Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Thursday August 16, 2007

Yesterday's letter on lessoning the negative impact of worrying by reducing the time limit for worry from all of yesterday and tomorrow down to a day tight compartment generated numerous responses all of which agreed with the positive impact posited by Charles Shultz of "dreading one day at a time."

Janice Ramkissoon wrote:

Hi Larry, I may need to read this again, I gathered so much from it. But Austin's 'Aunt Bee' spoke with the years of wisdom. I chose to pray instead of worry, for I learned that from my grandma. Then I got married and things changed - hubby was a worrier. Of course we are now ONE and I started to focus on him instead of God - bad choice. It took our marriage the opposite direction we wanted (trying to do things on our own and leaving God out of it). I soon went back to my Lord's instructions and my husband joined me. We still brush against anxiety but we soon get back on track, because we know the benefit of prayer. That breath you take is all that matters so I believe it's best to pray. God bless! Janice

Janice is not the first person I have read after to affirm the power of husband and wife praying instead of worrying. Joyce and I will try this sometime.

J. Austin Bennett wrote:

Larry, excellent advice that is so difficult to master. I knew a great lady whom we called, Aunt Bee. She once told me this on about her 102nd birthday. "You can worry or you can pray, but you can't do both at the same time. Pick whichever one you think will do the most good." Austin

Really good advice from Austin, though I worry about Aunt Bee. What could a 102 year woman possibly know about worrying? Her advice worries me just a tad.

As to Janice who married a man that worried, could it be that he worried about whether or not she was a 'high maintenance' girl? Did he worry whether or not she would be a good cook. They now live in England so I guess as long as the food has no taste they will do alright, but I'm willing to bet he worries about the possibility of moving to France.

I'm now worried that my phrase, "willing to bet" will turn off some of my staunch Christian friends and my computer will be scorched from heated consignments to the charred walls of hell for gambling.

I further admit to worrying that in my feeble attempt to put worry in the dim light it deserves and cause you to opt for the awesome power of prayer, because prayer makes more sense, you may accuse me of making light of a serious problem. I am also forced to admit that due to the preponderance of scripture, the very words of Jesus insist that prayer is better than worry. As you can see I am working hard on dreading one day at a time.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2007 Use with credit.

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