Many of us remember the television show, “Kids say the darndest things.” If you don’t remember the show you probably at least have heard the expression. As a mother, I can confirm that this true. Mine are mostly beyond saying lots of the “darndest” things, but they’ve unleashed some good ones in the past.
Facebook memories reminded me of a particularly funny one recently. It was so funny to me at the time, I had to take a photo and share with others. That’s the picture you see above. That note, explaining to me that my oldest claimed to get hit in the face with an invisible bat and needed a Band-Aid, was on his my day report from daycare when he 3-years-old.
I still think it’s super funny. The mental picture of that obviously serious incident is almost too much to take. I mean do you think he didn’t see the invisible bat coming? Oh man, I can’t even with how silly it seems.
I’m at a different place in life these days. Older and wiser. OK fine, maybe just older. When that memory popped up I laughed again but then got to wondering how many times I’ve been just as freaked out over something that wasn’t real.
Don’t we all do that sometimes? We worry and fret over something that we imagine but isn’t actually real. My brain gets carried away. I assume someone did something that I perceived as hurtful. It frequently was a misunderstanding or something that didn’t happen at all.
I assumed someone was ignoring my text when in reality I forgot to hit send in the first place. Or there are the times when we decided to imagine all the things that could go wrong while a loved one is away or before we have to go to that important meeting. Personally, I’m bad about creating a dozen possible scenarios for something that is coming up. I think it’s my way of trying to be in control of the situation.
The problem with this is that it’s not really helpful. I cannot tell the future. Usually, none of what I think might happen actually happens. I may as well be asking for a bandage for my injury from the invisible bat.
I’m trying to do better to not create problems where there were none. I mean God says even the hairs on my head are numbered. He promises that if He takes care of the sparrows He will certainly take care of us. Let’s let Him do just that.
I don’t want to waste any more of my limited time trying to heal imagined hurts from fake injuries. Consider this encouragement for all of us. Let’s not jump to conclusions and make up potential problems. Instead, let’s take a deep breath, ask for God’s help and trust Him to help us avoid invisible bats.
