I wrote this for the February 1998 issue of our local Mother of Preschoolers Newsletter.
Jesus said some interesting things to his followers about worrying (this is from Matthew 6:25-34 of the New International Version of the Bible):
“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 important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 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? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 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, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, `What shall we eat?’ or `What shall we drink?’ or `What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. “
In my experience, Moms do worry a considerable amount. We worry about whether we are being good mothers to our children and we worry about their safety every time they are out of our sight (making it hard to fully appreciate those times that God gives us a break from them). But Jesus tells us not to worry. He points out that worry is useless. It does not lengthen our lives (in fact it probably shortens them by putting stress on our bodies which is unnecessary). Jesus also points out that we are very valuable to God. We can see that He feeds the birds and clothes the flowers, which are much less valuable to Him than we are, and so we can trust that He is taking care of us.
As Jesus says, if we worry about things we are no different from the people who don’t even believe in God. Jesus is challenging us to move beyond a mere acknowledgement of God’s existence, to living lives which demonstrate our faith that God, our Heavenly Father, is taking care of us. We are God’s children (through faith in Jesus, who died so that we could have a parent-child relationship with God) and God cares for us just like we as Moms care deeply for our own children and do all we can to look after them.
Jesus links not worrying with seeking first the kingdom of God. In other words, worry, which is useless anyway, distracts us and gets in the way of what God wants us to do. Let’s identify our worries (especially the ones about our children or about whether we are good Moms to them) and specifically give them to God. Then we will find we have freed up some time and energy which we can use in ways that directly benefit our children. And in doing so, we will be pleasing God and be better Moms.