I have this stumbling block...

and its name is Patience.  I have spent so many years trying to run my life on my own timetable, and being a complete control freak, that I have lost all perspective when it comes to practicing patience.  I've lost sight of the art of being still and waiting patiently for God to work in my life.  My inability to control everything manifests itself in worry - which has got to be the most counter-productive activity known to man.  I woke up this morning, after a fitful night's sleep, determined to just let my worries go.  What's one more day in the big scheme of things, I told myself.  I spent some time paging through my old Living Bible which I haven't really used since college and my discovery of the New International Version.  Seek and ye shall find.  The words I needed to read were all right there in front of me.  I just had to stop, breathe and be still.

Let Him have all your worries and cares, for He is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you.  I Peter 5:7

I am leaving you with a gift - peace of mind and heart!  And the peace I give isn't fragile like the peace the world gives.  So don't be troubled or afraid. 

John 14:27

Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs, and don't forget to thank Him for His answers.  If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand.  His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ.  Phillippians 4:6-7

Fear Not, for I am with you.  Do not be dismayed.  I am your God.  I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with My victorious right Hand.  Isaiah 41:10

And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into His plans.  Romans 8:28

I know all these things.  I have known them in my heart since I was a little girl.  But sometimes I try to move one seat over and try to do things my way and go off in the direction I want to go.  When I read these words this morning, for probably the thousandth time, I felt the same familiar comfort they always bring.  I need to stay in that comfort zone - and stop trying to create my own.

A worthy goal - but a daily struggle.

If only...

it were so easy.  But I tell you, prayer is the only thing that works.  I saw myself heading for full-on worry mode today and I just prayed for God to take the burden away from me.  Within a couple of hours, two of my wayward clients called and made appointments to bring their 2009 tax paperwork by so they can file by October 15th!  I am also going to start doing bookkeeping and payroll for the longtime landscaping client who has finally realized that this once-a-year thing isn't working to his advantage.  I know there are doubters who think that the new work is just a coincidence, but I know it isn't.