Needless Worry
La Ansiedad Innecessaria
by
Mary Hunt Webb
Posted Sunday, April 30, 2023
As this young girl appears to do, I worried about my future while I was growing up. [Photographer: Siggy Nowak. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com.]
When I was growing up, my mother was a widow supporting my older sister and me on her meager salary as a secretary and bookkeeper for a small firm. After my sister married, there was just Mother and me at home. Since we did not own a car, we walked or rode public transportation. I mainly worried that a vehicle would hit Mother when she crossed busy streets while walking to catch the bus on her way to work or during her lunch hour. Her death would have made me an orphan. Since my sister and brother-in-law had their own family of small children to take care of, I worried about what might happen to me. All sorts of unpleasant possibilities filled my mind.
I received some comfort from reading about Esther in the Bible. Esther 2:7 provides this description of Esther growing up in the care of her older cousin, Mordecai: "Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died." (NIV)
Unlike Esther, I never had to face a king or encounter royal intrigue, as the rest of the book of Esther goes on to describe.
Ultimately, I was blessed that my mother lived until just before her 85th birthday. Although I did become an orphan, I had been married many years and had a grown son when that happened! I had worried needlessly! Most worry is like that because we have little control over the future.
Most of the things that I worried about didn't happen as I imagined they would. [Photographer: DFNatureAwed. Photo courtesy of Stockvault. net.]
None of us knows what the future holds. Proverbs 20:24 explains that, "Since the Lord is directing our steps, why try to understand everything that happens along the way?" (The Living Bible). When we recall worries of the past that never happened, it becomes easier to trust the Lord with our concerns when we are tempted to worry about events that have yet to happen.
We may try to point to the future, but none of us has the certain knowledge of what lies ahead. Only God knows that. [Photographer: Siggy Nowak. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com.]
BIBLE VERSES USED IN THIS POSTING
Esther 2:7 — Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died. (NIV)
Ester 2:7 — Y había criado a Hadasa, es decir, Ester, hija de su tío, porque era huérfana; y la joven era de hermosa figura y de buen parecer. Cuando su padre y su madre murieron, Mardoqueo la adoptó como hija suya. (Reina-Valera 1960)
Proverbs 20:24 — Since the Lord is directing our steps, why try to understand everything that happens along the way? (The Living Bible)
Proverbios 20:24 — De Jehová son los pasos del hombre; ¿Cómo, pues, entenderá el hombre su camino? (Reina-Valera 1960)
We can rest contentedly when we give our worries over to God. [Photographer: Dekanda Anke. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com.]
