Don't Freak Out Til You Have To

This was the wise advise given to me by my 14 yr. old. Before I explain why I want to share a scripture with you. Joshua 13:1 & 6b When Joshua was old and well advanced in years, the LORD said to him, "You are very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over.“I myself will drive them out before the Israelites. Be sure to allocate this land to Israel for an inheritance, as I have instructed you.”
Basically what's happening here is Joshua's getting old and there's still a lot of tribes he is supposed to go to battle with. He is then to split up the land as an inheritance among the nine tribes and half the tribe of Manasseh. There are 2 requirements here for Joshua, go to battle, split up the land.
The problem is he's getting old and cannot physically do the battle part. God is aware of that and says listen Joshua I know your old so I will do the battle part, you just do the part your still able to, the splitting up part.
This was so comforting to me. There are things God tells us to do but there are times in the plan that we are not capable to do the job. When that happens God will take over and do it Himself. The important thing is that we continue to do our part when the ball is back in our court.
Joshua could have freaked out and with good reason. He could have said how the heck am I going to battle an entire tribe I'm an old man . Instead he waited for the Lord to give the whole plan and knew he could handle the part God asked of him.
For us the plan could be anything like being a good spouse and letting God fix the marriage, or being a good employee and letting God handle our boss or coworker. It can also be like the story I'm going to share with you.
As you know if you are a weekly reader of my jewels I have elderly parents, 1 deaf and 1 confused, that I am trying to take care of. Those of you in this situation can feel my pain as it is a full time job and very frustrating. As people get old they tend to get more paranoid so even though your trying to help they fight you because they think your trying to take their stuff or their money. The funny part is when they have no “good stuff” and no money to speak of. Any way here's my latest saga.
My son and grandsons came to see me and it had been weeks since I had nana time. I was thrilled they were at my house and to be honest the last thing I wanted to do was deal with my parents. Half way into Saturday morning it happened, the phone call from mom who has Alzheimers freaking out about something. All I heard was I need you to come over NOW! My parents live an hour and a half from me so “now” is not possible.
I had her put my father on the phone to try and figure out what she was talking about and the conversation went something like this;
“dad, what's wrong?” “WHAT” “dad put your hearing aid on” “WHAT” “dad turn the phone up” “WHAT.” Need I say more....
I was now freaking out! I finally got my mother calm, handled the situation hung up the phone and took my grandsons to the pool. I was sitting on my chair annoyed that my parents were ruining my time with my grand kids when out comes my daughter.
She sat down next to me put her arm around me and said “mom don't freak out til you have something to freak out about.”
She was letting me know I got all freaked out on the phone because I thought I was going to have to drive to my parents house and miss my nana time and if I just remained calm and allowed the Lord to handle the situation, like He was already doing, I could have saved myself and my family grief. Such wisdom.
It made me think of the story in Joshua. God knew Joshua could not handle the battle part so God said He would do it Himself.
When God told me to honor my parents and help take care of them He knew there would be situations that required divine intervention and He is more than capable of doing His part. My part is to trust him and not freak out. When the ball is back in my court do my part. In this scenario He would handle the immediate problem and I would continue on my regular visits.
Had I thought of that verse when my mother first called it would have avoided the freak out part that my children and grandchildren had to endure.
So I share this jewel with you dear gems to once again encourage you. Whatever journey your on there may be times it's impossible for you to do anything. Don't freak out til you have to, chances are you don't have to freak out at all. Let God do His part and you do yours and turn your freak out to praise out. Remember, with God all things are possible!