"MOTHER, ARE YOU WORRYING?"

Mrs. Carter was startled by this unexpected question. Standing in the doorway to the living- room was five-year-old Eddie, clad in his pajamas and wearing a look on his face as though he hadn't a friend in the world. She had put little Eddie to bed more than an hour ago and thought that he had long since drifted off to sleep. But there he was in the doorway, wide awake and evidently troubled, eager to have an answer to his question. At a loss at first to explain what the boy meant by his unusual query, she was soon to find out what was troubling his little heart. When she had put him to bed earlier that evening, he had confided to her one of his big little problems, for which a solution had to be found before the next morning. In a true, motherly fashion she had assured him that everything would be all right. And as she tucked him in and kissed him good night, she said: "Now, you just go to sleep – and let Mother worry about that." An hour had passed, and the lad wasn't sure that his mother was keeping her promise. Was she really "worrying about that"? Might she have forgotten? He had to make sure. And so he crawled out of bed, went slowly down the stairs, peeked into the living-room, and asked timidly, "Mother, are you worrying?" We may smile at little Eddie, but aren't we all very much like him? The Bible invites us again and again to cast all our cares, our worries and anxieties, upon the Lord. And He assures us that He will 'care for us' (I Pet. 5:7). It is because we are spiritual children that we find it impossible to take God at His Word. How often have we stayed awake at night because we weren't sure that God would keep His promise to care for us – tonight, tomorrow? Let us never forget that God's "good night" to the praying Christian is very similar to that of Eddie's mother: "Now, you just go to sleep – and let Me worry about those problems." – Herman W. Gockel