31 Days of Courage: The Courage Not To Worry

 “Do not fret, it only leads to evil”.  Psalm 37:8

Them’s fightin’ words.

And here is the greatest enemy to courage in my everyday life.  Worry.

I’ve often said if I didn’t have something to worry about I’d make something up.  Anxiety is such a dominant gene in my family history it’s a wonder more of my ancestors didn’t land in mental institutions (and some did, no joke). 

Worry has robbed me of countless days, months…God help me, years of joy, peace and service to others. 

I am growing and changing by the grace of God, yes I am.  But what is it about that particular stronghold that, when it gets it’s talons in hard, ruins people’s lives?

This is a hard sub-subject to write about in this 31 day challenge because this is the area where I fail with greatest  dispatch.

And where I need to seek courage with ongoing endurance.  Worry is to courage what water is to fire.  But courage is to worry what the law of aerodynamics is to the law of gravity.  Courage can always rise above.  Courage has won the day in many an anxious heart.

Almost 5 years ago, my husband and daughter were nearly killed by a drunk driver.  For our girl, the road since then has been bumpy, steep and scary beyond what I can express here.  When I say I have cried out for courage it is an understatement in the extreme.  Every day I place that beloved child into the hands of her relentlessly loving Heavenly Father and exhale with surrender.  I don’t do it perfectly.  But this difficult trip has been the birthplace of courage for me…this soaring over the fields of worry to the high places of trust.  No matter what happens.

What is it for you?  What worry is strangling you?  The Great One is always telling us to cheer up, look up and buck up! He promises to be with us, to give us strength in our weakness and to love us through every failure.  Courage today might look as relatively small as facing your closet disaster, or as big as putting your disabled child square in the hands of God.  It might be having a conversation that’s long overdue, or trying again to find a job after significant unemployment. 

In the end, worry leads to nothing good and courage leads to everything worth anything.

There’s not been a single blog post in these 31 days so far that applies more to the writer.

And believe me when I tell you, it’s fight of my life.

How I need your prayers.

Your friend on the pilgrim road,

Loriann