My daughter loves to feed the birds.  I think she gets her love of birds from my Mom.  My Mother has always fed the birds as far back as I can remember.  In fact, one of my earliest memories is sitting at the window on a snowy day watching the birds eat at the feeder my Mom had set out.

I know my daughter has similar memories.  As a baby, just barely able to pull up, she would hold tightly to the large picture windowsill and watch the birds eat at her grandmother’s feeders.  She would drool and teeter and watch the birds longer than any toy would hold her attention.

One year we gave Sissy a bird feeder and a large sack of birdseed for a gift. We hung the bird feeder right outside her bedroom window.  She has had countless hours of enjoyment sitting on her bed watching the birds. She still runs down the hall in excitement when a particularly pretty or unusual bird stops to feed.

Now she is old enough to get the stool and fill the feeder herself. She has shown such responsibility and enjoyment that last winter when spring things were on sale my hubby bought her a pretty hummingbird feeder.  She waited patiently all winter to hang it. 

At first, it seemed that anytime a hummingbird got close to the feeder a wasp would drive it away. It looked as if every time the hummingbird showed up for a meal that wasp was there.  We were disappointed and I even asked my husband if there was anything we could do about the wasps.

 Now, in spite of the wasps, she has regular visitors to her feeder. She has been very excited and captured this picture herself. 

Matthew 6:25-27 (NIV)

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

I used to worry and stress a lot.  I lost sleep at night because of worry. A large part of our income came from self-employment.  There were so many factors to consider: weather, cost of supplies, our own health and contracts.  None of these factors were really in my control.  Of course we could plan, we could buy on sale, and we could work hard and provide good customer service.  We can eat right and get plenty of sleep, but ultimately God is in control.

Certainly no amount of worry from me will change anything.  Worry takes its toil on you emotionally and physically. I used to relax in the fact that I had a full time job and a steady paycheck.  I looked at my employer as the provider and felt secure.  I knew exactly when my paycheck would hit the bank.  But God is the ultimate provider; not me, not my employer, not my husband.

When I see the birds feeding, I think of God’s detailed provision.  When I see the wasp, I think about worry.  Does worry affect your ability to accept God’s provision for you? It really used to get in my way. We would receive a payment from a customer and I would breathe a sigh of relief and say to myself, “Okay that takes care of that, but what about this coming up?”  I could not accept a blessing from God without already starting to worry about the next need.

I could not bask in the blessing because that wasp was there. I could not savor the nectar. The “wasp” of worry drove me crazy. I still have my moments here and there, but worry does not have a hold on me like it has in the past. I don’t agree with everything Leo Buscaglia wrote, but I do like this quote,”Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.”