The “Trouble Tree”

A

very wise man has, what he calls, his “Trouble Tree.” It is located about a block away from his house, where he has to pass it every evening on his way home.

“When I reach that tall popular in the evening,” he explains, “I leave all the troubles and worries of the day right there, ‘Let them hang on the branches if they want to.’ I say to myself, ‘I’m through with them for the day.’ And I throw back my shoulders and stir up a grin and get ready for a fine evening with my family. I used to take all my troubles home to my wife, and often they would stay with me all night, and I’d get up the next morning with a grouch. But no more! I hang them on the “Trouble Tree,” and five nights out of six they have blown away by morning.”

This man has learned one of the most important secrets of living happily. He refuses to drag his work home with him every night and spoil the family dinner, wet blanket the evening’s pleasures, and interfere with his night’s rest. He retires from business each night and starts fresh again each morning.

Try it on your way home tonight. If there aren’t any trees on your street, pick out a telephone pole!” —Selected.

Perhaps the greatest temptation that we face as Christians is to doubt the power and care of God. Even though the teaching of Jesus is very strong on this subject, there is often the temptation to doubt. This was certainly true when Jesus walked and taught upon this earth. However, the closer we get to God, the less we will worry!

Jesus taught: “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:25,26).

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34).

Did Paul have troubles? Yes he did! (read 2 Cor. 11:23-28). Did he have a trouble tree? Yes, Paul’s trouble tree was the Lord. He believed and lived by the rule, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

What about problems, heartaches, and death? He turned ALL of these things over to the Lord! “For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living” (Rom. 14:8,9).

There is not a problem too BIG for the Lord to handle! —BBBristow