My daughter has danced at Tippy Toes School of dance since she was 3. This is her 11th and probably last year. She has been part of the Indianapolis Youth Ballet Company, a branch of Tippy Toes, for 3 years. I love watching her dance. I don’t love the anxiety she carries before she dances. This weekend was the performance of the companies ballet “Cinderella” and she was a bundle of nerves all week.
I’m one of those weird people who really don’t experience stage fright. I get excited before I have to walk on stage but not nervous. Not my daughter. She has always done well but she is a bundle of nerves days before. I always thought it had to do with being prepared. Seeing yourself through the experience in your head. No one really ever told me to visualize like that, I just always did, and practiced till it was second nature.
One of my girl scouts gets very nervous whenever she has to do something in front of someone else, even a small group. This weekend my scouts were able to present the American flag before a scouting event. She was so nervous she started asking me how she could get out of holding the flag. I just kept telling her. Breathe, you’ve practiced, everything will be okay. It was, she did a great job.
Anxiety manifests differently for different people. My daughter gets snappy and argumentative and well, angry. Where as my girl scout wanted to just flee the whole situation. The good old fight or flight syndrome in action. When you struggle with anxiety you are constantly caught in this state, fight or flight. Many days where I was filled with anxiety I was angry, frustrated and snapping at my family until the cause of my anxiety ended or not discussed anymore. Its not a fun state of mind to live in. So what is the antidote? Well, for me, its trust.
When I trust in myself or those around me or in the past of what happened last time I faced this giant I always fail. For much of my life that is what I have done. But God invites us to trust in Him. If we could only take our eyes of the situation and trust He’s going to make everything work out for our own good we might not have to struggle so much. That’s a hard thing to do, to learn especially when in the past situations have not ended well. Its hard to trust that the past won’t repeat itself.
But God promises us many things and reminding ourselves of these promises is what helps us to trust in Him. God promises He is making things new so that the past won’t repeat itself, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:9
He promises He’s with us, “So do not fear, for I am with you, d not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10
He promises He will bring us good, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,”.
Joyce Meyers says, ” You end will be better than your beginning.” That’s the kind of attitude to have when facing daily anxieties. If we can trust in God that the end result will be better we can make it through anything.
2BecomeBrave 
Hello, ma’am. My name is Keith and have started following your blogs beginning a couple weeks ago while researching some healing of my own. God is good, all the time. Understanding our trials while we are in them may be challenging, but I am learning that letting go of my need to understand is the most challenging effort of all. Bless you for persevering and sharing. Your words honor our Lord.
Dealing with anxiety has been a trip for me and like the rest, I want to understand it. It occurred to me some time ago, “Anxiety is a lack of trust in God and what He did for me through Jesus and the cross.” This has become somewhat of a mantra for me. I don’t want to acknowedge I don’t trust God, except integrity won’t leave me alone. “Test me, O’ Lord, and know my anxious thoughts.” So what this “mantra” has done, in part for me, is made me aware I don’t have a firm grasp of the glory of what it is God HAS done for me/us in redemption. I want to understand. How come He always comes back with, “I’m your shepherd, remember?” Oh yeah, I ain’t in want. But I am…
You mentioned the repercussions of trusting in yourself, others or the past… our lens of experience, right? Experience develops expectations. Jesus called me out a while back when, during a kind of low spot in our marriage, my wife was finding relief from my anxiety by spending more significant time, quality time with a close girl friend. To be frank, I was jealous and negativity led me into all kinds of darkness, from divorce and living under a bridge to suicide.
Where was God in all that? Right where He has always been. He says, “I AM ALWAYS WITH YOU. I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU.” Where was God? Where was my God? He can’t lie. He was exactly where He says He was. Yeah, because You are at my right hand I will not be shaken. And I have perfect peace because I trust in You.
He told Samuel to use discretion and not judge by appearance. Certainly this applies to interactions with others as only He can see the heart of man. But what about the heart of a matter? Certainly we LIVE by faith, not by sight.
Ma’am, I pray for your relief and restoration to come speedily. It’s coming, rest assured. He will not let His holy one see decay.
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Keith it sound like your further down the road than I am. I am only beginning to understand how my anxiety is a show of lack in trust of God. And your absolutely right God was there in every bad and good circumstance I have experienced however I am just beginning to understand the power of trusting in him to turn a situation around. Many times in my past I have reacted to the circumstance instead of just trusting the Holy Spirit to guide me through it and that circumstance has had the worst result instead of the best. I have been trusting God for a while and calling it faith but I am beginning to see how they work hand in hand. Thank you for your comments and your prayers and may God continue to bless you. Don’t be afraid to share your story, you never know when someone needs to hear it, I did.
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