I pulled the hair out of my brush and immediately got that heavy feeling in my gut.
I moved in as close as I could to the mirror and poked around at different places on my scalp. The vitamins I was taking were not working. Although I didn’t have any bald spots, it was easy to see that my hair was thinning rapidly around my forehead. I twisted and turned my head while lifting sections of my hair hoping that different angles would suddenly make it look thick.
My son, about 8 at the time, happened to bop into the room. As he was goofing around, I lightheartedly said to him, “Stew, your mother is going bald.” He stepped closer and looked into the mirror. He smiled, raised his eyebrows, and began jigging out of the room. As he disappeared out the door, he proclaimed, “Well, at least you have hair today.”
Talk about instant conviction.
This is not a story about hair loss, it’s about anxiety. Anxiety is a killer of living in the present. As a recovering hypochondriac, I can say that anxiety over health issues has caused me to miss out on life more than once. My short-lived hair loss was just one episode of anxious thoughts causing anxious thoughts about my anxious thoughts. A vicious cycle indeed. Luckily, my son’s innocent words of wisdom disrupted my pattern of thinking that day.
While I still find myself in worrisome cycles sometimes, I am slowly getting better at it. God will make sure I have what I need today.
“Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Matthew 6:34
