Does "worrying" come with growing up?

I’ve spent the last 10 minutes on the bed with my 1 year old daughter, on the eve of her birthday celebrations. She’s been playing (I don’t know what else to call it) with her hair ribbons and accessories. She’s obviously unaware of the activities going on around her. She is without a care or worry in this world. She’s is not thinking of where her next meal will come from or where she would sleep tonight. She’s not even bothering about her party tomorrow! While her mum (mostly, I must admit) and I are busy putting finishing touches to her birthday party tomorrow, she’s all carefree. Really, I envy her. It then occurred to me that I was once like her – without a care in the world. What has happened to me? Does “worrying” come with growing up? Does “worrying” come with age?

I am sure I am not the only one asking this question. Of all the living things that God created, human beings are the only ones that worry. And we worry about everything - petrol prices, the stock market, taxes, jobs, paying the bills, marriages, relationships; parents worry about children, children worry about parents. You name it, somebody is worrying about it.!

In my opinion, the worries of a 30 year old are much more than a 10 year old. What would a 10 year old boy be worried about? Probably his grades, friends and family. A 30 year old would worry about anything – money, groceries, kids, spouse, career, societal expectations, just to mention a few. It becomes imperative therefore to make conscious efforts not to give in to worry as one grows older. Listen to the advice of the creator of the world.

"That's why I'm telling you to stop worrying about your
life-what you will eat or what you will drink-or about
your body-what you will wear. Life is more than food,
isn't it, and the body more than clothing? Look at the
birds in the sky. They don't plant or harvest or gather
food into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
You are more valuable than they are, aren't you? Can any
of you add a single hour to your span of life by worrying?
And why do you worry about clothes? Consider the lilies
in the field and how they grow. They don't work or spin
yarn, but I tell you that not even Solomon in all his
splendor was clothed like one of them. Now if that is the
way God clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today
and thrown into an oven tomorrow, won't he clothe you
much better-you who have little faith? So don't ever worry
by saying, 'What are we going to eat?' or 'What are we going
to drink?' or 'What are we going to wear?"

What a timely advice!

'Worry’ comes from an Anglo-Saxon word, "to strangle" or "to choke." So worry can get a strangle hold on us, and literally cut off the air supply that allows us to breathe emotionally! Worry, anxiety, concern and apprehension keep us from living our lives to the very fullest because we are filled with fear that something awful will happen. A wise man once said “Worry is interest paid in advance on something you may never own”. How true! Worry indeed is like a rocking chair. It gets us nowhere!! Worry never climbed a hill. Worry never paid a bill. Worry never dried a tear. Worry never calmed a fear. Nothing wears faster than worry.

What then can we do to be free from worry? Join me next time as I share my thoughts

Until then, keep on keeping on! See you at the top!!