In our church's Ladies' Bible Study, we are reading a book called Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World. I wasn't able to make it to study today, but one of the chapters that we were supposed to read for this month really spoke to me.
The chapter was about worry.
I think that anxiety is a common problem for ladies of today.
Even though we are supposed to "be anxious for nothing*," and though we are told to "cast all (our) care on Him**," we worry, worry, worry anyway!
I've learned to view my worry sessions as sin against a sovereign God. In college, I would lie awake at night and worry about answers that I put down in my lab practical. "Should I have written arthropod?"
I would find myself short of breath and fighting migraines.
I worried that something would happen to my parents, my sister, and I would be all alone. I worried that something would happen to me and that they would be all alone.
When I met Mr. S, I worried that something would happen to spoil our beautiful relationship.
Pregnant, I worried about every possible thing that could happen to my baby. Now the worries are multiplied. I worry she'll get hurt. I worry about her growing up in a wicked world. I worry that she won't marry the right man.
I worry about my husband on the roads. I worry that something will happen to him and that Lena and I will be all alone. I worry that something will happen to me.
Lately, I have been trying to nip the worry sessions in the bud. Methods of attack are:
- Recite Scripture or a hymn
- Pray
- Get busy!
- Be thankful ... truly thankful instead of waiting for the "other shoe to drop."
- Read a helpful chapter from a book like the one I mentioned
When I am worrying, I can't be truly effective. Worrying cripples me, it stunts me physically and emotionally.
Joanna Weaver gives us three steps taken from Phillipians 4:7 that are easy to remember:
Be anxious about nothing.
Be prayerful about everything.
Be thankful for all things.
What about you? Am I the only worrier here? How do you combat worry in your life?
*Philippians 4:6
**I Peter 5:7
2 comments:
I went yesterday and did we ever have a precious time! And you sound just like the rest of us--if you'd been there you would have fallen right in line in the conversation. Thanks for sharing to the rest of the world what Joanna Weaver has suggested. I agree, it isn't that we women are prone to wander--we're prone to worry. Nice music--coming here is going to be soothing on the nerves.
Oh my dear, I understand just what you mean. Worry is a very big problem for me. It is such a struggle.
I agree with your methods of attack, and have used most of them myself. In fact, just last night as I lay awake crippled with fear, my heart racing, the Lord brought to my mind part of a song: "All your anxiety, all your care, Take to the mercy seat, leave it there; Never a burden He cannot bear, Never a friend like Jesus."
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