REPEAT TO YOURSELF – “LIFE ISN’T AN EMERGENCY”
Pastor Bonnie MacDonald, SW Washington
Matthew 6:25
“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for you body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”
Matthew 6:34
“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Luke 12:25
“And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life’s span.”
Luke 12:31
“But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.”
I’ve never met anyone, (including myself) who hasn’t turned little things into great big emergencies. We take our own goals so seriously that we forget to have fun along the way, and we forget to cut ourselves some slack. We take simple preferences and turn them into conditions for our own happiness. Or, we beat ourselves up if we can’t meet our own self-created deadlines. The first step to becoming a more peaceful person is to have the humility to admit that, in most cases, you’re creating your own emergencies. Life will usually go on if things don’t go according to plan. It’s helpful to keep reminding yourself and repeating the sentence, “LIFE ISN’T AN EMERGENCY.”
Set aside quiet time every day. Whether it’s two minutes or an hour, quiet time to yourself is a vital part of life. It helps to balance the noise and confusion that infiltrate much of our day. If you just stop a couple blocks from home and take a moment to breathe in and breathe out before going on, it will make a world of difference in you and your family will love you for it. If you’re a Mom, you might just take a few minutes in the bathroom to clear your head and relax. Take a Bible verse and meditate on it. Joshua 1:8 says that if we meditate on His Word day and night, everything we touch will prosper and come to good success. You can’t beat that!
These days, life is just too serious. People are frustrated and uptight about virtually everything – being five minutes late or having someone else be five minutes late; being stuck in traffic; paying bills; waiting line; making an honest mistake – you name it, we all lose perspective over it.
The root of being uptight is our unwillingness to accept life as being different, in any way, from our expectations. Very simply, we want things to be a certain way but they’re not a certain way. Life is simply as it is. We spend our lives wanting things, people, and events to be just as we want them to be – and whenever they’re not, we fight and we suffer. We make mountains out of molehills and emergencies out of everyday life.
Another thing I have noticed is that some people spiritualize everything. We get a thought in our minds and then say God told us, and when others don’t respond as we think they should, then we become uptight. Make sure you are hearing from God, and then wait. If God said it, you don’t have to make it happen, God will.
Breathe in and breathe out and say:
LIFE IS NOT AN EMERGENCY and...
I DON’T HAVE TO HAVE EVERYTHING MY OWN WAY TO BE HAPPY
