In His Word, God adjures us to daily trust Him, to rely on Him, to place Him in the forefront of our minds as our Sovereign Creator, Redeemer, Prophet, Priest, and King. So, why do so many of us still worry?

For my own part, worry cajoles me into a false truth and a false sense of security. Because of this, I am an almost broken record proponent of reading and memorizing Scripture. My human mind and emotions may tell me many things that feel or sound truthful, but when I know the Truth about what my Creator says, about Who my Creator is, I am better able to battle sin.

Yet, how often I forget I am in a battle! I easily do the very thing Christ and the Apostles warn me not to do – I become complacent. Because of this complacency, sin readily enters my mind and my heart in various forms, one of which is worry.

In Ephesians 6:10-18, the Apostle Paul expatiates on the spiritual clothes and accessories to be worn for this battle in life, which include continual prayer and the Word of God:

Continual prayer. I am to pray without ceasing, give thanks in everything, continually praise the Lord, and ask my Father for wisdom (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, James 1:5).

Word of God. I am to saturate my mind with God’s breathed-out Word of Truth. The more I read it, hear it, memorize it, write it down, the more it becomes interwoven in my very being and has a calming effect on my mind and emotions (Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Deuteronomy 8:3, Matthew 4:4, Luke 4:4).

It is possible that worry is something against which I will continue to struggle as long as I live on Earth, but oh, how comforting it is to know, and how easier it is to battle, when I remember that God has graciously given me weapons with which to fight!

I have done my share of adventuring, and I am sure there will be more of it, but I much prefer my little Hobbit hole and my Green Gables to Neverland and Wonderland.

I am not Wendy. I am not Eilonwy, Alice, Hermione, or Anne. I wish I could be. I wish I had that desire for adventure, that zest for exploration outside my home.

Instead, I am Marilla. I am Beezus, Meg, Samwise, and Piglet. The world outside what I know can, frankly, scare me.

I am surrounded by adventurous people in my life who continually tell me that I need to just enjoy the journey, be in the moment, be excited about life and take risks, but…what if I am? What if I am happy and excited about being in the moment that belongs to washing dishes and doing laundry? What if I am excited about fixing dinner and making sure bills get paid on time?

What if that is my adventure?

Anne needed Marilla’s sense sometimes. Ramona needed Beezus’ example of being an older sister. Jo needed Meg’s consistency. Frodo needed Samwise’s reliability and wishes for home, and Pooh just needed Piglet’s friendship. However scared or unsure these friends were about adventure and excitement when they were in the midst of it, they helped our heroes because of their desire for lack of adventure. That is good, but it is also good that their hearts, the entire time, were really longing for home.

Just as the homebodies need the adventurers to sometimes push them to live a little more than they normally would, the adventurers need people who ‘keep the home fires burning’ and offer places of refuge for the weary traveler.

I’ve never really participated in Lent.

Growing up I understood the basics of Lent and wondered why I hadn’t been raised to celebrate it. I didn’t grow up in a liturgical church setting. The older I’ve become, however, the more the liturgy seems to me a worthwhile concept.

A few years ago I went to a church that recited the Apostle’s Creed every Sunday as part of worship. Some of the podcasts I listen to lean toward liturgy. I know the arguments against liturgy, but there is also something beautiful to be said for its consistency, its reminders of who each part of the Trinity is. I like knowing what to expect, and observing certain liturgies can help.

In the Church we think of the year starting at Advent, our longing for Christ’s birth, and effectually ending after the Easter celebration by remembering Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit that came to us. Then we expectantly wait again to celebrate the birth of Christ, are saddened by the remembrance of His death, joyous at commemorating His resurrection and ascension, and spurred on and enheartened with the gift of the Spirit. Over and over each year we are reminded of Christ’s being fully God and fully man, come to save His Creation as only He can and continuing His work by sanctifying us in the Spirit.

I’ve planned many times to observe Lent – to give something up for this period of time, to give of myself more. I struggle. This year I decided to read Preparing for Easter: Fifty Devotional Readings from C. S. Lewis. This book combines excerpts from his works with Scripture readings that help the mind focus on this time in the Church calendar.

Ah, yes; that time of the week most people dread – laundry day.

There are some who find it much easier to tackle laundry in little bits, say a load a day, whilst there are others who find it much more agreeable to let it all pile up, wear those loose sweatpants and that faded hoodie, and attack the mountain in one fell swoop. Depending on the day, or week, I vacillate between both groups.

