Fruit of the Spirit - Week 5, Day 3

Day 3: A Baby! (Worry Steals Our Peace)

I remember when Christy and I found out that she was pregnant with our first child. We were so excited. I couldn't wait to find out if the baby was a boy or a girl. I was certain it was a boy. God would never give me a little girl to raise, right?

It was finally time for the appointment to find out the baby's sex and if the baby was positioned right. The Doctor started moving that sonogram thing around. I was trying to see something on the little TV screen, but all I could see was a bunch of gray squiggly lines. The Doctor asked us, "Do you want to know the sex of the baby?" Christy immediately said, "yes," and before I could prepare myself, he said, "It's a girl." I turned white as a sheet. I said, "Are you sure?" He said, "Yes." I said, "How sure?" He said, "Very sure." I said, "on a scale of 1 to 10; 10 being 'I am positive,' how sure are you?" He said, "I'll give it an 11." I had to sit down. He looked at me and said, "Are you alright?" I said, "Yea, that's great. A girl. If you were a betting man, how much would you bet that it's a girl?"

We walked out of the Doctor's office and into the parking lot to leave. We had met there for the appointment. Before I headed for my car, I told my wife that I loved her, and I gave her a kiss. She looked at me and said, "You are disappointed," and then she started to cry right there in the parking lot. I was not disappointed. God has blessed me over the years with three beautiful girls. I was not disappointed at all. I was scared to death.

When that doctor told me I was going to have a little girl, two things popped in my mind: first, boys, and then, training bras.

I drove back to the office, and my mind raced. I worried about her birth. I worried about taking care of her and feeding her, and providing the support she would need. I worried about her heart being broken. I imagined some jerk coming into her life and sweeping her off of her feet and away from me. I worried about her wedding that I was going to have to pay for. Would I like who she picked to marry? What if his parents are weird? What if she married someone who doesn't love Jesus? And then I got mad. Who does she think she is marrying someone who doesn't love Jesus!

It occurred to me I was getting mad over something that was decades away. My problem was that I wasn't living in the miracle of the moment.

Let me ask you a question. How many things have you worried about this past week? How much time have you spent this past week worried about your grades, worried about your relationships, worried about your family, worried about your life? How much time have you spent worrying about an upcoming decision or about a friend who finds themselves in a tough stretch?

This past week, how many times have you felt anxious, and you didn't know why? I mean, you knew something was wrong, but you just couldn't put your finger on precisely what it was, and then you worried that you didn't know what you were worrying about.
If you want to lose peace in your life, worrying is the quickest way to accomplish that. When we worry about our life, we are saying that God can't handle what we are facing, and you and I both know that simply isn't true.

I want you to pause for a second and take a deep breath. Go ahead and take a deep breath.

OK. I want you to focus on this simple truth. Are you ready?

GOD IS MORE CONCERNED ABOUT OUR LIFE THAN WE ARE.

Now think about that for a second. If you are like me, then you are big-time concerned about your life. When you think of all the thoughts you have had just this day, I'll bet over 90% of those thoughts were about you. What am I going to do in this situation? What am I going to do if this happens to me?

The Bible says that God is more concerned about your life than you are.

Psalms 139:17-18 (TLB) "How precious it is, Lord, to realize that You are thinking about me constantly! I can't even count how many times a day Your thoughts turn toward me. And when I wake in the morning, You are still thinking of me!"

God cares about every detail of our lives. This shouldn't surprise us. I'm the same way when it comes to my kids.

A few years ago, I bought a small fish tank for each of my three girl's rooms. They each wanted some fish to look at. They named their fish, they fed their fish, and they looked at their fish all the time. They loved those little fish.

A couple of weeks after we bought those fish, my middle daughter, Hannah, who was 8, came running into the front room panicked. One of her speckled goldfish died. She was devastated. She ran to me with tears streaming down her face, shouting, "Gabriella died. Gabriella died."

She named her fish after that character in that Disney movie called High School Musical. Now I'll be honest with you; my first reaction was to look her in the eye and say, "Hannah, get over it. Things die. I'm going to die; you're going to die. Everything dies. I mean, it was just a goldfish."
But when I looked into her eyes, I realized how much this meant to her, and suddenly, I cared about that fish too. I put her in my lap and wiped away her tears. I said, "I'm so sorry your fish died."

"How about we go into the bathroom and have a little funeral for your fish." She thought that was a good idea. I gathered the whole family together, and I let Hannah say a few words. I thanked God for Gabriella, and we talked about how we would miss her. And then we flushed her down the toilet. It was a one flush salute.

I am an imperfect dad. If I care about the things, my daughter cares about, how much more does our perfect heavenly Father care about us? So what do we have to worry about? God can handle what you are facing. Lean on Him and let your worries fade away as the peace of God guards your heart and your mind.

Time Out:

"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 important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 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? Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to his life? "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 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, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:24-34

1. According to the above passage, what are we supposed to worry about?

2. Why aren't we supposed to worry?

3. What good do you think worrying does for you and the situations you face in your life?

4. What are we supposed to do instead of worrying? See verse 33.

5. What does that mean?

6. Why do you think worrying is an enemy of having peace in your life?

7. Write down the top two things that you are worried about today.

Why not spend a few minutes and cast all your worries back to Jesus and ask Him to overwhelm you with His peace once again.