Let Go and Let God

In our house, Captain is the worrier and I am…not.

I came to this philosophy through a long, hard period of time in my life when I questioned every decision I made as well as the decisions--or motives thereof--of every person in my life.

I simply thought that my life should be on a different path than it was, and I felt it was my right to tell God just exactly what needed to happen to make my vision of an ideal world turn into reality.

Yeah...that never works out the way you think it should.  You want to hear God laugh?  Tell him your plans and see what He does.  

After years of anxiety and turmoil, the light bulb went off.  It wasn’t up to me how my life was going to go.  Well, okay, that’s not totally true.  We all have the freedom to make choices that may change the direction of our lives, but the plan, the outline, is already there.  

It was at that point that I really embraced the saying “Let go and let God.”  From that point on, worrying has been only a minuscule factor in my day-to-day life.  Just ask Captain.  He’ll mention worrying about this, that, or the other thing and ask me, “Don’t you ever worry about that?”  Nope, can’t say I do.  I have better things to do.  

Now, let me be clear.  Believing that God will provide does not in any way, shape, or form mean that I think I don’t have to put some effort into the whole process.

I realized, even when I handed the worry over to God, that I needed to have a job to earn a salary so I could pay for three hots and a cot for all of us, clothes to wear, gas in the car, etc.  Those things were not just going to be handed to me due to my unshakable faith that God was watching out for me.  

Has life been all rainbows and unicorns since my epiphany?  Nope, not even close.  There has been some big, bad stuff happen in our lives.  Trusting God does not mean thinking that nothing bad will ever happen to me again.  It does not mean thinking that there won’t be periods in my life when it seems like everything is falling apart.  

It means that I know bone-, gut-, and heart-deep that when the bad stuff happens, God will help me get through it.  Not only help me get through it but have something positive happen because I went through the crap.

Maybe the positive thing doesn’t even impact me personally.  Maybe someone I know watched as I struggled to “make it through,” and that created a greater faith, or even a brand new faith journey, in their own life.  No one has ever said that to me, but that is my secret and personal hope.  That’s how God works through us during difficult times.  Believe it.  

I hope that, in the end, someone somewhere will be better off for having known me.  Maybe someone learned forgiveness; maybe someone learned trust; maybe someone learned love.  Maybe someone learned gratitude.  

I hope that someone is positively affected by knowing each of you.  I know that I am!

Images from:
www.thesavvysistah.com
https://www.pinterest.com/kathrynpotts75/christian-quotes/
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