Be Anxious for NOTHING

I woke up this morning with something heavy on my heart.  I debated about writing about it on my blog.  I thought for a minute about how this has nothing to do with sewing or my business, but then again it really does.  This issue trickles in to every aspect of your life, and then somehow overtakes it all.  There is no way to dress it up. It is ugly and very controlling.  You can try to run away from it, but it always seems to find you.  Some days you feel like you have "defeated it", only to have it resurface with a vengeance. What I am talking about?  ANXIETY!  Worry is a "less harsh" word we sometimes use to make ourselves feel better.  "I'm just worried about so-and-so" or "I just worry something bad might happen".  There is nothing pretty about worry.  I know.  I've been worrying about something my whole life.  I've been using the excuse that I can't help it because "it runs in my family".  I've spend almost 30 years trying to figure out how to get over my worry and to not be anxious about everything.  I've "given it to God" about 2 million times. I've even taken medication for it at one point in my life. I've prayed and cried and prayed some more that God would "deliver" me from anxiety.  I couldn't figure out why it never really worked.  I might feel better for a few days, and then just like that I would be right back into a panic over something.  My husband even started commenting about how he had to "talk me down off the ledge" so much.  I felt like I was getting worse with age.  God finally got my attention with my sweet little girl.  I had been noticing for a while about what an obsessive planner she had become.  Every night she would ask me about our plans for every single day for at least a week out.  EVERY NIGHT.  It started to drive me crazy.  I finally got to the point that I told her we would only talk about 2 days at a time and she didn't need to worry so much.   If any plans ever changed she would be stressed.  She started worrying about her brother and her daddy and his job.  I started worrying about her.  I saw myself in her and I didn't want her to fight this all of her life.  I started praying about what I could do to help her and it was like a light bulb finally went off!  Worry is nothing but a lack of faith!  I knew a lot of things in my mind but I didn't BELIEVE them! I worried about money.  I knew God could provide for us, but in honesty, I didn't really believe that He would.  I thought I did, but I was worried.  And what is worry?  A lack of faith!  Faith is believing that God will do what He says.  He says He will provide for all of our needs.  (But my God will supply ALL your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Phillipians 4:19) I worried that something might happen to my kids or my husband.   Lack of faith again!  God loves my children and my husband even more than I do.  If I pray for God's protection over them, then I have to believe that He will protect them.  They belong to Him and anything that happens to any of us has come through His hand first.  That doesn't mean that nothing bad will ever happen, but that God is always good and He will always be with me and work everything for good in my life.  I have to BELIEVE His word!  For me, it finally came down to what I was teaching my child.  Was I teaching her to trust God? No, I was really teaching her that God can't handle anything so we need to worry what the outcome will be and try to fix it as best we can.  That is NOT what I want to teach my kids!  My attitude about worry has changed.  Yes, I still do find myself worrying.  The difference now is that when I see it creeping up, I start reminding myself of God's promises and thinking about all the ways I have seen His faithfulness in my life already.  Do you know what that is?  It's the shield of faith from Ephesians 6:16.  "Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked."  Those fiery darts in my life were worry and anxiety.  My shield of faith is what keeps them from wounding me!  My sweet girl may be tempted to worry and be anxious just like her mother, but the best thing I can teach her is that faith is her shield.  Faith is what will keep her from living 30 years of frustration like her mother did.