Thursday’s Thoughts from Pastor David
This Thursday’s Thoughts has me very worried!!
I am worried no one will read it.
I am worried I will make grammatical errors.
I am worried I won’t get it done in time.
I am worried about how I look as I write.
I am worried about the safety of the Loch Ness Monster.
I am worried about the recent sighting of Big Foot.
I am worried I am going to drown in a rain storm while living in Las Vegas.
I am worried I am going to die in a wing suit flying over the Swiss Alps at speeds exceeding 185 miles per hour.
I am worried I am not going to get the lead role in the next Jack Reacher movie.
I am worried about my upcoming tryout with the Golden State Warriors basketball team. I am worried Steph Curry won’t return my phone calls even though we are best friends because we went to the same college.
Please don’t pray for me.
Please worry for me!!!
I once knew a lady who told me she worried about everything. After a bit of pressing, I made the statement, “None of the things you worry about happen…”
Her response was an instant classic… “Exactly!!! That’s why I worry about everything! So it won’t happen!”
In all seriousness, worry robs the body, the mind and the heart of joy and peace. Worrying leads to high stress, depression, the speeding up of the aging process and a debilitating effect on our physical bodies.
Are you a Worrier?
I thought I would share some quotes on worry for us today…
“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.”
– Leo F. Buscaglia
“Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.”
– Swedish Proverb
“If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today.”
– E. Joseph Cossman
“People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.”
– George Bernard Shaw
“Our fatigue is often caused not by work, but by worry, frustration and resentment.”
– Dale Carnegie
“If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it is avoiding worry, stress and tension. And if you didn’t ask me, I’d still have to say it.”
– George F. Burns
“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.”
– Winston Churchill
“Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.”
– Arthur Somers Roche
“That the birds of worry and care fly over your head, this you cannot change, but that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent.”
– Chinese Proverb
“Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere”
– Erma Bombeck
“There is a great difference between worry and concern. A worried person sees a problem, and a concerned person solves a problem.”
– Harold Stephen
“People get so in the habit of worry that if you save them from drowning and put them on a bank to dry in the sun with hot chocolate and muffins they wonder whether they are catching a cold.”
– John Jay Chapman
“The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.”
– Robert Frost
“I never worry about action, but only about inaction.”
– Winston Churchill
Of course my favorite two quotes on Worrying are as follows:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
– The Apostle Paul (Philippians 4: 6)
“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?
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.
– Jesus (Matthew 6: 25-34)
This Sunday we look at Gideon as we continue our 90-day trek through the Bible.
Gideon went from being a Worrier to a Warrior…
Will you do the same?
Grace and peace,
Laugh often and Fear not!
David!