The following system works well for me, even though it involves sorting which, I hear, is the bane of most people who wash clothes (I mean, apart from actually putting said clothes away…):

Cold Cycle

-Delicates (dry clean only, hang dry, lay flat to dry, unmentionables)

-Jeans

-Other (bottoms, dresses, tops)

Hot Cycle

-Cleaning and dusting rags

-Kitchen (aprons, potholders, towels)

-Other (bathroom towels, blankets, sheets, socks, underwear)

Below are a few things I’ve begun to do in order to have less wear on clothes:

-Turn things inside out.

-Wash all things on the Gentle Cycle.

-Wash everything you think might run often enough so the excess dye comes out before you wash it with a lighter fabric. This may also involve washing it by hand just to make sure there’s no more excess (although mistakes have still been known to happen – I’m just saying…).

A couple of other quick tidbits:

-If you have someone in your family who has sensitive skin or a sensitive nose, use unscented detergent in the washer.

-In the dryer use unscented dryer sheets or just use dryer balls. (I have found that dryer balls do not always get rid of static electricity, especially in the winter.)

So go forth! Tackle those small piles of clothes! Climb that inevitable mountain of laundry!

But first, tea?

I do not have what some might refer to as a ‘green thumb.’

My one foray into keeping an Aloe vera plant alive resulted in said succulent having a rather shortened life span. Despite this small setback (which lasted about five years), I decided to bring home a new succulent and try again.

The new cute little plant looks like something out of a fantasy or science fiction novel, which, of course, is the main reason I decided it had to come home with me. (Also, it looked lonely, the only one of its kind, amongst the other succulents.)

Ever so satisfyingly, it’s called a Crassula ovata ‘Gollum’ and happens to be named after the character Gollum from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Out of all the succulents I could have chosen, this book lover just happened to pick a plant named after a literary character.

Here’s hoping my little ‘Gollum’ succulent will prove as resilient as the original Gollum….

I recently completed a study on Leah and Rachel from the book of Genesis over the way comparison shaped their lives. The study sounded interesting, but I didn’t think I’d really get anything out of it, mainly because I didn’t think I really struggled with comparison. Isn’t comparison part of life? I thought. Of course I do the occasional comparing, but that doesn’t shape my decisions, my days, or my relationships.

Oh, how wrong I was.

Week after week as I did this study, I kept noticing how often I compare myself to others and in what ways: looks, home, family, work, volunteering. Day after day I started noticing how comparison rears its ugly head in my life. Night after night the thoughts of inadequacy cross my mind.

Do you know what else the Lord revealed to my spirit? This comparison I used to think I didn’t really struggle with has planted a seed of jealousy whose roots have embedded deeply within my soul and formed into the ugly tree of bitterness. Oh, how I wish I could just put a stop to comparing myself with others right now! How nice it would be to cast out that jealous seed and cut down that bitter tree!

Yet God, in His infinite, marvelous wisdom and love, has also revealed to me a verse to help combat this comparison cycle. Romans 12:15 says that we are to “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.” When I compare myself with others this command is nigh impossible, for jealousy and bitterness immediately attack and whisper into my soul. Yet, when I ask my Father for help and pray His words back to Him, that tree, that cycle, starts to die.

I am a new creation in Christ, so I no longer have to be defined by jealousy and bitterness – comparison does not have to rule my life. As the Lord says through the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17, ‘Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.’

I had two epiphanies this week – my likes and dislikes are okay and I don’t have to complete everything.

I used to believe I had to finish everything I started: podcasts, books, a sewing project, a story. This was especially true when I was listening to or reading something someone had recommended.

Just because someone suggests a podcast to me, doesn’t mean I have to continue listening to it if I’m not really enjoying it.

Just because I may have told myself I would read a certain book or book series, doesn’t mean I have to, especially if I don’t think the writing is particularly engaging.

Just because I begin a sewing project, doesn’t mean I have to continue it (or complete it within a specific time frame).

Just because I want to write a story about a certain topic or with certain characters, if the story simply isn’t working, well, it’s really okay to scrap it.

Now, sometimes I trudge through something because it’s important to someone or to myself. I can shove aside my own desires or annoyances in order to deepen relationships or develop discipline. Yet, how wonderfully freeing to know that other times I can simply say, ‘I’d rather not….’