So often, we worry about things in life and situations that are out of our control.
When you are stuck on a negative story about yourself, someone, or something, ask yourself:
• Whose business are you in?
• In your story, your internal drama, whose affairs are you concerned with? Yours? Someone else? God?
"Expectation is premeditated disappointment. To live with expectancy is to repeatedly look above your circumstances, knowing God is involved in your everyday life. An expectant heart passionately believes that any day now, God just might break through!"
Susie Larson
What Can We Control?
We can only change ourselves, and even that isn't easy. We’ll never know what is best for others. Can you know that someone should go to college, even your children? Some people do not attend college and have wonderful and successful lives, sometimes contributing much to society. If your child isn’t inclined to try college right then, so be it. It’s the child’s decision, and it should be a decision they make after you help them think it through. In the case of the college decision, it’s not your business after you helped the child think it through, it’s the child’s business.
As parents, it is our business to teach and allow our children to experience failure while they are safe in our home. We do have control over what our children do up to a certain age, but then we have to start letting them benefit from or learn the hard way from their choices.
But what about God’s business? Well, that has to do with situations like whether you have a stroke or if a meteor falls on your house. You owe it to yourself and your family to try to remain as healthy as you can and take care of yourself, but that might not be enough—you still could have a stroke.
Many factors of life are beyond our realm of control and worry. Natural disasters, accidents, life decisions, raising children, growing old, etc., are matters in life where we may only play a small role, if at all. The world will continue to turn with us, and us with it. We can continue to pray with expectency that God is working all around us for His glory and our good.
Here are some additional tips to stay focused on the things you can control:
1. Learn to postpone worrying by creating a gratitude journal
2. Ask yourself if the problem is solvable - Listen to the wisdom of frustration.
3. Distinguish between solvable and unsolvable feelings
4. Practice acceptance
5. Use defusion skills to notice the brain’s urge to control and let it go.
Source:
https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/focus-and-stay-present/
https://myfaithradio.com/2024/expectations-versus-expectancy/
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