2016 Theme for the Year: Don't Worry

I am not a resolution making person...probably because I usually fail at keeping them.  I hate feeling like a failure so I just usually don't make them.  Of course, I always have hopes and dreams about the future and what I hope to accomplish in life.  I always hope that a new year will bring many good times and memories.  Our sermon at church today was a good reminder that making ourselves a strict list of resolutions that we worry about accomplishing all year is not what God wants for us.  He doesn't want us to worry.  He wants us to trust him to supply for our needs.  In Jesus' very first sermon on this earth, he told us:  

 "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 6:25-34

I don't know about you, but I am a worrier.  You name it, I worry about it - my husband, my children, our future, our finances, the world.  Most of these things are beyond my control.  My worrying about them changes nothing.  Jesus knew us intimately.  He knew that we would want to take matters into our own hands and would have trouble trusting in God to provide for our needs.  That's why his first sermon to us was this important reminder.  He didn't tell us to "worry less."  He told us not to worry AT ALL!  Yikes!  That's a tough one.  But he promises us that God our wonderful and loving heavenly Father will supply all of our needs.  I don't know about you, but a life without constant worry and stress sounds pretty heavenly to me.  Like Jesus said, does worrying add even one single hour to our lives?  On the contrary, worry takes many hours from our lives.  Our preacher said most people probably worry an average of 14 hours a week.  For me, that's probably a low ball figure.  How many precious hours of my life am I wasting on worrying instead of living life to its fullest and appreciating the blessings God has bestowed?  So my "goal" this year is not to waste a single minute on worrying and to try to trust in God for all our needs.  I know this is a lofty goal for an imperfect worrywart like myself, but you know what they say...Go big or go home!

So although I am not going to make myself a bunch of resolutions that I would just stress over and worry about accomplishing, I do hope that with God's help, I can do more of these things this year:

Blessings and Happy New Year!