Young Or Old, Don't Sweat The Small Stuff

Refocusing what is tiny and what is large, What is insignificant and what important, What is eternal and what temporal ...

There are enough big problems and serious stuff, to deal with in life, without allowing a Santa Clause bag of  insignificant little junk toys to capture our attention and distract us from the truly important things we should focus on. Don't obsess on little mole hills when mighty mountains rise around us to be dealt with. Things like Jesus, family, health, love, peace of mind, kindness, worship, children, the suffering helpless, and being dependable and self reliant. There are a limited number of worthy things to occupy our time, energy and thoughts without focusing on the unlimited thousands of trivial  distractions that strain our nervous systems and gain absolutely nothing but useless stress and anxiety. Everyone reacts differently to the experiences of their childhood and growing up. Some simply learn, deal with it, adjust, improve, and become well balanced adults. Others take childhood's negative memories, harsh treatment, and corrections as the causes of their adult hangups and failures. Some people are so preoccupied with their own minor, heal-able, pains that they have no room for caring about the serious pain and suffering around them.  I once knew a lady who threw a fit because her husband picked a hair off his shirt and dropped it on her newly swept floor ... on his way to visit his dying mother.

I think the failure of people, who constantly rush from teensy flaw to weensy fear to dinky difficulty, is a selfish-glitch in their "focusing mechanism". Maybe when they were taught as a child not to carelessly spill things, or to fear gnats and chiggers, or to groom themselves into beautiful, that the seed took root and grew into a phobia bush. But, then, God has obviously allowed all of us to grow up with certain idiosyncrasies and accumulated baggage. It gives us something to work on, pray about, and turn over to Him to be pruned off of our shaggy phobia bush of hyper-self consciousness.  I also believe God has allowed, due to original sin, certain built-in tenancies, inclinations and weaknesses of the flesh as something very difficult for us to give up, but which makes it worthy as a sacrifice to give Him for removal from our flawed human nature. Everyone is flawed. No one is anywhere near perfect. Most of us don't even reach the 50% level. So adjust your focus mechanism ... your critical eye ... your dissatisfaction with your life, your children, your spouse and even yourself. Don't stop trying to improve, be better, and obey the teachings of scripture, but relax in your own skin, the basic person you were born as, and accept other people for who they are. Nobody is perfect but Jesus. Not the prophets, not the Apostles, and not Billy Graham or you or me. Accept people for who they are. Do your best to set an example, as a Christian, to them. Our job is not to change people. Only God can do that. But, we can introduce them to Jesus and teach them and pray for them and even love them. So lighten up on yourself. Don't sweat the small stuff. Forget the minors and major on the mountains, and then lay down and rest and think about the good things of Phil.2:1-2.    "If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels of mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind."

There is a prayer which God inspired the American Theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr with in 1934. He passed it on to Christians who passed it on to the world. So I pass it on to you, Take it to heart and let it change the way we think and deal with life's problems. Here it is.... The Serenity Prayer:     "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference."

"To accept the things I cannot change" does not mean to approve of them or embrace them but to not become obsessed with them, miserable because of them, and neutralized by them from being an effective witness for Jesus ... in spite of them.