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Calm My Anxious Heart ~ Chapter 8

Author	Comment
mrstrishch	Calm My Anxious Heart ~ Chapter 8	Lead	[-]
Posts: 4148 (03/11/03 07:42:02) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : None WORRY IS LIKE A ROCKING CHAIR Calm My Anxious Heart - Chapter 8 How is worry like a rocking chair? It will give you something to do but it wont get you anywhere. How true this is! Even Jesus said so in Matthew 6:25-34, and tells us to stop worrying. Chapter 8 of our book addresses worry as a lack of faith. The author says: When we worry, were saying, God cant. If we are walking in anxiety, were not walking in faith. We want to be women of faith, yet often worry becomes our middle name. We know the agony of its clutches. Were familiar with the small trickle of fear that meanders through our minds until it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained. We must conquer this God cant disease. Do you agree with this? What do you worry about? We in this group deal with some pretty hefty life issues on a daily basis. How does worrying about them make a negative impact on your life? How do you overcome it as Jesus tells us to? If you have the book, read through the chapter and then come to the Bible Study Forum and share your thoughts. Dont worry if you dont have the book, wed love to hear your experiences in the area of worry. What scriptures have helped you? What insights do you have? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Trish - Daughter of the King, wife of Paul for almost 18 years, mother of Aaron ( 17 ), Jared ( 15 ), & Trevor ( 9 ), 6th yr homeschooling, SI dysfunction ('89), FMS ('91), TMJ ('02) My prayer and sustaining hope: Morning by morning He wakens me and opens my understanding to His will. Isaiah 50:4 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lebenshaus	Re: Calm My Anxious Heart ~ Chapter 8	#1	[-]
Posts: 3369 (03/15/03 18:37:01) Gold Member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Agreeing with the author, I think my greatest anxieties have to do with my children. My latest anxiety being... Steven is living in a house off campus with 5 other guys and they don't have a phone. He calls home about once every two weeks to let us know he's doing great. This is the most recent news: Since he didn't have any $ he's pretty tired of eating peanut butter sandwiches after a week. Also, he hasn't done laundry for 3 weeks because he car has been broken down for a month and he can't afford to have it fixed. He knew he needed to wash some socks when the girl from New Guinea who is used to tribal odors winced when he sat down for a class. Tho I think he needs to be following close to the food pyramid plan he's thankful for having peanut butter and bread. And tho I wish we had the $ to get his car fixed, he's thankful to be riding a bike (in 12# of snow) rather than having to walk everywhere. He's thankful he has a hat to wear on his bald head when it's snowy and cold. So, did I become anxious?? Yet bet! Then God reminded me that Steven is having the time of his life. He doesn't complain. Never has! He has endurance and strength. He is thriving on food God has given him. He has warmth in the clothes God has provided for him. I chose to NOT be anxious now. It would only feed into the anxiety that will come when one day Steven is on the Amazon or where ever his tribe lives, with no phone, no grocery stores or KMart, no wheels, and no way to call and tell us what he's doing without. The peace and comfort I so desire to keep uppermost in my life comes from verses like Psalm 91. One day a few years ago while in utter despair, God and I were pursuing each other, and the Bible came alive to me. It was not something I trumpt up on my own, it was God letting me know that He wrote His thoughts down for ME just as I know God creates incredible sunsets for me. His Word became real and I began to drink it and be nurished by it. It wasn't because of my faithfulness, but it is because of God's faithfulness. Debby "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breaths away."
