Got Mushrooms?

I’ve got a lot of mushrooms lately. I’d like to say it’s all Sarah Young’s fault. But since her beloved devotional Jesus Calling is written so thoroughly from Scripture, I need to rethink that. She always seems to have been hiding behind my couch (or more accurately, in the recesses of my foggy brain), knowing exactly what I’m thinking about and what I need to hear from God.

I know I quoted from Jesus Calling in my last entry, but October 17 was another direct hit:

“Anxiety is the result of envisioning the future without Me. . . . Do not linger in the future, because anxieties spring up like mushrooms when you wander there.”

Anxieties springing up like mushrooms . . . Hmmm.I really should find a good recipe for cream of mushroom soup!

Do any of you find yourselves wandering along the same path? I’ve been thinking a lot lately about “mom mushrooms.” You know, the kinds of anxieties all moms have about their kids. How they eat, how they sleep, how they relate to other kids, how they do in school, how athletic (or not) or artistic (or not) or musical (or not) they are . . .

How quickly these thoughts run to the future. What college will they go to?Who will they marry? What career will they have?Where will they live (please, not too far away)? Will they spend most of their adult life in therapy working through issues with their moms?! 

You all know the drill. All the normal hopes and dreams and prayers for our children, which all-too-quickly lead us off the path into the mushrooms. And, of course, when one of our kids has special needs or is going through a particularly difficult time, it’s all the more challenging not to just sit down and fill our buckets with anxiety mushrooms. 

Normal mom-thinking? Yes. But also dangerous.Dangerous for many reasons, but here’s one for starters: We may miss the moments right in front of us because we’re catastrophizing our way into the future. 

In preparation for writing a new Mom to Mom talk, I’ve been asking a number of moms what their biggest struggles are. A frequent answer: ” Being present with my kids in the moment. Not being so distracted by to-do lists or technology or thinking ahead that I miss the moment in front of me.” This topic is far bigger than one little blog post. But certainly anxieties have something to do with it.

In the end, it all comes down to the first sentence in the earlier quote: “Anxiety is the result of envisioning the future without Me.” There’s a reason why Scripture reminds us again and again (no, I don’t have a verse count) that God is always with us, and that He will never ever leave us (or our kids) alone. Never. Ever.

I have a sign on my mantle that reads: ”Fear not the future. God is already there.” Some of my kids gave it to me for my study (that tells you something—yes?), but I figured I really need it front and center in my living space. I highly recommend it to you. Just in case you’ve got mushrooms, too.