Peace & the Single Mom: By Jennifer MaggioSample

How do I NOT worry?

I’m almost embarrassed to tell you this, but here goes. I like 90-degree angles, organized closets, made beds, and punctuality. I’m totally Type A in every way. In fact, I’m so over-the-top that I once finished trimming my yard with a pair of scissors when my lawn mower broke in the middle of my weekly lawn care! I am an attention-to-detail sort of girl, to say the least. And nothing seems worse to me than when the details don’t work out as I planned. Enter single motherhood. Like you, I never imagined myself as a single mother. And many days seemed completely out of control. This led to immense worry in my early days of single parenting. What if it didn’t work out? What if my kids weren’t going to be okay? What if I didn’t have enough to provide? And frankly, the what-ifs completely wore me out. I spent more time worrying than living.

Step 1 to experiencing peace as a single mom: Don’t worry about anything.

I realize that’s much easier said than done but take a look at our Scripture of the day. The Scripture doesn’t teach us not to worry about anything, except if we’ve received a cancer diagnosis, are going through an ugly divorce, or we’re parenting alone. The Scripture teaches us that we should lay down the worry for all areas of our lives despite what we are going through. I love what Jesus says in Matthew 6:24-27.

That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

In other words, what does worrying do anyway? Does it change our situation? Does it offer great insight that helps us problem solve? Does it add value to the circumstance? No. Do you know what I’ve found that worrying does? It causes physical and mental health issues, e.g., racing heart, sweats, increased blood pressure, headaches, etc. Further, it births a bad attitude within me that usually results in me being short with my coworkers or losing my temper with my children.

We know the God of all hope. We are in an intimate relationship with him. He knew us before we were born and has plans to prosper us. The temporary challenges of our present-day circumstances are just that – temporary. We must retrain our thinking to constantly lay down the worrisome thoughts as they enter and be reminded of God’s faithfulness in past seasons, taking care to thank him for all he’s done, tell him what we need, and pray constantly.

Point to Ponder:

• Make a list of the most thought-consuming worries you are facing. Make a second list of the faithful ways God has responded to similar things in a prior season.