You are more important than the things you do

I peer sleepily at the digital clock by my side. Two hours before I need to get up to start the day. I roll over and close my eyes, intending to sleep till the alarm wakes me up.

One by one, however, thoughts begin to enter my mind. First, they are thoughts of what I plan to do today. Next come thoughts of an email I need to respond to and what to say. Then there's the fund-raiser that they're going to have in church. Not now, I tell myself. Lots of time to reflect on these things later. Now go back to sleep.

As hard as I try, sleep will not come. The thoughts then start to take on a life of their own. Before I know it, my mind feels like it's racing even though there is nothing chasing it as far as I can see. The list of to-do things become not just what I need to do for the day, but for the coming weekend, then the week ahead, and the week after....

With that, my heart beats faster to keep up with the rate that my mind is going. I start to feel overwhelmed and my breath comes in short, shallow bursts. God, help!

I'm here..... I will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on me....., comes a clear thought out of the murkiness of all the other jumbled-up ones.

God's here! Relief takes over as my mind latches on to my Maker. My breathing slows down while restored peace floods my mind and soul.

It doesn't matter what I've got to do today. Or tomorrow. I just have to do my best and let God help me get through them all. What cannot be accomplished today can be done another day. There is nothing more important than being aware of Him. Of leaning on Him. Of knowing that it is His strength that I depend on and not my own.

You are important, my child......you matter to me more than the things you do.......

I smile gratefully into the darkness. As my thoughts turn to how much God loves and cares for me, I drift back to sleep without even trying to.

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” ~ Isaiah 26:3 ~