the tree of problems
The carpenter I had hired to help me repair an old farmhouse had just finished a tough first year on the job. His electric mower broke down causing him to lose an hour of work and now his old truck refused to start. As I took him to his house in my car, he remained completely silent. Once we arrived, he invited me to meet his family.
As we made our way to the door, he stopped briefly in front of a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands. When the door was opened a great transformation happened.
His tanned face was full of smiles. He hugged his two little children and gave his wife a kiss. Later he accompanied me to the car. As we passed near the tree, I got curious and asked him about what I had seen him do earlier. “Oh, that’s my trouble tree” he replied. I know I can’t avoid having problems at work, but one thing is for sure, problems don’t belong to the house, nor to my wife, nor to our children. So simply, every night when I get home, I say to the Lord “I leave you hanging my problems on this tree. Please help me, Lord, to face them in the most appropriate way” . Then in the morning he picks them up again saying, “Lord, I pick up my problems again. Please help me to solve them.” The wonderful thing is, he said smiling, that when I go out in the morning to pick them up, there aren’t as many as I remember hanging the night before, thank God.
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