“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 than food, and the body more than clothes?” Matthew 6:25, NIV
The night before my very first television appearance, I wanted to look better on the outside than my fear made me feel on the inside! A precious friend came to my hotel room that night to analyze what I was going to wear. We discovered I had forgotten the shoes that coordinated with my outfit! I was going to have to wear my tea party boots, which did not match at all! I felt my confidence quickly waning, ready to plummet to the floor.
I did not sleep well because of my worries over my silly boots. The next morning, I woke up weary and anxious, so I reached for my Bible for help to boost my spirit.
Wouldn’t you know it? That day’s reading was from Matthew 6. It was as if God highlighted its words pink just for me! The verses bear repeating for all women who worry: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life…. 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? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (v. 25- 27, NIV).
My heart leapt, and I had to praise Him: “Lord, we are so valuable to You that You echoed this ‘Do not worry’ today just for me when I was fretting about my boots.”
Worrying does not add anything positive to our lives— it robs us of joy and sends God the message that we don’t think He’ll be enough for us. Instead, God wants us to expect Him to give us courage from His Word to face our challenges.
As for my shoe dilemma? God gave me the nerve, even in my inexperience, to ask the cameraman not to show my feet, and he so graciously obliged!
Reprinted from The One Year® Sweet & Simple Moments with God Devotional published by Tyndale House.