EIMomOf7	Re: Calm My Anxious Heart ~ Chapter 8	#2	[-]
Posts: 804 (03/17/03 17:29:55) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Yes, I agree with the author, and I loved her idea with the "Anxiety Box"....dropping little notes of anxieties into the box and then asking God to just "take care of them". Her illustration of trusting God with her daughter and her illness by imagining herself with her daughter jumping from a tall building right into God's hands....also struck a cord with me...as that is what I have had to do with my precious boy as he left home. I could no longer know what he was doing (unless he chose to tell me). As I have always been a pretty protective mom, this was rather hard at first...but I have often envisioned Tommy falling..falling...falling...and asking and trusting God to just CATCH him ....because I couldn't do anything about anything anymore. My control over him was/is totally gone.... Loving him and praying for him is all I can do. Debby, I was so blessed with what you said about trusting God now when you can't always reach your son and talk to him ...for someday he will probably really be in some difficult situations in the deep jungles, and then you will really have to trust God... as you may not hear from him for long periods of time. I think the Lord has prepared me, too, with my daughter who is the midwife. I was so against her going to the birthing center, away from home and amongst non-Christians....and I've had to trust God to protect her from bad influences, AIDS, HIV, etc. and other things as well. (Birth can be risky for the midwives in some situations, you know.)....Well, now she is talking about wanting to travel to 3rd world countries as a missionary and minister in this way. My trusting in God is being s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d! I guess I'd have to say my greatest anxieties, like yours, have to do with my family.... Recently I had a situation where little anxieties were getting at me concerning one of my children's friends...there were little "red flags" popping up everywhere as I began to get acquainted with this person...things that made me think "This is not the kind of friend I want for my child." SO....these were the "little red flags", and I just kept asking God to take these "little red flags" and "bury" them in an invisible box and make me not think of them.. and then turn them into "white flags". These were "little red flags" that I could do nothing about, and I just had to trust that God would CHANGE this person or else "disappear" them out of my child's life....How difficult it was to leave all this in God's hands! I could do nothing about it, but God was merciful and answered my prayer! I must confess that another thing I tend to worry about is situations which would leave me without any way to get my meds...and having to wean from them "cold turkey", especially at a moment's notice. Most of the time this concern only lingers in the back of my mind, but with the war coming on, I must "Jump into God's arms" if my mind ever takes me in this direction. I would love to hear the answers that all of you came up with for question number 3 in the back of the book for this chapter! Sherry
Cindy in NC	Re: Calm My Anxious Heart ~ Chapter 8	#3	[-]
Posts: 2248 (03/18/03 09:07:17) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Well I'm not doing this study per se, but I would love to know more about this anxiety box that Sherry mentioned. I think being able to stop worrying is greatly affected by depression and panic/anxiety disorder, both of which I have. But I also know that God controls both of these, and though it's a constant struggle, I'm continuously striving to give my worries and anxieties to Him. VERY hard for me, especially concerning my family and finances. I'd never thought of it as saying "God can't", but I have thought that I need to actively remember that He CAN. Definitely food for thought today! And maybe the physical act of placing those anxieties in a box??? would help calm my panic & anxiety? Tell me more, ladies?? ~~~ Cindy in NC ~~~ "If you were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" Rev. T. Wood
mrstrishch	Re: Calm My Anxious Heart ~ Chapter 8	#4	[-]
Posts: 4148 (03/18/03 12:32:20) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Ladies, what really hit me in what you all said is that we're prone to worry about our children no matter what! Whether they're following the Lord or not, our natural instinct is to worry over them. I do think the most important thing is to realize that changing circumstances won't make us worry less... only trusting in God will. Are we willling to put our precious ones in His hands? Do we have the faith that God can, and will, do what is eternally best for them? For me, that's often the source of worry, not can God, but will He? When I'm honest about it, what I'm really worrying about is will He do what I think needs to be done in this situation. It's still a matter of faith... but more along the lines of trusting that God knows more than me, and will always do what is eternally best. The physical reminders and visualizing God working such as the author talks about are so powerful, aren't