That's certainly understandable and common, as you said. We do not worship planks of wood, nor the saints. To a degree you just have to trust us on that. We don't know what's in the hearts of others so when I say I'm not worshipping this icon there's a necessary degree of trust. We have a clear, defined understanding of what worship is. Praying that a saint intercede before Christ on our behalf isn't it. The Bible itself teaches us to pray for one another. Since we believe in more than this life we believe that the saints aren't dead, but alive in Christ. So why can't they pray for us? Why can't we ask them to pray for us? Certainly we can, and do, go directly to the Lord, but there's no reason to deprive ourselves of intercessory prayer. As for icons, God Himself became fully man. The materiality of icons remind us of that; that Christ wasn't a ghost as the Docetists argued.

Please forgive the jumbled thoughts. It's been difficult responding and juggling a toddler