Learning to calm my anxious heart

Last week I read one of the best books I've read in a longggg time! It was called "Calm My Anxious Heart" and it's by Linda Dillow. I can think of so many different situations this book could apply to and I feel like it convicted me in several different areas of my life. I strongly recommend it to everyone because we ALL become anxious and worry no matter what your story is...this book is incredible!

"For you formed my inward parts;
   you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;
   my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret,
   intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;in your book were written, every one of them,
   the days that were formed for me,
   when as yet there was none of them." -Psalm 139:13-16

These are just a few things I learned from Linda Dillow's book about anxiety in my life...

• Philippians 4:6 says "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." What does this mean? I don't think the bible is discounting anxiety or saying that it is unnatural to have it or that we should never have an anxious feelings come up...I think Paul is encouraging us to PRAY as soon as we become anxious. I like how Linda Dillow says that we have a CHOICE to pray or be anxious. Sadly, most of the time, we (myself included!) choose to be anxious instead of pray.
• We cannot "walk in anxiety and in faith"...If we are walking in anxiety and CHOOSING to be anxious, then we are not walking in faith. It's as if we are saying that God cannot take our anxiety away...that it is somehow too much for him. But how would we know that if we haven't even requested help from him through prayer? This quote really made me think...

"The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith. The beginning of faith is the end of anxiety." -George Muller

I didn't realize how many things I am constantly anxious about until I started picking up on my nervous habit of biting my lip. Gross, huh? Deployment and the idea of not knowing where we will live in the next year are both stressful and things that I am "perpetually" anxious about, most of the time without even realizing it. And then of course you add whatever anxiety that work may be causing or things going on in relationships because we all deal with these issues! I was talking about this with some friends last night as we were talking about our husbands safety while they are deployed and the biggest thing that every military wife fears... Will my husband come home? Will he come home uninjured? A sweet friend of mine told me something that I now cling to when I begin to get anxious about Trevor being gone... as a believer in God, all of our days are numbered; my days, my husbands days, and your days. God already knows the day that he will take Trevor from this earth and if it is tomorrow, then it would have been tomorrow whether he was deployed OR home with me. God is sovereign. So as believers, He formed us in our mother's wombs and we are fearfully and wonderfully made. The Lord knew each and every part of us when He created us along with each and every day of our life. If I truly believe in the authority of scripture (which I do!) then it would tell me that as I begin to feel anxious, I need to turn to God in prayer and ask to be reminded of these truths. I need to cling to him because he is my rock and he is whom I can take refuge in.

The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.- Psalm 18:2