Shake It Off

It's baseball season, and what can I say, I have officially turned into a baseball mom.  I don't have the bedazzled  "Mom of Number 4" shirt yet, but I love watching Trey play.  I also find my typically docile self often jumping up and down as Trey slides into home or yelling, "throw it to second!"   Trey is passionate about baseball, and it shows in the number of hours he puts into practice and the way he lives, breathes, eats and sleeps baseball.  Since I have been around baseball all of these years, I've picked up some of the lingo.  "Good eye" when the boys don't swing at pitches over their heads, "good cut" when they have a good swing, and "shake it off" when an error is made or someone strikes out.  I was thinking about "shake it off" the other day.  When we tell the kids to "shake it off", what we really mean is "forget about it and move on".  I've heard Tremaine tell Trey many times that if he dwells on a mistake, he can't move forward with the game.  This, in turn, may cause more mistakes.  I was thinking about how I often can't "shake it off".  Whether it be a comment meant (or not) to hurt, forgetting to send lunch money to school or pick up the dry cleaning, or  just some random thing that happens in my life that is beyond my control, I have a really hard time shaking it off.  I can't get past certain things, even if they don't have anything to do with me personally.  My kids tell me things about their friends or classmates that make me hurt for them.  I watch the news.  I carry the burdens of the toddlers and their families that I work with in my job.  I worry about my children and this crazy world they're having to grow up in.  Shaking it off is really hard for me until I read what Isaiah 26:3 says,  "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you." (NIV)   Steadfast means "fixed in direction" or "unwavering".  So, if I have my mind steadfastly on Christ, I will have perfect peace.  I will be able to "shake off" the things of this world and keep my head in the game.