Fret.

"What are the odds," I said to my doctor, my eyes clouded with worry. "I have four lovely, beautiful, healthy children. When will fate step in and give me a baby that isn't perfect?"

"Perfect by whose standards?" my doctor asked. "Maybe your baby will have struggles. But that doesn't mean it won't be perfect. You are going to get the baby that God wants you to have... the baby that is perfect for you. Whatever may or may not come along with that, you'll be able to handle it."

I didn't have a specific reason to worry about my baby. I still don't. Everything appears to be healthy and wonderful and perfectly normal. And yet, I still worried. I felt as if I were waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for the fateful blow that would rock my world and send me spiraling out of control. Until that day, when my doctor basically said, "So what?"

He was right, you know. And that day was the last day I really worried about this baby. Worrying accomplishes so very little. It can kill us though, can't it? Wear us down, consume our energy, keep us from accomplishing anything productive. That day I decided I was not going to surrender to worry. I imagine my baby and I are both much healthier because of it.

I'm not a high anxiety kind of person. But there are a few things that will cause some hand ringing. My children, for example. I've been known to lay awake at night worrying about them. But that's just part of mothering, isn't it? And for me, it's nothing that a heartfelt plea to my Heavenly Father for a feeling of peace and calm in my heart, can't remedy.

Another thing I stress about? Airplanes. I love flying about as much as I love a pelvic exam. And yet, what good does worrying do? My fears aren't so severe that they'll keep me from getting on an airplane and flying to Utah for the CBC. What good does it do to fret about it?

Sometimes, legitimate concern can lead to action, which is good. But worrying... fretting when nothing can be done to change an outcome, there's no purpose in it. We will all have trials and challenges and struggles throughout our life. They may come as a series of small hiccups, or as one massive blow that near wipes us out completely. But whatever it is, whenever it happens, we WILL have the strength to handle it. We've been promised as much. So don't worry.