I've been thinking a lot about anxiety lately. To be honest, I think maybe anxiety kept me from writing a post on the actual TOPIC of anxiety. Thoughts of, "What if I am not enough" or "They are going to hate it" flood my brain from time to time. I think a lot of us can relate to that feeling. I mean we do live in a culture of comparison. A culture that spends hours on hours scrolling, tapping, hiding behind screens. We lash out at people we don't even know all because of something we are fighting inside ourselves. It's as if we forget that we are all human. All of us craving connection, wanting to feel something, wanting to feel anything. So we lash out, we get frustrated, we become people we don't even recognize. All because anxiety tells us that we aren't enough.
This past summer I had a really hard time falling asleep. My to do list felt like it was a mile long and for some reason it felt like it just kept growing. I thought for a long time, "If I'm busy, I'm important!" Um, sister, if you're super busy, you're probably STRESSED. Anyone else reading this convicted of that? I was so excited for the things I was taking on, but it was robbing me of my time in a major way. Therefore, less time with family and loved ones. To me that felt like my joy was being taken in a way. Scratch that- my joy was being robbed... AND I WAS THE ONE ROBBING MYSELF OF IT.
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to grow up in a different time. Maybe a time with no technology at all. How wild would that be? No Instagram? SHOCKING, haha! I didn't realize how much anxiety social media gave me until I spent a week without it. Do you know how many times I mindlessly went to go click that little app and it wasn't there? If I told you the number you'd be shocked.
(Ok I don't know the number exactly but it was a lot.)
I have thought from time to time to just be done with it all together. I pray over it, about it, for my words to resonate with someone reading, and then my dang anxiety tells me to just QUIT. "Why bother?" it tells me. "No one cares" I hear as I'm typing a paragraph. Yet, today as I am sitting here typing this I feel the urge to tell you.. I care! We all have a voice. We all have a story. Do you honestly think God made you in His image, breathed life into you, wrote your story from beginning to end with an ending that shows freedom and breaking of chains, for you to keep quiet about it?
THAT WOULD BE A NO, SIS.
If you have a voice, you can speak. You can sing, you can proclaim, YOU can point others to Jesus. God is so much bigger than our anxiety. He is bigger than our doubts, our fears, the whisper of the enemy saying to not even try. You have a mission and a purpose that is SO much greater than anxiety ever will be.
When I start to think about God's mighty hand and how he promises to protect us, anxiety feels small. So when I do feel anxious, I do a few things that maybe you can try out too.
1: I whip out my Bible and read through some of my favorite scripture. I'm reading through Isaiah again & that's a GREAT book.
2: I journal out exactly what I am anxious about. When I read my thoughts aloud they are way smaller than in my mind.
3: I seriously brew tea. It calms my nerves in a big way.
4: I pray about it!
5: I talk to a loved one about it-- and normally will get prayed over which is the most incredible thing.
6: Lastly, thank God for the reminder that He IS greater, mighty, and He PROMISES to work all things together for our good.
Anxiety was not meant for us. In fact, Jesus DIED so we had a chance to live! In no way does He want us living in chains, He is here to break them!
If I can pray for you in any way, please reach out to me so I can! Love you all!
