WHAT'S YOUR CREED?
Kathy M. Dingus

I'm sure most of you will recognize this famous statement: " I shall return."

Or how about this battle cry, "Geronimo!" If you had one statement to make about your life what would it be?

Would it be remembered years after your death? I teasingly, (but really I mean it) banter with my Mother about her Mother and her great aunts and uncles. They lived by a statement I discovered in a book recently. The statement reads like this:

"I've suffered a great many catastrophes in my life. Most of them never happened."

Do we sometimes (or all the time) feel this way? Do we wring our hands and worry over problems beyond our own personal control?

If we are given two outcomes to a problem, one good and the other bad, will we always choose the worst case scenario?

A military chaplain once drew up a "Worry Table" based upon the problems men and women had brought to him through his years of service. He found their worries fit into these categories:

Worries about things that never happened -- 40%.

Worries about past, unchangeable decisions -- 30%.

Worries about illness that never happened -- 12%.

Worries about adult children and friends (who were able to take care of themselves) -- 10%

Worries about real problems -- 8%.

According to this chart, 92 percent of all worries are about things we can't control, concerns which would be better left to God.

I think most of us are afraid to relinquish control to God, control we only think we have, in the first place. Do we really believe God is BIG ENOUGH take care of any problem that may arise in our life.

Maybe we believe HE really is capable but we don't turn over the reins to HIM. 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us that God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

God has a history of using the insignificant to accomplish the impossible.

If He can do the impossible, then why should we worry? (Mark 10:27) Faith is daring the soul to go beyond what the eyes can see. For we walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7.

The following poem always seems to put my problems in the proper perspective.

Sometimes I'm sad. I know not why.

My heart is sore distressed.

It seems the burdens of this world have settled on my heart.

And yet I know...I know that God

who doeth all things right

will lead me thus to understand

to walk by FAITH... not SIGHT.

And though I may not see the way

he's planned for me to go...

That way seems dark to me just now,

but Oh, I'm sure He knows!

Today He guides my feeble step,

tomorrow's in His right...

He has asked me to never fear...

but walk by FAITH

not SIGHT

Someday the mists will roll away,

the sun will shine again.

I'll see the beauty in the flowers.

I'll hear the bird's refrain.

And then I'll know my Father's hand

had led the way to light,

because I placed my hand in His

and walked by FAITH

not SIGHT.

Ruth A. Morgan

So when Murphy's Law rears it's ugly head:

Murphy's Law

1. Left to themselves, things go from bad to worse!

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong!

2. If there is a possibility of several things going

wrong, the one that will go wrong is the one

that will do the most damage.

3. If everything is going well, watch out! You have

obviously overlooked something.

Remember this; (Maybe we'll want to make this our creed!)

Sorry looks back,

Worry looks around,

Faith looks up!

We should never let adversity get us down - except on our knees!