by: Lyndee Macaskill

November 2, 2023 

“Mommy, I’m going to make you a bakery treat.” 

My 4 year old headed to the kitchen with his little brother in tow.  I stayed put in the front room while they headed to the kitchen.  

It is a pretty common event in my house for the little boys to wander from room to room playing along the way.  If they decide to stay in one place for more than a couple of minutes, I follow along.

We had been to the apple orchard over the weekend where he learned that term, bakery treat.  I guess he liked the idea because of the sugar in the treat.  He loves him some sugar.  

One of his ploys to get sugar is to offer it to someone else.  They can have some, and he can have some.  It’s hard to turn that kind of generous thinking down.

I heard clanging around while they got out bowls to play in.  He kept coming in to tell me how he was making a treat for me.  He was so excited and proud.  I finally wandered into the kitchen after them.

Little footprints were tracked through white powder covering the kitchen floor.  My eyes darted from the floor to the countertop where he was using our big, stainless steel mixing bowl. There were a few items on the table from the fridge that didn’t belong there; syrup, ketchup, mustard to name a few.  Inside the bowl was a concoction of the items, along with the white powder.

Laughter broke out…. “Mom, Dad, come see what your grandchildren are making.”  My parents who were visiting for the week ran in and joined in the laughter while clicking a few photos.

The sense of discovery… trying new things… the joy and pride while they do it.  We adults should take a lesson to not worry about the results so much but just to try.

Instead, we stay stuck in our feelings of insecurity created by this cyclone of worries.  I’m not sure if other people worry the way I do, but I imagine that most have at least some of these worries when going out into the great unknown and trying something new.

Here are some of my worries: the results…if I’ll be good enough.. if people will like what I turn into; how I might look to others… pretentious or stupid, a dreamer or just different; if I will lose friends; if I will make new friends and what that will be like; if we’ll have enough money to continue supporting ourselves and our children the way we want; how we will take care of medical insurance; that we don’t know how to do a specific part of the thing; that we don’t have enough money to invest; that we don’t have enough time; that we will be missing out on opportunities to spend with our children while working on this project; that it won’t be supported by my husband/partner; that I might fail like I have in the past; that I will fail like someone else I know who failed; that I just don’t know enough; that I don’t have the competency; that I don’t have the knowledge.

Gosh… how depressing.  Reading through something like that, the thoughts spinning around in my head, might make anyone want to just give up and be left stuck without even trying.

One of my favorite passages in the Bible helps me to combat all of those negative thoughts… Matthew 6:25-34.

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I really love nature.  Birds chirping always gives me joy; being around flowers and plants makes me feel happy.  Being the worrier and nature-lover that I am, this passage resonates strongly within me.  Knowing that if I just put God first, the rest will take care of itself literally cancels out the negative thoughts and allows me to breathe again, to think rationally again, to reframe those worries as risks that need a plan of action.  Not minimizing the thoughts as invalid, but squashing the feelings that lead to inaction.

What if we reframed the worries?  What if we were ok with making a mess, getting cornstarch all over the floor, mixing something together that might not taste good or maybe did?  What if we had fun doing it, learning and growing, discovering along the way?  What if we just tried to learn and do something new. What if we made a great life for ourselves and our families along the way?

Here are some resources to encourage you this week:

This is a song I really like by Kane Brown that shares this idea of worrying applied in a love story.  It’s called “What Ifs” and shares many worries that a couple has but then it flips the script to turn the worries into positive possibilities.  I love the transformation from the negative worry cyclone into what could be:Kane Brown - What Ifs ft. Lauren Alaina

Here is a song that encapsulates the beauty of the passage above that reminds us how God holds us in His hands and takes care of us. Cory Asbury - Sparrows (Lyric Video)