they? I loved the red flags turning to white that Sherry talked about. I visualize the shield of faith and the fiery darts of the enemy. When I start worrying and acting on my own, I've put down my shield and am running around trying to catch and extinguish those darts myself. How exhausting! I have to visualize picking that shield of faith back up and standing behind it. Like Debby said, we must make the choice... and it is a choice. I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust." Psalm 91:2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Trish - Daughter of the King, wife of Paul for almost 18 years, mother of Aaron ( 17 ), Jared ( 15 ), & Trevor ( 9 ), 6th yr homeschooling, SI dysfunction ('89), FMS ('91), TMJ ('02) My prayer and sustaining hope: Morning by morning He wakens me and opens my understanding to His will. Isaiah 50:4 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
mrstrishch	Re: Calm My Anxious Heart ~ Chapter 8	#5	[-]
Posts: 4148 (03/18/03 12:34:02) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	In answer to your question, Cindy , here is an excerpt from the book: "Heart-shaped and tied with a ribbon, my Anxiety Box sits on the bookcase above my desk. If I shake it, I can hear the pieces of paper rustling inside. When anxiety takes over my mind, I take a small piece of paper and write out what is causing my anxiety. I date th paper and put in in my Anxiety Box. As I untie the ribbon and open the lid, I pray: 'God, I am giving You this worry that's tearing me apart. As I place it in the box, I'm saying to You that it's Yours. I give it to You. You can deal with it much better than I can.' I close the box, retie the ribbon, and thank God that the worry is now His. Every time I see the box, stuffed with my worries, I'm reminded that God is carrying them, not me. Once or twice a year I open my box and read through the worries. I thank God for the ones He has taken care of. The others I put back in the heart-shaped box and entrust them to His timing." She also tells of another lady who has a beautifully and lovingly wrapped box tied with a velvet ribbon. She caried it up her staircase telling God that this package represented her child, and leaving the box at the top of the stairs, that she was entrusting him into God's hands. Whatever it is that will help you to visualize either mentally or physically handing your worries over to God, actually doing it will be a huge help! I, too, deal with depression and anxiety... the physical and mental visualization is so very helpful in overcoming. I pray each of you will find your way to trust more in God and give things over to His capable hands!!
mrstrishch	Re: Calm My Anxious Heart ~ Chapter 8	#6	[-]
Posts: 4148 (03/18/03 13:01:06) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	From the back of the book here is an assignment that we can all do, whether we have the book or not: Make three columns on a sheet of paper: What, Why, and When. Then fill out your chart with your own worries. For example: What the house payment, Why not enough money, When when I see the balance in my checkbook; What the way I look in my clothes, Why Ive gained ten pounds, clothes are tight, When when I have to change out of my sweats; What cancer, Why lump in my breast, When twenty-four hours a day. Now, after youve finished your chart, pray that God will help you make WAR on worry. W stands for what, A stands for action, and R for relinquishment. Write down each item under the What column on your chart. If there is an action God would have you take, list it. If the worry is something out of your control, relinquish it to God by casting it on His strong shoulders. Here are the three examples: A) Worry: the house payment. Action: I can call the bank and see if its possible to get a loan. Or we could take the vacation money, make the payment, and not have a vacation this year. B) Worry: the way I look in my clothes. Action: I can buy some new clothes or lose ten pounds. C) Worry: I might have cancer. Relinquishment: Lord, You know my anguish over this lump. I cant handle it. I humbles myself under Your might hand and cast this anxiety on You. Note: this is where the anxiety box would come in handy. :O) If you do this assignment and would like to share some of what youve written down, please do. We can really be an encouragement to one another as we learn to truly deal with our worries in a way that honors God and helps us live for Him.
mrstrishch	Re: Calm My Anxious Heart ~ Chapter 8	#7	[-]
Posts: 4148 (03/31/03 09:05:04) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	We're going on to the next chapter, but that doesn't mean you can't still post here if there is still something on worry you'd like to share. We're glad you're here!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Trish - Daughter of the King, wife of Paul for almost 18 years, mother of Aaron ( 17 ), Jared ( 15 ), & Trevor ( 9 ), 6th yr homeschooling, SI dysfunction ('89), FMS ('91), TMJ ('02) My prayer and sustaining hope: Morning by morning He wakens me and opens my understanding to His will. Isaiah 50:4 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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