The Christmas holidays can be very stressful to many people, and as a worrier myself I know all about it.  This year will probably be one of the hardest years to find gifts for loved ones, since the stores and even things on online are running out.  I never liked shopping online, but think this year I will have to do it.  That way I will have gifts, and I can have them shipped directly to my family’s home.  Getting together is going to be another worry all by itself.  We might not even be comfortable going to each other’s homes.  I was just thinking the other day how much my grandchildren always enjoyed the chocolate houses that some of us made together and we probably won’t be able to do that this year either.  This might just be the year that all traditions are thrown out the window!!  So, when I was looking for something to put in this month’s Muse, I found a list of Holy Scriptures about worry and thought I would share a few of them with you.  I hope they may help other worriers like me get through the holidays too.  J
Holy Scripture about WORRY

1. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.  Matt 6:34 NIV
2. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.  Phil 4:13 NIV
3. Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint.  Isaiah 40:31 NIV
4. “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 than food, and the body more 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?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?   Matt 6:25-27 NIV
5. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves.  Luke 21:14 NIV
6. Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.  Psalm 55:22 NIV
7. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.             2 Timothy 1:7 NIV
8. I keep my eyes always on the LORD.  With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.  Psalm 16:8 NIV
9. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress; I will not be shaken.  Psalm 62:6 NIV
10. Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.  Psalm 17:8 NIV

 
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
Lisa Beretz, LLBeretz@gmail.com

    “Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” wrote Paul (Ephesians 5:20).  Did he really say give thanks for “everything”?  I guess, then, that means everything.  So easy to say, so hard to do!
But Jesus gave us an example to follow, for He gave thanks in the blackest of circumstances:  He gave thanks for the bread and wine that He served His disciples at their last meal before His death.  These things represented His own body and blood!

“While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it. . . saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.’  Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them. . .” (Matthew 26:26-27, emphasis added)
How could He thank the Father for His own broken body and spilled blood?  The only possible way:  by looking at suffering and death with eyes that saw from an eternal perspective.
Isn’t it the same for you and me?  The only way we can always be thankful is to look at the tough circumstances from God’s perspective.  No doubt that’s what the phrase “giving thanks. . . in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” means.
I think that if David, the writer of so many psalms, had lived today, he might have written a praise psalm something like this:

Praise the Lord.
Praise God in the glorious sunshine;
Praise Him in the freezing drizzle.
Praise Him as you drive to church;
Praise Him as you drive to the dentist.
Praise Him in the checkout line;
Praise Him in freeway traffic.
 
Praise God on the job;
Praise Him on vacation.
Praise Him on payday and as you make the house payment.
 
Praise God when you open your eyes in the morning;
Praise Him when you can’t shut them at night.
Praise Him for take-out food and elegant dinners.
Praise Him for computers and e-mail.
Praise God when you’re 13
Praise God when you’re 93.
Praise Him in the racket of a family gathering;
Praise Him in the quietness of a lonely room.
Praise God on the CD player and the car stereo;
Praise Him with French horn or drums or kazoo.
Praise Him with your heart and voice---or in silence.
 
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
 
The day that lies ahead of you, or the one you just finished, may be stormy and overcast.  But William A. Ward, a Texas newspaper editor, once said, “God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today.  Have you used one to say ‘Thank You’?”                                                                                                 

(Author, Darlene Sala)
 
Blessings and Happy Thanksgiving, Lisa Beretz, 518-330-9277