We human beings have an amazing ability to think about future events. This can be both a blessing and a curse for us, depending on our situation and our personality. It’s exciting to have something good to look forward to like a holiday or celebration – (well it used to be, didn’t it, and it will be again!) On the other side of the coin, we can be really good at anticipating obstacles and problems facing us too. Thinking through these obstacles can help us to plan effective solutions if we so choose to.
Unfortunately, when some of us contemplate the future, we have a default mode – we consider the worst-case scenario only. How many of us go straight to best-case scenario? What’s your default mode? What about your children? If you were like our family, some members are best-case scenario people, and we also had a couple of worst-case scenario people too as well as a couple in the middle somewhere.
We have certainly had plenty to be concerned about in recent months. We are facing a situation that we’ve never faced before. While many people have had individual crisis situations, we have never faced a world-wide crisis such as we currently have now. The outcome is uncertain – we have no idea what our post-COVID world will look like. Will the economy bounce back? Will there be a surge of illness as our flu season approaches? Will we still have work? Will our industry recover? The questions could go on. Conspiracy theories abound.
Considering all of this, it’s not surprising that some of us do worry about what’s ahead. There’s nothing wrong with worry as it’s a valid emotion and concern. It only becomes problematic if we worry excessively. Worrying excessively is tiring both physically and emotionally. It affects our bodies, our ability to relax, our concentration and can lead to feelings of anxiety if we let it go on for too long.
Over the next couple of weeks I’ll explore some ways we can manage our worries and provide some practical tools to help both you and your children in this area. In the meantime, what causes you to worry? If you can, try to limit some of those triggers. You might benefit from only catching up on the news once or twice a day if you obsessively follow it. Should you find that certain social media pages cause you more distress than hope, consider unfollowing them.
I’d like to leave you with a verse from the Bible this week. Philippians 4:6 contains some good practical advice. Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.
