Don't Worry Be happy

Don’t Worry

Worry is a warning to the mind as pain is to the body, they say. It identifies danger and the strategies to lessen risks. However, excess of this innocent and helpful ability can be tormenting to all worry warts.

It is said that the word worry comes from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning "to strangle" or "to choke." Too much worry really chokes out our life’s vitality. It can even lower our resistance to disease and cause a multitude of health, heart and digestive problems, medical research claim.

The other negative effects are obvious: it puts us in a perpetual bad mood, it hurts our relationships by making us bad company to be around, and it robs us of zest, energy and optimism to live a great life.

A Christian pastor links too much worry to mild atheism. When one worries too much, it is just like not believing that God (or a higher power) has everything in control and has our best interest in mind.

He also said that it is irresponsible to worry too much. It wastes our energy and leaves no room for creative and constructive problem solving. A reformed worrier sums it up well when he said, "Worry doesn’t empty the day of its troubles, but only of its strength."

Worry is also irrelevant because it cannot change anything nor remedy it. They say that an estimated 40 percent of things we worry are about future possibilities that will actually never happen. Other worries involve things from the past that can’t be changed (30 percent), health concerns when there is really nothing wrong (12 percent), and other petty matters (10 percent). Observers say that actually only eight percent of the things we worry about legitimately deserve our thought and concern.

Be Happy

Trust God. Particularly for things that you cannot control. We only feel safe when we are in control of our situation. Unknowns unnerve us.

Through life, we were taught to take control. Even an illusion of control is so important to us that yielding it even to God is a problem for some. It requires a leap of faith to trust that God only desires the best for us and has everything under His control.

The above condition only happens when you put God first in your life. As the Bible says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and everything else will follow." If faith is your priority then you do not worry about material things and the positive outlook seems to open up the floodgates of blessings and graces. Putting God first has a way of causing everything to fall into place.

Pressures and worries are normally part of a life where material welfare is the priority rather than the spiritual or emotional. When we give worry too much importance it becomes number one in our lives causing enormous discomfort.

Take life as it comes, one day at a time. This does not mean that you do not care or plan about the future. It just means that you should put things in the right perspective.

Ziggy, the cartoon character, once said, "The present is what slips by us while we’re pondering the past and worrying about the future", This is also the message of the Bobby McFerrin song Don’t Worry, Be Happy. When it hit the top of the charts, critics said that it was so simplistic and naive. But maybe its simple truth made it transcend culture and time. The message is striking: worry is not an inevitable part of our life. We have power over it and can completely eradicate it.

As the pastor promised, when you trust God, put Him first, and take life as it comes, you do not need to worry because God will provide you with everything you need!