Worrying – It’s All Mental Clutter

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Have you ever left for a vacation and spent the entire drive/flight worrying that you forgot to pack something?

Have you ever been at work or at the store and worried if you remembered to lock the door, turn off the coffee pot, shut the garage door, turn off the lights, etc. etc.

Have you ever worried about something you had absolutely NO control over?

If you’re a human — you probably answered “yes”!!

And yes, I do think there is a difference between being a responsible, problem-solving adult, and being a constant worry wort! There is also a difference between worrying and planning ahead or being prepared.

The difference is that we often worry about things we can NOT control.

Yes, I’m talk to myself right now too!

This past week was a crazy week for us — and I found myself worrying A LOT about things I had no control over. For example:

On Monday night, a bat flew into our bedroom at 2am. We were both sleeping and it was gross. Dave got it our of our room and proceeded to fall right back to sleep. I stayed awake most of the night worrying where it might be in our house!  There was absolutely nothing I could do at 2:00 in the morning, but I worried.

We ended up finding it the next day and got it out of our house without even killing it {and seriously, I wish we had a video of us swinging our tennis rackets at this bat… hilarious!}

Then on Wednesday, we were without a toilet for part of the day. Yes, we have 3 bathrooms —  but one is under construction, and the other two toilets decided to poop out on us {pun intended} on the same day! You better believe I was worried about what we would do. Luckily my dad could fix them both within a few hours, but seriously — no toilet!

Then on Thursday, our 6 month old washing machine died. And of course we don’t qualify for the warranty because the previous owners bought the washer and dryer as a selling point right before they sold the house, so we are considered the second owners.

Yes, it can be fixed… for a price. A $300 price! More worrying… and an ever-growing pile of laundry!

Then on Friday our lawn tractor stopped mowing properly. We have a VERY large lawn to mow and the grass was already getting long. So I worried if we could fix it, how we would cut our grass in the meantime, and if we might have to buy a whole new tractor.

Dave ended up taking the whole mowing deck off and realized that the blades were totally shot. We were able to get new blades and he spent the better part of last night working on the tractor. He fixed it 🙂

Next week I have another OBGYN appointment. I’ll be almost 20 weeks {no we don’t have the ultrasound scheduled yet} and even though I know there is absolutely nothing I can do, I’ve still caught myself wondering and worrying what would happen if they can’t find a heart beat. Or what if something else is wrong with the baby or with me?

Next year we’re planning to host 2 International Students. We had these plans in place way before we knew we would have a baby. And even though we’re really excited to host these students {they will go to Dave’s school}, I still catch myself worrying if we’ll be able to handle 2 high school girls and a brand new baby.

My mind was full of all kinds of “worry clutter” this week — all things that I had NO control over.

Tell me you can relate!.

I mean seriously, I’m not going bat hunting at 2 am, I can’t fix a toilet or a washing machine or a tractor, I certainly can’t predict what will happen at my doctor’s appointment, and I don’t have a clue what life will be like next year.

So I’ve decided that I can’t keep cluttering my brain by worrying. If I can fix the situation I will; if I can’t fix it, I’ll either find someone else who can or simply move on {which is way easier said than done!}

We all struggle with worries…

Worries about our children, our spouse, our parents, our friends, our homes, our jobs, our lack of a job, debt, bills, sickness, deadlines, etc. etc.

If your mind is filled with worry clutter, let me just leave you with this:

“Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” Matthew 6:34