I am not an avid coffee drinker. When I do purchase “coffee” it has so many flavorings and additives that you can’t taste the coffee very much, i.e. Caramel-Mocha Frappuccino from Starbucks. Well, there is a local coffee shack that every coffee lover goes nuts for. I, however, would rather have smoothie king in the mornings. With that being said, previously working at a church means that between Christmas and Staff Appreciation in October, I received 3 gift cards to the local coffee shack. $30 worth of coffee. With one of the cards, I did what I did last year, and gave it to someone else in the office that gets their coffee there every morning. The other two, I kept so I could give the place an actual chance. A month or so ago, I did just that. It was alright, but it is definitely for the coffee lover. A bit too strong for me, even as a blended drink. Then, today I forgot to grab my drink from the fridge so I decided, one more chance. I get to the drive-thru window and the guy tells me that the person in front has paid for mine. One of those pay-it-forward chains. Between my anxiety about going to a place I’m not used to, holding up the line due to them punching my punch card, and trying to pay with 2 gift cards, I got frazzled and dropped one of the gift cards. Which of course made the anxiousness worse and I couldn’t stand it and pulled away with my drink. I BROKE THE CHAIN!! As I rolled out of their lot and up to the main street, I found the fallen card. In my lap, kind of stuck between my legs. If I had just looked down…..

I need to restore the chain! So, I am now trying to think of how to just give the gift cards and my punch card for the shack to use until it is all used up. You can’t just walk in because, like I said, it’s a shack with drive-thru windows on both sides. Remember me saying that coffee lovers go nuts for this place? Even with two windows and a guy that walks through the cars with a tablet taking orders, both lines are always long.

Moral of the story, don’t worry so much. If anxiety is something you struggle with, like I do, it makes life harder than it already is. It turns the simplest things, like getting coffee, into a big ordeal. You can’t control every little thing, in every little situation. Don’t worry about what people may think if you don’t know something or you don’t know how to order. They don’t actually care. If it turns out they do care, they got problems too, so just pray for them people. Letting anxiety take over can ruin your day, cause you to miss important little moments, and even bring down the people around you. So, take a breath and let it be.

²⁵ “‘Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life^[a]? ²⁶ Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?'” –Luke 12:25-26