Wrangler Dani

There’s a bouquet of Sunflowers on my windowsill that grin cheerily at me every morning, brightening my bower with inherent sunshiney-ness and the recollection of the great guy who gave them to me. I love sunflowers and daisies – they’re so uncomplicated and friendly. They don’t need a large portion of my paycheck or long talks or anything other than a little water and a stem-trimming every few days. Sometimes I wish my life had the same simplicity as my short-lived bouquets.

I’m a worrywart. Anyone who’s known me for any length of time knows this. I have a tendency to over-think and take too much responsibility, assuming that my every step out of line indicates a uncontrollable downward spiral.

Lately I’ve been feeling particularly weepy and last night, I realized just how far I’d gotten. After a good night of Small Group and Monday Night Football, I got home and instead of feeling joy, was overwhelmed with worry for the umpteenth time.

Some of this is normal, I know. New job, new apartment, new expenses. But what is truly at the root of this worry? Why do I isolate myself in my own misery and assume I’m alone in this?

“And who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” This reminder I scrawled on a Post-it and stuck to the side of my monitor in a particularly lucid, desperate moment this week. But I fight every day to remind myself of it. I think what really gets to me is my powerlessness. That I can’t add hours or turn things around.

So today I am “seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness,” and clinging to the promise that all other things will be added. I am wadding up my Kleenex and accepting my life for what it is – for the beautiful things I have been given and the challenges I don’t face alone.

So, please, next time I start whining and worrying about what I will “eat and drink, or what I will wear…” remind me that my Heavenly Father knows what I need. “But if God so clothes the grass (Sunflowers and Daisies) of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown away, will He not much more clothe you?”

Maybe my life could be as sunshine-y and worry-free as my Sunflowers, if only I would let go and trust Him.