Tom Barnard

“Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything.”

(Philippians 4:6)

“Worry is faith in the negative, trust in the unpleasant, assurance of disaster and belief in defeat…

Worry is wasting today’s time to clutter up tomorrow’s opportunities with yesterday’s troubles.”

Walter Kelly

Someone calculated that dense fog covering a seven-city-block area, one hundred feet deep, is composed of one glass of water divided into sixty thousand million drops. I find that hard to believe, but there are many scientific things I find hard to believe. Perhaps one of my chemist subscribers can confirm or deny these numbers. But if the numbers are even close to being accurate, what they tell me is that a relatively small amount of water can really mess up early-morning traffic flow in Boston.

Worry is like that. Just a little bit of worry goes a very long way toward creating havoc in a person’s life. And most worry is wasted energy. Dr. Neil Clark Warren, clinical psychologist and founder of eHarmony declares that many things people worry about never come to pass. He quotes one survey that indicates that 40 percent of the things we worry about never happen; 30 percent are in the past and can’t be changed; 12 percent are problems other people have; 10 percent relate to sickness, real or imagined; and 8 percent are not worth worrying about. Did you notice what he said? Seventy percent of things we waste time worrying about never come or pass or are in the past and cannot be changed. Seventy percent! Like fog, that’s a lot of mist. The short solution for worry? Pray!

The Apostle Paul’s counsel is what we need to follow: “Pray about everything.” I think Paul wanted us to discipline our minds to the point that whenever we are confronted with fear about anything, we should immediately think about prayer. Let prayer be the first responder, not the last responder.

Heavenly Father, I confess that I waste too much time “cluttering up tomorrow’s opportunities with yesterday’s troubles.” I want to concentrate on things that will work today. Prepare me for the anxiety that accompanies fear by signaling to me that it is time to pray. And encourage me to pray about everything that comes my way. In the strong name of the Savior I pray. Amen.