like a child.

as a little girl i watched christian movie after christian movie. every week at church we would mosey on down to the church library and check out 2 books and a movie. oh my brother and i loved colby's missing memory, and we also loved psalty. that jolly old singing songbook did our hearts good. our favorite was psalty, kids praise 5. the camping adventure.

there was one part of the story that i loved far more than all the others. when two of the kids got lost in the forrest and were scared and alone, they began to sing; i cast all my cares upon you. i walked around singing that song for days, weekes, months, and years. i belted it out, and i took it to heart.

I CAST ALL MY CARES UPON YOU
I LAY ALL OF MY BURDENS,
DOWN AT YOUR FEET
ANYTIME, I DON'T KNOW
JUST WHAT TO DO,
I JUST CAST ALL MY CARES
UPON YOU

as a child it is so easy to cast your cares upon Jesus. my parents always came in and tucked me in and we said our nightly prayers together. as a little girl i simply prayed for whatever was on my heart. i cast every worry of my day on Jesus, every worry in life. i prayed the words, and i knew that He would take care of it. i prayed for God to help my aunt and uncle stop smoking. i prayed that my brother and i would have fun tomorrow, and that my dad would work hard at work. when my grandpa had cancer, i would simply pray every night that God heal my grandpa. one night as we were praying my mom noticed that i didn't pray for my grandpa. "melinda, didn't you want to pray for your grandpa?" "nope. God already made him better." i was confident, and i didn't think he needed to pray for him anymore. not wanting to squash my simple faith, my mom simply nodded her head, and probably shed a few tears. in the next couple of weeks my grandpa went in for some tests, and do you know what they found? his cancer was gone. the doctors called it a miracle. they couldn't explain it. but it seemed all the cancer was gone. he was perfectly well again.

God had answered my prayers. He heard my cries, He saw my cares, and He had answered my prayers. as a child, i knew He would answer, i knew He would take care of me. i could let go of my fears, i could take things out of my own heart and head and give it over to Him. i had faith knowing He could handle what i could not.


as i grew older, it became harder and harder to cast my cares upon Him. it becomes harder and harder for any person to do as they grow older. you lose that child like faith. you want to take control. it is not as easy to cast your cares into the great unknown. you think if you can keep that tightly wound in your had, that you can handle it better. i am guilty of this every day. i have seen a million times in my life, and in others, that is doesn't work. but ti doesn't keep me from trying. we can't take care of it ourselves, we can't do it alone. and when you try to hold on to those worries, take control of your problems, keep them clenched tightly in your fist, you will only feel more pressure, more strain, more pain. the second you let it go, you feel peace. the kind of peace that can come from only Him. and you can sometimes, almost instantly, see the doors open, and problems disappear. you can see the hand of God working His will into your life. He was just waiting for you to hand it over to Him. He likes to take care of us, He likes to answer our prayers. He likes to see us happy, and give us the desires of our heart.

knowing that He loves to take care of us, He loves for us to cast our cares upon Him, why is it so hard? why do we hold on to what we can not control? fear. uncertainty. control. lack of faith. there are a million reasons. but. but, there are a million more reasons to let it go. give it to Him. cast your cares upon Him, like you could when you were a child. feel the peace of giving it to Him. feel the joy of doing what He asks. let Go, and see what He does. Cast all your cares upon Him.


"Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you."
1 Peter 5:7

"Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart."
Psalm 37:4

"And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 18:3