Be anxious for nothing.

Anxiety.  

It can rear its ugly head at the most inopportune times.  It can cripple. Disable. Take over.  Destroy. Redirect your day and your plans.  It can take over your mind. It can and will take every calm nerve in your body and eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

I don’t know much about clinical anxiety or how that’s even diagnosed.  I just know how I personally experience anxiety in my own physical body. 

It usually feels like electricity running through my veins.  I feel like my heart is beating faster than it should be, and if it’s really bad, my chest will start to feel tight.  

My brain goes on overdrive. Tickety tickety tickety tickety tick tick tick tick tick.  

Can some of you relate? 

Anxiety for me isn’t something I’ve struggled with for years, or have sought help from professionals. I know there are so many of you who have been fighting these battles for years… and had much more severe cases.

But I recognize it. And I feel it.  And sometimes, it just plain ruins my day.

Notice I haven’t said, “my anxiety ruins my day.”  I am not claiming this thing that happens to me as part of me, like my arm or leg or mind or heart.  No.  Anxiety is something that comes upon me. 

Last year, I was having a pretty anxious evening while visiting some friends for the weekend. At the time my daughters were 2.5 and 8 months old.  My husband was on tour for work, so it was just a girls’ weekend.  My friend and I were on our way to a bowling alley where she would host her daughters’ birthday party, and I admitted to her I was anxious about how my kids would do in that environment.   She stopped me in the middle of my words and said “You have got to stop claiming this as your anxiety. That’s giving it more control over your life that necessary.”  And then, like the amazing friend she is, she prayed for me…while driving… with five noisy girls in the back seat. 

Her words have stuck with me ever since.  

The words we speak… they have power. Did you ever think about that? 

You know that old saying that goes, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”? THROW THAT IN THE TRASH WHERE IT BELONGS.

Words do hurt.  They hurt when others speak them to us or about us. But words can also hurt us when we speak them over ourselves.

I began to anticipate the anxiety coming along.  

I even got anxious about being anxious.

Claiming anxiety as mine meant that I owned it.  I realized I was making agreements with myself that whenever I got into situations that triggered anxiety, I was bound to have those shaky feelings and tick-ticking brain.  I began to anticipate the anxiety coming along.  I even got anxious about being anxious.  Oh Lord, help us all.

Maybe it’s time I start claiming goodness over my life, and anticipating wonderful things to happen.  

Maybe it’s time I focus on what I do have control over, instead of what might happen in a bad situation.   

Maybe it’s time I see my life the way God sees my life: purposeful, full of grace and potential. 

Maybe it’s time…. to just breathe a little more throughout the day and speak LIFE. 

I feel like I can here God whisper to me as I write this, “Well, it’s about time.”

A few months after my second daughter was born, anxiety really started to grab a hold over me.  I connected with a few friends from church via a text group that were also experiencing anxiety triggered in different ways.  This little group has been so supportive in the darkest of times.  The funny this is, between the four of us, none of us really see each other outside of church, and hardly get time to talk unless it’s through our texts.  But when one of us is really struggling, this group is ready to rally and be strong for each other.  

As a group, we decided to read Max Lucado’s Anxious for Nothing book.  We did the Proverbs 31 Ministry’s study for it online, and would text each other our thoughts and prayers.  I truly believe reading that book, studying the Scripture of Philippians 4:6-7, and leaning on the love of these sweet ladies really helped pull me through to the other side of post-partum anxiety.

Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”  

Be anxious for nothing.

Yes.  These are the words I should be speaking over myself in those tickety-ticking moments.  These are words of life because they are God’s heart for me: to be free from anxiety and fear and to be prayerful and to have peace. 

You may be experiencing anxiety as you read this.  You may have just had a downright awful Tuesday.  If that’s so, I’m praying for you, dear reader.

And I’m believing and speaking GOOD THINGS over us all as we march on.