Tag: Stress

Winning Over Anxiety
Fear · Stress · worry

Winning Over Anxiety

RefreshHer2 Comments
Photo by Retha Ferguson on Pexels.com

So you’re sitting there mindlessly twirling your hair while your stressed out thoughts are also twirling through your head.

Your anxiety level is up.

You sigh again.

You pick up the cold cup of coffee sitting beside you and mindlessly sip its contents.

These anxious thoughts have become a pattern during the daytime and they plague your thoughts in the night and rob you of sleep.

I don’t know the reason of your worried thoughts, but I do know that we all have them from time to time, and perhaps now more than ever. What are we to do as believers in Christ when anxious thoughts plague us 24/7?

Recently I picked up my Bible to read the Proverb for the day. It was Chapter 7 – a familiar chapter about how the adulterous woman lures men into sin. I then asked God to show me what I needed to hear from this chapter that truly seemed to have no significance in my own life at the moment. The Spirit of God arrested my attention when I read the first five verses!

My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.

2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.

3 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.

4 Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:

5 That they may keep thee from the strange woman,

Though I wasn’t dealing with the subject of infidelity mentioned in this chapter, the Lord showed me that obeying the first four verses of this chapter is how we overcome any sin that is overwhelming us…including the anxiety that seems so prevalent in our world today.
Here’s what I learned about winning over anxiety according to this passage:

  1. Obey God’s Word and commands. Just do it. What you know to do, what you are challenged to do…do it. Instead of sitting and fretting, get up and obey what you know you’re to be doing.
    Read His Word.
    Pray.
    Serve the Lord in your home.
    Give the Gospel to others.
    Fellowship with believers.
    Do the work God has called you to do…laundry, meals, your day job. Be faithful.
  2. Keep God’s commands and live! Love God’s Word as though you cannot live with out it, for indeed we would be lost without His counsel! He has the Words of life!
  3. Keep God’s Word as the apple of your eye. The most tender part of your eye is the most beautiful and vulnerable part of your eye. You must guard it against being neglected. We may be shocked or horrified when we read of Bible burnings that are taking place, but are we truly valuing God’s Word as we would guard the apple of our eye? We must value God’s Word and see it as the most precious part of our life. If that were true…
    ~How often would we read it?
    ~How much more value would we give it?
    ~How much more would we speak it and share it with others?
  4. Bind God’s truths on your fingers. This is speaking of treasuring Scripture like you would a precious gem on your fingers. Maybe it would help us to keep God’s Words at our fingertips!
    This made me think of my Memory verse cards – these should be dangling more often from my fingers as I treasure the Truth written on them, study them, and obey them.
  5. Write them on the table of your heart. We can only do this by memorizing verses and passages. In the middle of the night when darkness prevails, the passages we’ve “written on our hearts” become a light in the shadows.
  6. Call wisdom your sister . Recently my husband was trying to reach a friend of ours and her number was busy every time he called. Then finally she called him and said, “I was on the phone with my sister, but I saw you kept calling. It takes someone really special to make me hang up on a phone call from my sister! This verse is saying, more than an earthly sister we love and take delight in, we must love the wisdom we receive from God’s Word. We need to read, to listen, to glean from it’s pages.
  7. Call understanding your kinswoman. A kinsman is a near relative. We must make the Word of God familiar to us, consult it, and consult its honor, and take a pleasure in conversing with it as we would a close relative. 

In the middle of the night when darkness prevails, the passages we’ve written on our hearts, become a light in the shadows.

Verse 5 then says if we do these things it will keep the man from the strange woman. But I have it written in my journal like this:

That they may keep me from ____________________________.

We need to put our besetting sin on that line, because God’s Word can keep us from it. Is it…

What anxious thoughts are plaguing you today? We can win over them if we will apply these simple Truths from Proverbs 7.

Which of these truths do you need to ask God to help you do today? He will help you if you ask!

Refresh your heart and win over anxiety!

Christmas

Three Ways to Make This the Best Christmas

RefreshHer6 Comments

I guess we could count these days as “Crunch Time” in regards to prepping for Christmas!  How are things going on your end?  Are your plans coming together?  Are the purchases all made, the cookies all baked and the gifts wrapped?  Maybe you simplified this year, so the answer is “Yes!”  Or you might be in the panic mode because you’re feeling the pressure of Christmas pressing in on you.

There are many things that make Christmas a time for upset stomachs and I don’t just mean the viruses going around!  I’m talking about the pressures and demands we put on ourselves and others and the relational tensions.  I thought about these scenarios and realized that there are three simple ways to reduce these hardships right now and turn this Christmas into one that will be remembered as the best yet!

Watch the video below for those three simple suggestions.

Which of these three do you need to work on most?

 

Denise Signature 150 px

Family life · home · Marriage · Uncategorized

Strengthening Your Marriage During Stressful Times

RefreshHerLeave a comment

Their baby was born very critical. She required intensive care for months after her birth.  Days in the hospital were long and emotional for her parents, a young couple who had never gone through anything that rocked their world so hard.  They felt frightened, shaken to the core of their beings, and so very alone.

Alone?  They had each other!  Why would they feel alone?  Because during this time of emotional heartbreak, while each of their emotions were so raw, instead of pulling together, and talking and praying as a couple, they were isolating themselves and pulling away like opposing teams in a game of tug of war.  They became critical of the other’s response to the situation.  They bickered over little decisions they had to make regarding the baby.  They spent all their waking hours with the child, only somehow saving enough energy to make it back home for a few hours of sleep before returning to the NICU to start another day just like the previous one.  They wondered if their marriage would still be secure when their daughter was ready to be discharged.

The previous description is about no one I know; I made up the people and scenario.  But the fact is, this kind of thing happens to marriages all the time!  Hard things step into our lives, and, if we’re not careful, a death, a child’s rebellion, a financial set-back, a terminal illness, or any host of crisis’ can step in and destroy a home at a time when the couple needs one other the most!

During my mother-in-law’s illness a few years ago, we saw how the fatigue and separation, with one staying at the hospital and one sleeping at home, could wear on our emotions and our relationship.  There were a couple instances that wouldn’t have normally been so sensitive, but because of the weariness and stress, they seemed much bigger.  Since we knew this could be a long ordeal, we were, with the Lord’s help, trying to stay sensitive to the need to stay tender, current and in touch with the Lord and one another as we went through this journey.

Near 10-11 PM one night, we had a “date” in the hospital cafeteria.  All I wanted was dry Honey Nut Cheerios (my night time snack at home!), but it wasn’t about the food, it was about staying in touch with one another.  So much happened in a day, we needed time to talk, to catch up on, not only my mother-in-law’s condition, but also one another.

We had many offers from people who were willing to come and sit at the hospital so we can get out for a bit.  We planned dates during those days!  We had to remind ourselves of God’s sovereignty to care for things without our help.  She would be fine, and so would we.

Every marriage goes through many times like I’ve described. Here are some other tips to survive stressful times:

  • Be on the lookout for times when your marriage needs the protection of time away, even just an hour or so.  If there was a floor in the hospital for Marriage ICU, it would be full!
  • Let the Great Physician step in and give you the prescription your relationship needs.  Stop and pray together.  Take this stressful time to Him. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
  • More than others need you, you need time together.
  • Don’t cleave to your children, they will be fine with a sitter for a while.  Go out on a date.
  • Don’t cleave to the media! Turn the television off and reconnect.
  • Hold hands.
  • Look into your husband’s eyes.
  • Listen to him.

Cleave to him. Love him unconditionally…for the health of your marriage. It’s the only way you’ll be discharged from the Marriage intensive care unit!

With love