Be Anxious for Nothing

Well, the last couple of weeks have been just a BIT stressful! Here’s some of what’s been going on:

1. My newborn niece spent a couple of days in a neonatal intensive care unit.
2. My 16-year-old daughter had to take a huge preliminary college entrance exam at our local high school, an environment completely foreign to her.
3. My husband and I are having to make major decisions concerning our upcoming move to the United States.
4. My husband, our kids, and I are having to come to grips with the fact that we’ll soon be leaving our friends here in the UK.
5. I am WAY behind in some of my schoolwork.
6. I had a migraine on Sunday; I’ve not had those for years now.
7. We received a phone call late last night telling us that my grandmother had a serious fall and is in the hospital pending surgery on her arm.

Yikes! Now, for the positive sides of things:

1. My niece received wonderful care in the NICU, and she’s now home and doing very well.
2. My daughter handled the test and the testing environment very well.
3. God is giving my husband and me an amazing unity in all our decisions.
4. We’re looking forward to spending some special time with our friends in the next couple of months, and we're eager to see our family and friends in the States.
5. I’m slowly catching up on schoolwork.
6. I’m headache-free today.
7. My grandmother is getting the care she needs.

Praise the Lord!

As I was discussing some of this with my pastor on Sunday evening, he reminded me of Philippians 4:6-7:

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Wow. Those are powerful words, aren’t they?

My goal for today: Live out that verse. I’ve been praying all along through all of these challenges, but I want to be even more intentional about letting petitions and praises shape my worries into prayers. I praise God for His faithfulness and His mercy!