HOME October 2008

The other day I found my son resistant to practicing his piano lesson. He’s just starting out so I thought maybe the drills were getting a little boring, but I pressed in to see what was causing his apathy. Now, if you knew my son, then you’d know that in itself is not an easy task.  Expressing his emotions in words is not something that happens without a lot of turmoil.  No matter how many words I try to give him, the conversation can quickly become exasperating. So, knowing that this could be a time consuming process, I settled in to listen, not only with my ears, but with my eyes and my heart.

When, at last, I got to the heart of the matter he said he was embarrassed.  You see, his next lesson was going to be a group lesson where he would have to play in front of strangers.  Notice that he said he “was” embarrassed – in his mind, the dreaded thing had already happened. The Lord helped me to show him that he was worrying about the future and it was keeping him from doing what he needed to do now. I took him to the verse in Matthew 6:34 where Jesus reminds us not to worry but to seek His kingdom.  We made a deal that he would practice his piano and not think about the next week or the next day; and when that day gets here we could talk about whether or not he wanted to play in the group.  When the day came, I didn’t make a big deal of it, I just let him know it was choice and he would have to talk to his instructor about it. I found out afterwards that he was fine with it and actually had fun!

The thing is, I am a worry wart.  I worry about whether they will ever understand fractions, will they get fired from their first job because they sure aren’t very diligent with their chores, have I ruined them for life, how much worse can our culture get, is there something I should be doing that I’m not– just to name a few.  Now, just so you don’t have the wrong idea, I don’t sit around thinking about this stuff all the time – but it does cross my mind and I don’t always lay it aside or let “tomorrow…worry about itself.” It is not always as easy as laying it aside and trusting that the Lord will take care of it. There are things that He has assigned for me to do today. But, I do need to check myself often. Am I living in the here-and-now or always looking to tomorrow?  Am I doing what I can do, today, to point them towards the Lord despite what might come tomorrow (or should I say to prepare them for what might come tomorrow)?  My son still has to practice his piano and I still need to seek His kingdom daily and align my priorities to His. 

How are you doing?  If you find yourself worrying about tomorrow, don’t forget that it is busy worrying about itself and we don’t need to be burdened with doing that!

Carolyn Martin,  President of H.O.M.E.

  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will  worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.  Matthew 6:34