DON'T WASTE YOUR LIFE FRETTING OVER NOTHING

There is a great robbery taking place before our very eyes.  It is so easy, quite common really, to be all bent out of shape because someone took our parking place or didn't return a call or, maybe, forgot to pass along a key message.  Oh, how we tend to live in a touchy world of irritation and upset.

I once lived on those streets.  If I wasn't annoyed, I was angry.  And if I wasn't angry, I was injured.  And if I wasn't injured....well I seemed to walk right into yet another crisisistic disturbance...so I thought.  But a heartbreak here and a death there and I began to refrain from fretting over the tedious and the trivial.  I encourage you to do the same.

Here's my day today.  I will try to speak in vagueness for it's the weight that I wish to convey; not names and details.  A childhood friend of mine was to have been incarcerated today in a Federal Prison.  I'm heartbroken for this one and have counselled for weeks long distance.  This dear one is a treasure to me (and to so many) who made an error in judgment and it has cost this one's freedom for awhile.

And then there's another friend who is devastated over a dear relative who has been arrested and is apparently in deep trouble.  This one's heart is so broken that it leaves one hardly able to get one's bearings.  The pain is devastating.  The agony remains with tight grip.  The worry is real.  And the heartbreak causes even the simplest thing like breathing to be most difficult.  Tears are aflood.

These two would give anything right now if their worst worry was that gasoline prices went up a dime or that the clerk overcharged one of them a dollar.  Much of what one frets over would feel like a reward to either of these two if they could only suffer our very minor infractions. 

Do what you can to not waste your life bemoaning what some would count as a true relief.  We can do this...day by day.  Don't sweat the small stuff.  Rather, pray for those who are in over their hearts with the unbearable stresses that really are heavy.

Count.  Your.  Blessings.  And.  Pray.  For.  Others.  Much.  Worse.  Off.