If the baby was fretful all day – that would be a long tiring day. However, if they screamed and screamed, generally it didn’t last long, either it would be obvious what was wrong and it could be sorted with a nappy change or a dose of paracetamol or they would tire themselves out and fall asleep. But fretfulness could go on and on without resolution, grinding down one’s spirit, moving you inevitably closer and closer to the end of your tether.
It seems that fretting is one of the first things we learn to do. Then we go on doing it….’if only….’ we say. And these little gripes go round and round in our heads …. deferring sleep …… making us miserable …. things we can’t change. Then we say them out loud and others join us in our fretwork. Moaning about prices, presidents, personalities. Who is killed off in the soaps, choices characters make, who’s coming and going. Roadworks, congestion, taxes. Little things that gather momentum like snowballs rolling down a hill.
The big things we may act on and do something about. We may even bring them to God – convene a prayer meeting. But the little things start too small and before we realise it, they’re out of control. Wearing us down, grinding at our contentment.
Fretting is the fractious crying of one who doesn’t know his Father God. It suggests to the world the lie that God doesn’t see, or doesn’t care or doesn’t know the end from the beginning, or can’t do anything to change things. Or that we know better how the world should be.
Psalm 37:1 says ‘Do not fret’ …. but ‘Trust in the Lord and do good…’
Doing good is the evidence of our trust and the road to contentment. Don’t fret because you don’t see God at work, instead trust Him and do good because that is the very faith that frees Him to work.
By praying and doing good we have fretsaws to use to cut out the fretting.