Before Karen retired to bed in the nights, she worried about breakfast preparation. What would she cook for breakfast? Did she have any food in the refrigerator? The children were picky eaters. They didn’t like this, and they didn’t want that.

There were more things that they did not like to eat than things that they liked; plus she could not serve their favorite food too often because they would get tired of it. She also had to ensure that they actually ate something that was healthy and filling before going to school.

After finally settling on an easy meal — cereal and milk, she began to worry about the traffic on the road that she had to beat. Time seemed to pass very quickly, so she screamed at the children to hurry in the shower or to finish their breakfast quickly.

At last, she was on the road but once again she was caught in the traffic because the children, as usual, moved so slowly that it was impossible to get them out the door fast enough. So this instigated a dose of an anxiety attack as she began to worry about reaching work on time.

For the past couple of weeks, she had been arriving to work fifteen minutes and sometimes half an hour late. She had received one warning letter so far. “One more and you are fired.”  The boss shouted at her just yesterday.

As this thought crept into her mind, a sense of panic rushed through her body, and she began to worry about finding another job in this tough economy. Where would she get another job paying her enough to survive as a single mother with two children?

Karen felt tiny beads of perspiration bubbling on her forehead that began to run down her brow and face.

She quickly reached for her towel that she thought was in the cup holder next to her seat. But instead of touching the soft fiber of her towel she knocked over the cup of steaming coffee, that she had forgotten about, and sent it flying across the passenger’ seat splashing hot liquid on her ten-year-old daughter’s hand before crashing to the floor.

The remaining coffee spewed all over the freshly washed car rug that she had labored over that weekend.

The loud scream of Karen’s daughter frightened her six-year-old son from his nap in the back seat, and he began to cry for no apparent reason.

Karen was getting more irritated. She shouted at the children to keep quiet while she leaned over to examine her daughter’s swollen hand, taking her eyes off the road for just one second.

Suddenly she heard a sickening ‘crack’ followed by a deafening screech as she stepped hard on the break. “Oh my God, oh my God,” Karen began to shout as the realization of what happened hit her right in the stomach. Her stomach responded painfully, and she swallowed the bitter lump that suddenly blocked her throat.

She became apprehended as she remembered that she had not renewed her car insurance that had expired last month end. It was now the middle of the month.

Karen sighed tiredly and slumped dejectedly in the seat. For the past week, she instinctively felt that she forgot to do something important, but she just could not remember.

In fairness how could she remember everything when she was so busy with school projects, homework, PTA meeting plus loads of church committee meetings. The accumulating troubles were becoming unbearable. Where was she going to find the money to pay for her car plus the car that she had just rear-ended?

She had used the last money in her bankbook to purchase a badly needed new refrigerator. The children were still crying incessantly, both needing someone to comfort them but she was so distraught with worries that she only stared at them helplessly.

“What am I going to do?” She whimpered pitifully. The traffic had gradually built up around the stalled vehicles, and she could hear the police siren screaming down the road.

Reality hit her, and she stared helplessly at her crying children and then at the flashing light of the police car as it came screeching to a halt behind the disabled vehicles. What had she done that she deserved so many problems in just a few minutes? She wondered as she collapsed tiredly over the steering wheel in total defeat.

Karen’s troubles resulted from one simple but deadly action – worrying. It began a chain reaction of disasters.

Since I became fifty, I found myself worrying about everything.

I fussed unnecessarily over the children; I worried about the high prices in the supermarket; I am extremely bothered if my house is untidy and the yard is messy.

It appears as if I worry about everything and anything. If I have a something to do, I worry about it for weeks before it gets done.

I realized that something was definitely wrong when I found myself worrying about overweight luggage while I was on vacation. I was unable to relax.

The more I worried, the more I forgot to do important things that later resulted in additional expense. I came to the conclusion that worrying is expensive.

When I returned home from vacation, the Lord told me that anxiety will clutter my mind and prevent me from hearing His voice. Therefore, I need to kill the spirit of fear because worrying is derived from this spirit. The Lord then gave me a list of instructions to do which will remove anxiety from life.

Relinquish worry, receive trust

• Jesus told us that we need to believe that our heavenly Father can take care of everything in our life. The Lord takes care of the birds, flowers and grass that are here today and gone tomorrow. Since we are more valuable than the birds and flowers, the Lord will definitely take care of us. We need just to trust Him. (Matthew 6:25-34)
• Pray and rebuke the spirit of fear from our life. We worry because of fear of the unknown.
• Meditate on the word of God daily.
• Organize your household and always make a ‘to do list’ and check it every day. In this technological age, it is easy to use your cell phones to remind you of things.
• Eat healthily and exercise. How does this help? I asked the Lord. He replied, “When you maintain a healthy lifestyle you will always feel energetic and motivated. These positive attitudes release peace and calmness in your mind and heart.”

Even though these instructions will sometimes be difficult to follow, I will certainly try because I need to conquer the spirit of worrying.

If you have similar problems, share with us how you overcame them.

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