It’s easy to assume our fears are telling us the truth about the future. But often, the future we’re worried about exists only in our imagination—not in the story God is actually writing.

Angel: She’s been thinking about it again.

Angel 2: I know.

Angel: She keeps imagining everything that could go wrong.

Angel 2: Humans are interesting that way. They build entire futures out of fear and then live inside them before they ever happen.

Some of the things she’s praying for arrive in ways she never expected.

– Jacqueline Whitney

Angel: She thinks worrying prepares her.

Angel 2: But it mostly exhausts her.

Angel: Does she know how different her life is going to look a year from now?

Angel 2: Not even close.

Angel: She keeps assuming that what she sees today is all there is.

Angel 2: That’s because she can only see the chapter she’s standing in.

Angel: If she could see what we see, she’d breathe easier.

Angel 2: She’d realize that some of the things she’s worried about never happen.

Angel: And some of the things she’s praying for arrive in ways she never expected.

Angel 2: So what do we tell her?

Angel: Keep walking. The future she’s afraid of is not the future that’s coming.

Jacqueline Whitney is the author Held: A 50 Day Devotional For Parents and All That You Deserve.