How do you handle worry?
It’s a constant journey and a daily struggle for most people. The good news is there is a solution, the question is...what is it?
Worry has the ability to steal our joy. Change how we raise our kids or treat our spouse. How we serve our best at our jobs or businesses. It has an interesting absolute to sneak in and literally change us in an instant. So how do you really handle worry?
So, first realize it’s a command on our lives to not focus on worry. God says all the worry in the world won’t add one moment to your life. So my first reminder to myself daily, when that worry shows up at the door, it to remind myself first, God didn’t create this, let’s focus on the steps to let it go.
Second, you need to have a plan. I have a notepad on my phone that has a few things on it that I will share with you, that I immediately go to.
On my notepad, I have a great biblical story I found on worry that spoke to me, I read it almost daily. Below that I have a list of things that I am so appreciate of that are far beyond any materialistic or possession that money could buy. I also list out the kinds of feelings I love and I paint a picture of when I fee those feelings as to put myself back to that time. (i.e. hunting with my dad, holding my kids for the first time and a few things that I am grateful for that I have been given in my life that I easily take for granted)
Bottom line is this, worry is not of God. If it’s on you, in you or around you...you are not being in the presence of God. So change you presence. The best way to do that, it to get in the presence of God by changing that feeling and thought of worry into conscious thought of appreciation and love.
It is a daily journey, but as you develop the habit, the days of worry don’t disappear, but the amount and time you focus on it does. That’s what I needed. That’s what I do.
-Brian