31 Notions of Grace Day 10...Care

Care

I love to care. 

If that sounds weird, let me elaborate.

What I love is to take care of people, things, situations, etc...almost to a fault. 

It can be difficult being an organization-lover. It's very stressful, demanding, and gut wrenching at times. And at other times its incredible, and fulfilling, and basically the greatest feeling ever. 

There are a lot of things I "care" about on a regular basis. 

I care about my family,

                                my job,

                                      my health

                                            my house,

                                                  our finances

                                                        the students I teach

                                                              my friends

But sometimes this "care" should in all honesty be called "worry". I have always suffered with this issue. I'm a worrier...and with worry comes anxiety, and sometimes its debilitating. Like today, I am simultaneously worrying about all of those things on my list (and then some). I find it really difficult sometimes to step back and look at things 'big picture' style and I get hung up on the 'trees' rather than the 'forest'.  

So friends, for those of you who relate to this crazy girl's description...here's a good dose of grace in the form of some scripture to help us all with that worry and anxiety.

Matthew 6:27-29

Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.

       --don't worry, be happy...worrying can't add time to your life, in fact its a big ol' fat waste of time!--

Proverbs 12:25 The Message

25 Worry weighs us down; a cheerful word picks us up.

--Amen to that! Sometimes when my 'caring' gets out of hand and I begin to perseverate...my body physically feels heavier. If I could lay my trust in God a little more often I might not feel so weighed down--

And a big fault of mine is not being committed to prayer...I feel like I haphazardly throw up a prayer sometimes when what I really need to do is remember this little formula I read about: 

WORRY replaced by PRAYER = TRUST (credit)

I love this. 

And I also love this:

Credit

Matthew 6:30 The Message
30-33 “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers— most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

--To me this is kind of like a “Helloooooo, if God cares about wildflowers, obviously he cares about YOU!” And yeah, I do need to relax, thanks for the reminder! I need to stop worrying about getting stuff done, or getting something fixed, or created, or taken care of…and be more worried about responding to God’s grace. I need to pray more and therefore trust more.--

And lastly, this little nugget feels like a snuggly warm blanket right now:

1 Peter 5:7 The Message
6-7 So be content with who you are, and don’t put on airs. God’s strong hand is on you; he’ll promote you at the right time. Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you.

Thank goodness! When it comes to care I need to consistently remind myself to look to the CEO of Caring and allow myself to be cared for too. 

XOXO