Stop worrying! Start praying!

Almost every day, I get a call from my mom who wants nothing more than to talk and visit with me over the phone. These are usually very good, smiley-faced conversations, and I look forward to them. But there's one thing that always bugs me about what she says: "I'm just worried about..." or "I'm worried that..." And I'm sure you know someone like that: someone who worries about everything all the time.

But the thing about worry is that it accomplishes nothing. Absolutely nothing. It does you no good, doesn't help you figure out solutions to problems, doesn't reach out to anyone for assistance, doesn't do squat. So why do we do it? We do it because we are at a loss for what to do about situations we can't control. The only thing we think to do is come up with "what ifs" and "what abouts". But there is something better we can do: pray.

Let's think about prayer for a minute. What can prayer accomplish that worrying doesn't? Let's look at what our faith in God teaches us.

When we pray to God, we leave at His feet all those sins we have committed, even the ones of which we are unaware, and He forgives us and washes us clean. When we pray to God, we tell Him about our fears and about situations that are beyond our control, and He takes our fear away and takes control of the situations for us. Not that He wasn't in control from the beginning, mind you, but He wants us to come to Him for help.

What I remind my mom about whenever she tells me how worried she is about something is this: "When we start getting worried about something, we need to stop worrying and start praying. Prayer is the only thing that accomplishes what we cannot, because God has everything under control."

If I let myself, I would have a multitude of things to worry about. But I do my best to "let go and let God" handle them because I know that He is the only One who can. I won't say I'm always successful at doing that, but it helps when I remind myself to pray, not worry. Then, I can calm down, knowing that everything is under His control, and whatever happens, happens because He had a reason for it. We may not know in this lifetime what that reason is, but we can take comfort in knowing that He is in charge.