What Jesus Says About Ebola

I hate watching the news. I seriously hate it. There is always something stupid happening somewhere, and I never feel better after having heard about it. So while I'm on the treadmill at the gym where my viewing options are limited, I watch ESPN. It doesn't stress me out. I would much rather worry about which NFL teams have injured players than worry about Isis or Ebola. Either way, it's not something I can control.

But there is literally no way to escape from Ebola madness. And I'm the type of person that worries. I think anyone who has kids instantly becomes prone to worrying about scary things we can't control. But I can really work myself up into a fine frenzy bordering on panic. And Ebola is not here. I have had no contact with it. There is no way my family can catch it now. And yet the worry. Because every new development, relevant or not, is instantly on cable news. 

I asked my husband why. Why does the media get people so worked up when very few people actually have any need to be cautious right now? And he reminded me that the news media doesn't actually get paid to report the news. They get paid to sell advertising space. And fear-mongering sells. People watch because they're too scared not to, and watching just makes them more afraid.

While whipping myself up a fresh batch of worry yesterday, I wondered what God would want me to do with all this information. What does Jesus say about Ebola? Right. Well, in that case, what does he say about worry? So I did a quick Google search and got slapped with the red letters. Here's what he says:

"And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?" Matthew 6:27

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." John 14:27

"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me." John 14:1

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." John 16:33

And this is just what Jesus said. There are plenty of other verses I could reference, but I really wanted to hear from Jesus. 

So the Bible says very little about parenting (believe me, I've looked), but there are a multitude of verses dealing with worry, It's such a natural human thing to be anxious over things we can't control in life, and things we may never even have to deal with. It comes down to this: we can either live in fear and pass that fear on to our children, teach them to worry by sheer example and make sure they think that the world is a scary place, or we can enjoy our lives and our families the way God intended and trust Jesus, our deliverer. That's the example I want my kids to see.