If only a worry a day kept lice away!

God had a message for me this week. Has that ever happened to you? You know where every devotional you look at, blog you read, conversation you have seems to have the same theme/ Bible verse?

This is what it was for me this week: Do not worry

1.

So by the end of the day on Monday I was like, "Okay, God, I'm seeing a recurring theme here. But really I don't have a big worry problem, so I'm a little confused. Oh! I know there's somebody in my life with a worry problem that I need to pass this on to. Please reveal that person to me."

2.

Tuesday morning I'm dropping my daughter off at preschool and I hear a couple of the other moms from her class talking, their kids and whole families have just recovered from a bad stomach virus. And instantly the worry hits. We have not had this stomach virus. It has actually been a couple years since we've had a bad one run through our whole family of 5, but I remember it well enough to fear getting another! I begin feeling nauseous just thinking about it and barking at my kids to sing the entire ABC song while they wash their hands! But God says to trust Him and not to worry. . .

3.

A few hours later I talk to my mom who tells me that she's now "driving all over the place". She'd been restricted from driving since her seizure and that was supposed to last a couple more months. She claims her doctor is okay with her driving now. But my mom is having a lot of short-term memory issues. When I take her to run errands I have to remind her to lock the front door to her house when we leave and close her car door after she gets out at the grocery or she wouldn't do those things!! So the idea of her driving worries me! I can do nothing to stop her. Every time my cell phone rings, my heart skips a beat as I fear it will be news that my mom has been in an accident. But God says to trust Him and not to worry . . .

4.

Then I pick up my 1st grader at elementary school and he whips out a little note on yellow paper from the school informing parents that there were several cases of head lice discovered in the Kinder/First Grade hallway. . . We have never had lice and I FEAR IT! But God says to trust Him and not to worry. . .

5.

I check my son's hair and don't see anything. The next morning I go to the Whole Foods store to buy the mint spray the school note claimed wards off lice when sprayed in hair, but of course they are sold out. All the other moms from our elementary school got there first! I Google "How to keep away lice" and debate ordering expensive shampoo & conditioner or going to buy some tea tree oil. Then I read something that says these products are not tested well on children and may do more harm than actually catching the lice would! I worry about not buying stuff, I worry about buying stuff. But God says to trust Him and not to worry. . .

6.

I completely freak out my 4 year old daughter checking everyone's hair for lice that she cries out after we've put her to bed at night. I go up to see what's wrong and she whispers, "I think I have lice!" I assure her she does not and head down the stairs worrying that I've ruined her, my neurosis is spilling over and now she's as big of a nut as I am! But God says to trust Him and not to worry. . .

7.

Then there is the adoption paperwork. The dossier paperwork that I naively expected we'd be done with by the end of January. We got 2 different documents sent back to us from the lady who is helping us compile it all. They were not done right and have to be redone. Then our agency makes a mistake and sends us some very important papers with some required signatures missing; I have to call to get the correct versions sent to us. The FBI clearance we've been expecting to come in the mail any day now for 2 weeks still doesn't come. And my husband and I begin to worry. Worry that this paperwork will never be complete, and we'll be stuck in an endless nightmare of exact wording and signatures and dates matching and notaries and authentication and trips to FedEx FOREVER. But God says to trust Him and not to worry.

So stomach virus threat, my mom driving, head lice threat, lice preventative that injures my child's head, causing my daughter's potential neurosis, adoption paperwork that never ends all had me just about undone this week. And do you know what? None of them were actual problems. Just potential problems. Yet I made them problems by worrying about them!

Matthew 6:34, "Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

I'm working on it!!!

And in the mean time, if anyone has a super secret way of warding off stomach bugs, stopping their mom from driving, keeping away lice, or gaining FBI clearance for an international adoption, please lay it on me!

Find more Friday Funnies at Homesteader's Heart, Finer Things Friday at The Finer Things in Life, 7 Quick Takes Friday at Conversion Diary.