Some people are not satisfied to
have a worry tree, and to permit it to grow as it will.
They fertilize
it and water it.
Oh, they do not mean to do this! Nevertheless
they do it.
They would like to be rid of their worries. Very often they
worry over their worries.
I once knew a woman who was so given
to worry that when everything was going well and she could find nothing to
worry about...she would worry because she thought things were going too
well, and would certainly change for the worse.
Nor is she the only person
of this sort I have seen.
But how do we fertilize the worry
tree?
There are many ways. Some of them we shall recount...
First: We increase our worries by failure to face the facts calmly.
We are
like some horses. We become frightened at some things which have in them
nothing that ought to frighten us.
When we come to realize this, we are
sometimes quite ashamed of ourselves.
When there is a threatening or
unpleasant prospect before us and we are tempted to worry over it - we
should not allow ourselves to become excited or agitated.
We can meet things
in calmness, better than we can when agitated; when we are masters of
ourselves better - than when we are the prey of our fears.
We should face the facts...all the
facts.
We should not merely take note of the ones that oppress our feelings
most.
Our tendency naturally is to look at the worst side, to be impressed
by the most threatening elements, and to overlook the favorable ones.
We are
influenced by our feelings more than by sound judgment; and by our
fears, more than by our courage.
Troubles often look much worse than they
are.
In fact, we can usually bear them better than we suppose we can - but
we are naturally disposed to take one look at any threat, then fear the
worst.
One of old said, "I feared a fear..."and it came upon me."
Why did his fear come upon him?
Because fear made him
adopt an attitude that opened a way for its coming.
He threw down his shield
of faith.
He began to tremble and shrink.
If he had resolutely faced his
fear...then it probably would never have come upon him.
Failure to give weight to the facts
we know, will fertilize the worry tree.
Very often we know that we can meet
trouble if we will.
We know there are certain favorable aspects that we
should consider.
But instead of giving attention to these, we look entirely
at the unfavorable appearances.
We forget that the weapons of our warfare
are mighty through God.
We are like a soldier who told of an
experience he had in our Civil War.
One day he was riding out with a comrade
when suddenly they came face to face with two of the enemy.
There was a
lively exchange of shots.
In the end one of the enemy lay dead upon the
ground, while the other was severely wounded.
Upon returning to camp this
man examined his revolver.
To his surprise not a shot had been fired.
His
companion had done all the shooting that had overcome their enemies.
He had
sat on his horse like a statue, fearfully forgetting all about his part.
I think that all too many of us,
when we face a conflict - forget our weapons and the ability we have to use
them, and instead of fighting we worry, and worry.
Second:
Another mistake we make, is giving way to our feelings rather than
controlling them.
Our emotions are easily stirred, whether they be
joyful emotions or the opposite.
Very often bad feelings assert themselves...fear, doubts, timidity, foreboding.
We give place to them.
We let them run
riot.
We fall into a panic.
We should take command of our
feelings. We should master them.
Our action should be a response to good
judgment instead of to our emotions.
Many people are tormented by the
foreboding of evils to come, and these forebodings are the source of
disturbances in all the faculties.
This need not be if we will control
ourselves and make the intellect rather than the emotions, the captain of
our soul.
Third:
We fertilize the worry tree, by exaggerating the possibilities of
evil and by not considering the probabilities of good.
When we are
threatened with some evil, let us ask ourselves the question, "Will this
thing necessarily turn out evil?
Will it necessarily prove to be what it
looks as though it might be?
Will the results assuredly be what they promise
to be?"
Let us look at the factors that may
balance these possibilities.
Let us give due weight to the possibilities on
the positive side.
Let us ask ourselves whether we are not adding to
the real dangers by our imagination.
Let us see if we are not
magnifying the chances of things going wrong.
Strip the circumstances of the
seeming and get down to the reality.
They will usually be
found to be much less dangerous than they appear, and we shall see that
there is little if any cause to fear them.
Fourth:
A fertile source of trouble is self-pity.
I know of nothing that can
torture a soul more than self-pity...
And this self-pity has in it an element
of cowardice.
We say, "Oh, it is too bad that I must suffer so.
It is too
bad that I must have such trouble.
How unfortunate I am!
How much trouble I
have to endure!
Why can I not get along easily as do others?
Why must my
way be so rough?
Why must I meet so many difficulties?
Oh, my
poor self! What shall I do?
If one wants to make himself
thoroughly unhappy...let him adopt such a course.
It matters not whether
there is anything really calculated to produce unhappiness.
Self-pity of
itself is sufficient to make us miserable.
Get rid of self-pity if you want
to be happy, for you never will be happy while you have it...except with
that poor sort of satisfaction which comes through feeling sorry for one's
self.
Fifth:
A twin sister to self-pity is a disposition to seek the sympathy of
others and to enjoy telling our troubles, magnifying them in a way to excite
sympathy.
These things shrivel up the soul.
We often increase our fears and
troubles by telling them to others.
The more we think of them and the more
we tell them...the deeper the impression made upon our own mind by them.
Sixth: A further source of trouble is questioning the loyalty of others to
us or their interest in us and sympathy for us.
Do not expect other people
to worry because you worry, or to fear because you fear.
If we show ourselves real soldiers
and meet difficulty with courageous, hopeful, forward-looking faith, and
then things go ill with us we may expect ready sympathy.
If we show
ourselves cowards, if we whine and sniffle then to bestow sympathy upon us
would be to waste it.
Seventh:
And finally, we fertilize the worry tree by questioning God's
faithfulness and love and mercy.
Have you been fertilizing your worry
tree?
If so you have only yourself to blame if it spreads itself over all
your dwelling, and if it sighs day and night in the mournful breeze, like
the somber moaning of the pine.
~Charles Naylor~
