My favorite childhood memory is of my Dad reading bedtime stories to us. Whether he read them or made them up, they were uplifting and had a happy ending.

I realized recently that I make up stories all the time, usually in the middle of the night. My stories are not very uplifting – full of “what ifs” and “should haves.” Rather than happy endings, they inflict enough emotional pain and suffering to cause any self-respecting insomniac to run for cover!

My greatest anxiety comes from my expectations about outcomes. Expectation comes from the mind and has me hoping and wishing that what I want will show up. The difference between expectation and expectancy is attachment. Expectancy comes from the soul and – rather than forming an attachment to the outcome – motivates me to look for the good in life.

Making up stories that create expectations leaves no place for God to show up. Most of my intuitive answers come out of the silence of the question. If I can remember during stressful times, I write a question in my journal and resist the need to fill in the answer. God has many more possibilities to solve my problems than I can ever imagine! I have to be willing to sit in the silence and listen.

It comes down to having faith in God and trusting the process. Saying a prayer is far more productive than creating scary stories. God’s abilities are far more inspiring than my worries.

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26 )