. Even a small affordable gift can bring joy in the eyes of a child. We should not let the Devil put guilty thoughts in our head saying that the gift was “not enough." Those negative thoughts will suck the joy out of any holiday gathering.

We should fight back against the “busyness” of the season, turning down activities that we do not feel directly inspired to participate in, so that we have time to rest and experience the true joy that this holiday brings. If we have stress from various life situations, we should fight back against pondering on those problems too much.

We should give thanks for our family members still present with us. While we may grieve the loss of other family members that have passed, we should fight back against having that grief rob us of the joy we can experience with the family members we have remaining.

We should give thanks for the financial resources we currently have, the car we are driving, the roof over our heads, and the food in our mouths, and worry less about the perks of life that we wish we could give our spouse, our kids, or our other family members. The Devil wants us to feel like we’re not good enough, and we must remember that those negative feelings are not coming from the indwelling Holy Spirit.

We should give thanks for the education that this country provides our children, and the enrichment that extracurricular activities provide. While the end of semester homework and holiday school activities can be stressful, we should embrace the knowledge that these activities are enriching our children. And we should be grateful for discernment when we realize that these activities are not enriching our children, and steer them away.

We should give thanks for our friends and family that wish to spend time with us, in the form of holiday parties and holiday gatherings. While it is true that we might not be able to visit with all of them, we should remember that, in the end, relationships are the only things we take with us to heaven.

If we struggle with feelings that we are not good enough, we should recognize that that these thoughts most assuredly are coming from the Devil. God loves us so much that he sent his only son in the form of a little baby to live among us, and later die for us. We should never forget how much God loves us.

Bask in the joy of God’s love this Christmas season! Don’t worry about the gifts that you are not able to give others. Don’t worry about the bad decisions you made this past year, as this most assuredly does not define your worth to God. Do not let the busyness of this holiday season rob you of the joy of the Lord! Rejoice, for the Lord has come!