Should We Be Worried?

The economy is really starting to concern me. I know, I'm probably a bit behind in that since everyone else in the world has been worried for over a year. Until now, I didn't feel like it was really ever going to affect me or my life, and it seemed to be in the abstract.

But, it's getting bad, people! Come on, FDIC may run out of money??? Will our savings get to a point when they are not even safe in our normal bank anymore? (I'm envisioning our money stashed into our mattresses or hidden in jars in the backyard). I've known the stock market is like the downhill ride of a roller coaster, but since we have little investments like that yet, it hasn't destroyed my life or my "portfolio." It does get a bit more concerning, however, when the banks might not be able to guarantee your savings or money market accounts.

Today the headline on the news was the unemployment rate climbs to record high of over 8%. That's beginning to sound scary. It if gets to double digits, I might panic and expect mass chaos or the ending of the world as we know it (isn't that a song??). I Googled and read that in The Great Depression of the 1930's, the unemployment rate was around 20%. Hey, we're not even half way there yet . . . but everything I can recall about that time period involved people not eating meat, having rations, not using butter or sugar to cook because they were too costly, and there seemed to be lots of dust and dirt. My history is a bit rusty. I don't want to have to start sewing my family's underwear and making apple pie out of Ritz crackers!

So, what's a person to do? I get depressed reading the newspaper and seeing how many more foreclosures there are, how homes are continuing to lose value each month, how unemployment is expected to climb.

I don't have any answer that will solve these problems, and my guess is that President Obama can't solve them all either. But, we have God. I will have to trust that He will work all things together for good. I have to trust that Stuart's job will somehow work out in one year when he could lose it again in yet another political election. The reality is that God's hand is in everything . . . all the time.

So, I'll try not to worry. And . . . I did my best to stimulate the economy by dropping some cash at the new Target yesterday.