I am a worrier. I don't remember when I started worrying. Maybe I have worried all my life?
As a child I remember worrying that my parents would be gone when I got home from school. Totally gone.
Another childhood worry: forgetting my homework. I remember when I got over that one. I was in 11th grade and didn't have my English homework. A feeling came completely over me that was a real eye-opener. "What would the teacher do to me if I didn't have it? Fail me? Embarrass me? Send me to jail?" It wasn't like I was in the habit of forgetting my homework. (National Honor Society)
In junior highschool and highschool I worried that no one would like me. And sometimes they didn't. Highschool probably scarred me for life. :(
Once I started having kids I worried about teaching my children, keeping them safe spiritually, physically, and emotionally. Overall I had no training or education to help me do that. That worried me too. I always clung to a statement I heard once, "I know I will make lots of mistakes but overall I want my children to know that I have always loved them." I also clung to having Family Home Evening as a way to keep my children where they needed to be.
With no "Church" background to train me it was something I worried about a lot then as I continue to do now. At least now I have my own background to sustain me having developed my own testimony and experiences.
Now I worry about adult children. I realize that I cannot "own" their problems, issues, etc. I worry about their spouses and their children. I worry about their jobs. I worry about car accidents. I worry about health. I worry about their finances. I worry if they are reading their scriptures.
Other worries: Testimonies, Robert's health, my health, my mother's health, skiing, 4 wheeling, money, travel, a clean house, broken things, ALL THAT MATERIAL IN THE BASEMENT!
Do you think I need counseling? Sometimes I think I do. Other times I just tell myself to GROW UP. What is that scripture in Nephi? Lehi says something to Laman and Lemuel like, "stand up my sons, and be men."
"Men (and women) are that they might have joy." Time to look for the joy, Janice.