Today would have been the day that we completed our study of the book, Be Joyful by Warren Wiersbe. I got to teach two lessons and had the pleasure of sitting in on six others; falling quite short of all 13 lessons. What a great book though. The last lesson I taught was about worry...and what a perfect topic for a mother of three young boys. I could probably list about a hundred things to worry about, even with my sons at the young ages of only four and two.

Did you know that 92% of the things we worry about are either imaginary, out of our control or never really happened. Seriously? Wow. Well, I guess I can confirm that with my own experiences. I used to worry about getting into an accident on the way to work each morning. I used to worry about getting into confrontations with disgruntled customers. I used to worry about a lot of stuff that was both imaginary and completely out of my control.

I've tried not to worry much lately. Of course there are always those weak moments; like when a cop pulls up behind you and you do a 150 point evaluation of your vehicle (tail lights, fog lights, windows, mirrors, stickers, etc.), do you have your seat belt on, are you going over or under the speed limit, are your tags current? do you have a warrant for your arrest, did you pay that last parking ticket, did you take your husbands undercover weapon out of the glove-box? Yeah, I get carried away and let my instinctual fear of authority cause me panic and indigestion for a moment...don't we all?

So, the other day, I called my husband and said, "honey, I taught the boys how to climb trees!" "You did WHAT?" was the reaction from the other end of the phone. Now, I suppose there could be a few different trains of thought on this topic, so allow me to explain my logic:

1. Teach the boys how to climb up, so they are confident in their abilities and know how to do it safely.
2. Teach the boys how to climb down, so they don't get stuck at the top of the tree, panic and fall.
3. Let them fall (maybe a few inches) so that they know how it feels and will be more cautious.
4. Offering instruction on the art of climbing trees will prevent accidents and instill confidence.

You tracking? I know, it's a little far-fetched...but climbing trees is fun and I think my main motivation behind the training was to eliminate worry from the equation. Boys - kids - will find a tree and climb it at some point in their adolescence; I feel like I'm ahead of the curve in showing them the proper and safe way to do so!

Twisted maybe...welcome to my mind!