- - - - Just Do It - - - -

"Peace be still."

I'm sure most of you remember the story in the Bible about Jesus calming the waters with those three words. The men on that boat were full of fear...terrified that they were going to die, and that Jesus didn't care. They even asked Him, "Don't you care if we die?" Yet, Jesus spoke three little words and that deathly storm was gone quicker than it had come.

How often do we get stressed, dragged down by problems in our life, hard times when we don't think we'll make it to the next day...? It seems, at those times, that our life is like that storm. We are terrified what will happen, and, in our minds, Jesus is simply sleeping. We continually ask Him, "Lord, do you not care about me?" What we don't understand, is that He isn't sleeping at all. He wants us to have faith, faith that HE is bigger than this storm, and that, in HIS timing (not ours) everything will turn out just as He planned.

God doesn't let our life fall apart. I've said before that, when we feel like the weight of the world in on our shoulders, like nothing is going right, like we're lost and don't know what to do next, or trying to decide whether or not to move on with a decision...it means that we haven't given all of our cares to God. He NEVER intended us to carry so much, our bodies can't handle it, our minds can't handle it..but He can. God is no less in control of our lives than He was of that storm.

My mom once told me that I am probably the most stressed child she's ever seen. I don't know what my problem is honestly. I write about giving all your cares to God, it all comes from my heart, but I don't think it penetrates my brain. I really think it's one of my "faults." However, lately, slowly, I've been doing a little bit better...for the most part. When a day comes that I'm running around the world driving from one place to another on a time crunch, I'll get really stressed. Even though everything goes just fine. lol Thinking on it, I think it comes down to my biggest fault (the one I've had ever since I was little bity.) Self esteem/worth. I guess I just think I have to do everything perfect to make everyone happy and like me, and if I fail at even once small thing, I've failed the whole day.

Slowly this year I've been working through a lot of things. I've given up SO many stressful things already, but let me tell you, my life is a journey. I'm always going to be working through things. The one thing that I think we all need to constantly keep on our minds, is that God is there, 24/7. There is never a time He doesn't want us to talk to Him, never a time He's too busy or doesn't care about what we're struggling with.

So, again, I ask you. Will you give your cares to God?

On a slightly different note here...but still partly the same...

I've been thinking lately, about how I put things off, or get scared when a chance comes up to do something. I back off and later regret not doing or saying whatever it was. So, I've been trying a new approach to my life. The "Just do it" challenge. If there's something I want to do, but am kind of scared, uncertain, or whatever the case may be, I just go for it. (I over think things way too much normally.) You know what? I've felt SO much better about myself afterwords, and didn't have any regrets about the situation! Besides, God is on my side, what have I to fear? What if you wanted to tell someone something, ask them a question, or just DO something, and that person, or you, died the next day. Would you leave this earth with regrets? You know, nobody is promised tomorrow...we're not even promised another second. You could fall over dead right now. Your parents could get into a car accident, your sibling could get shot, your friend could get kidnapped, killed, etc. What all have you not told these people? I know that when I don't tell people things, I stress about it SO much, and it keeps me awake at night, and when I do sleep, I have nightmares about it. If you're struggling with something, ask God for the strength to "just do it." Pray that, if it's His will, God will help you get out all you need to say, or that you can strongly DO whatever you need to do.

So the challenge for this week, month, year...the rest of your life, your choice...is to pray for God's guidance, and "just do it."