Do you ever get annoyed when someone wastes your time? I mean, you’re annoyed enough about whatever it is that isn’t working out the way you had planned, but if your time is wasted in addition to whatever is wrong – it is nothing less than infuriating.

I hate wasting time – It stresses me out and makes me angry. That’s probably a character flaw, but it’s so ingrained that I have been unsuccessful in ever feeling truly good about a day in which I got absolutely nothing of substance done. The problem is… it seems to be happening a lot lately.

It seems that when a lot is going on in my life that is stressful, it acts like glue, gum, or grease clogging up my mental gears. My mind begins to slow down, and I have a harder and harder time getting started, focusing, and ultimately, getting the things I want to get done – done.

What’s been holding me back lately? Worry. Stupid. Counterproductive – worry. Worry can be an annoyance. It can slow you down. It can also be debilitating.

Once I realized I was letting worry grab hold, I paused and started thinking about what all my worry could actually accomplish – like, “War, …     huh, absolutely nothing!”

Worry is a thief.  Worry is a waste of time.

It steals your joy, it steals your mind, and it wastes your time. There are plenty of things in this world over which you can have control, and there are plenty over which you have none. So, rather than worry about things I can’t control, I decided to focus on the things I can. And, little by little, I am checking off the boxes on my To Do List.

Matthew 6:25-34 ²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Psalm 56:3 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.

Romans 8:38-39 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.