Reflections on Matthew 6:34

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I struggled with picking a specific verse to reflect on out of Matthew 6.  So many of the verses hit close to home, and so many thoughts around my own life, where I’m going wrong, and what I’m perhaps doing right, hence why I found this hard.

But I decided, for now, to reflect more on verse 34, because I plead guilty to this.  I’m a natural born worrier.  And have been called this as well by many, strangers as well as friends.  And people constantly remind me to stop worrying. 

I had grey hair by the age of ten because of all that I worried about, and in the moments I stopped worrying, I worried that I should be worrying about something.  Yes, I’m THAT person!

As a child, I worried about my health, my studies, whether or not my father was going to be drunk when I got home, whether or not my mother would be home or working.  I worried if my mother would even be alive by the next day due to how risky her choice of work was.

I would worry about my next visit to the hospital and worry about what the doctors would do to me whilst I’m there.  I would worry about school and if there was a PE class, and, being not very athletic, I worried how I would cope in the class or if I could get out of it.

In my teen years, on top of those worries that dragged on from my childhood, I would worry about the bullies and what they would do to me each day I went to school, would they bash me again or leave me be.

I worried about my journey to and from school and the risk factors involved.  There was a time when we moved closer to a beach in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney, and I was still attending a school 2 hours away in the Western suburbs.  The multiple transport switches were a constant worry for me.

Then in my late teens and early 20s, when my mother split up with my father and moved in with a de facto partner who later became abusive, I was constantly worried about him, how he was going to treat me when I came home, or how he was going to treat my mum.

I worried about my furkids, for their safety and for the constant fear as mum’s partner would always threaten to get rid of them.

Between my 30s-50s, I constantly worry about finances, the health of my furbabies, my own health issues, the Gov’t department whose residence I live in, my neighbours, my friends, I worry if I’ve done anything to upset anyone I know and I especially worry about what each day will bring.

I don’t think I even know how not to worry.

So to read this verse again, “do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself”, a verse that’s been turned into a social media meme, a verse that many others live by, I’m reminded that it’s something God has said and I should remember that if I really wish to obey God and to put all my faith in Him as I always claim to do, I need to learn to stop worrying.

Easier said than done, I fear this habit has become part of my OCD now, and perhaps, it’s my constant worrying and stress that’s caused the infinite physical health problems that I now have.

Perhaps it is time, I put my belief where my thoughts are, by placing more faith in God, and to stop worrying about what God would see as the little things in my life.

How about you?  What have you been worried about?  Would you trust God enough to give him your worries also?