Tag: anxiety

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Anxiousness

Our dog Daisy hates rain and stormy weather. She responds by going under our bed or in the corner behind our end table. She barks in fear and shakes uncontrollably. I try to hold her and tell her it’s going to be okay but she continues to shake. Even hours after the rain has stopped she has serious fear and anxiety.

God reminded me that I have been much like Daisy in the past with my anxiety. Granted I didn’t respond exactly the same, but I’ve been inconsolable. God has tried to comfort me through His Word. Doctors have tried to diagnose my condition. Friends have said words of love and care. Though, when you are in the midst of anxiety and fear, you have no idea how to stop it and make yourself feel better again. It’s as if your fear and anxiety take over and rob you of truly living a joyful happy life.

For those who may have never experienced anxiety, these are some things that can happen to a person when they feel anxious over a period of time.

1.) They sometimes feel like they can’t get a full breath, which is scary. I went to the hospital quite a few times because I couldn’t breath well.

2.) They have racing thoughts that keep them from resting at night.

3.) They feel like their life is out of control. So they begin doing things to try and gain control.

The times in my life that I experienced the most anxiety were when we first moved to the Philippines. We were only there three weeks before my husband Wade began traveling for work in South East Asia. My children were 5 and 7 at the time. We were all trying to adjust to a new culture, language, a huge city, and extremely crazy drivers.

In the first year there, we experienced a bombing five minutes away from our home. This shook our home and terrified us all. Wade was traveling at the time, so it was even more scary.

We found out that the main road we lived off of was nicknamed, “The Highway of Death”. There were many car accidents and deaths that took place of this road. This made me feel afraid to get in our Toyota Revo and drive even close by.

I began to realize that we were really alone and stuck on an island half way across the world. No one really wanted to visit us because it took 24 hours or more to get to Manila. Wade’s sister Donna was the only visitor from the US we ever received in our 9 years of living overseas. I found out over time how much loneliness isolates you.

I care about how anxiety has effected your life. When have you felt the most anxious? How did you try to console yourself? How did others reach out to you at that time?

Let me leave you with this quote. “Anxiety was born in the very same moment as mankind. And since we will never be able to master it, we will have to learn to live with it—just as we have learned to live with storms.” Paulo Coelho

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Perseverance

The word that God laid on my heart today is perseverance.  In the dictionary it tells us that it is “the steady persistence in a course of action, especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.”  I was reminded today as I journaled that adversity has taught me a lot about persevering in my faith and not giving up or losing hope.  I would love to share about a time in my life when I needed to persevere.  I hope it encourages you when you are facing a trial and need to keep on going by faith.  

Back in 2007 we moved our family to the Philippines.  It was a big step of faith for our whole family to take.  Not long after we arrived we faced some challenges that lead me to struggle greatly with fear and anxiety.  We lived off of a road that the locals called the highway of death.  Buses would speed their way down the road and get themselves in tragic accidents.  A second thing that scared me was a bomb that had gone off 5 minutes away from where we lived.  A terrorist group succeeded in taking out a government official.  The sound of it shook our home.  

Those experiences left me feeling very uneasy and fearful about our safety.  As time passed I began to struggle with anxiety.  I would have anxiety attacks that would make it hard for me to breathe.  I also began to battle acid reflux that couldn’t be controlled by medicine.  For 14 months I went on a downward spiral.  It wasn’t until I went to see a dr that things began to get better. After sharing how I was feeling with my Dr. he put me in the hospital for a week.  There I met with a great psychiatrist that began to put me on the right track.  There were many times through these trials that I could have given up or quit but instead I kept a steady determination and preserving spirit.  

Today think about how you have persevered through trials.  Praise God for his hand in your life and for giving you victory in the mist of some dark and trying places.  Share your story of perseverance with a friend and see how it can spur them on in their faith journey.

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Armor of God

I recently faced a big battle with my anxiety.  My anxiety level shot through the roof.  I couldn’t keep a clear perspective of what was happening.  My fears seemed to have taken over. All that I thought or imagined came true in my mind.  Those fears were guiding my thoughts instead of the Word.  I was in a complete battle and it felt like the enemy was winning.  

Today as I look in retrospect, I am reminded of these verses in Ephesians 6.  First we are commanded to be strong in the Lord.  We can’t be strong in and of ourselves.  We need God’s strength to uphold and help us.  The 2nd command is to put on the full armor of God!  The Lord helped me to see that I face battles with very little armor.  This gets me beaten up and bruised by my adversary.  We are supposed to be wearing the full armor of God, so we can stand against the schemes of the enemy. 

The pieces of the armor are, the belt of truth, breast plate of righteousness, shoes for the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit.  Each one makes a collective effort to enable us to stand in a fight we are facing.  I’d encourage you to read over Ephesians 6 and see which elements of the armor you might be missing today.  Choose to put them and see how God will ready you for battle.