CHOOSE: AN ALTERNATIVE TO ANXIETY

If anxiety is often synonymous with stress, How does one rid herself from stress, the bad kind that is?

What is an effective, appropriate alternative to anxiety?

The answer is simple. The application is harder. (Philippians 4:6-7)
Friend Drenda, who knows me oh so-o-o well after working with me for years, has given me a tangible reminder. A pocket prayer shawl---how original and perfect.

Some choices are easier to make with encouragement from friends.

CHOOSE: NOT TO DIVIDE

"I don't "do" numbers." is a declarative sentence I often use. Just yesterday I used it in the joy blog entry.

Therefore it makes sense that my mathematical calculations don't go much past add, subtract, multiply and divide. In fact, I remember in 4th grade having trouble with division. I sat in my teacher's (Mrs. Munday) lap and cried over my ineptness with remainders and such.

But....division is a necessary calculation in our world.
However, division is not needed in one aspect of a Christian's walk.

There is always one common denominator---Jesus. I know that's fractions, which I also don't do well, but I do understand "that figure" for the total population of all Christians should express the same value. Christ in us, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)
Chuck Swindoll reminds us in chapter 3 of Christ at the Crossroads, that when one divides his/her life into secular and spiritual, he/she has forgotten who's in charge.
In the individual life of each believer....

....there should be no division of the secular and sacred.

You are what you believe in every facet of your life. 

Today, I choose not to divide what I believe with how I act. 

Trust me, such choosing has to be a daily, actually a moment by moment, choice!

CHOOSE: MULTIPLYING JOY

How does a worrier multiply joy?
Worry negates joy.

A cup of worry can cover life like a fog that covers 7 city blocks. Yet, a fog though thick and dense, can be reduced to 1 cup of water. (Chuck Swindoll, Christ at the Crossroads) That sounds like a scientific deduction I can't begin to understand. But, certainly a cup of water sounds like it's easier to handle than 7 blocks of fog in one's life. 
I not only need to replace worry with joy in my own life, but I also want to "pay it forward" in the lives of others. I want to be a multiplier of joy.

Multiplying joy is and of itself an equation. Though I am NOT a "numbers person," I need to work out this worry "problem" with help.

His joy > my worries = my joy with a remainder of joy for others.

John 15:11 says, "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. Yes, your cup of joy will overflow!" (TCB)
Fullest possible joy." is the way NCV translates.

Fulness of joy = complete joy---with no room for worry. Worry is substituted/replaced with sufficient joy so that there is a joyful remainder to share.

And God is able to bless you abundantly. (2 Corinthians 9:8)

Multiplying joy = joy in abundance. 

Multiplying His joy in and through  me is the best calculation for serving others with joy as Thanksgiving approaches.

CHOOSE: SEASONAL CONTENTMENT

Sitting at the breakfast table looking out at the patio it would be easy to bemoan the "leaf situation." That is,  if I were the resident"raker." 

But....I have never even turned on a leaf blower so my thoughts were more positive than hubby's who tries to calculate the number of leaves left on the trees against the meteorologist report for upcoming rain. Then he weighs all of that against the arrival of the first grands on Monday for Thanksgiving.

I, on the other hand, am grateful for the God-designed seasons (Genesis 1:14) and think about what fun those Texans will enjoy running through those leaves and hearing them crackle beneath their feet. And our little New Yorker will love them as well as there is ground beneath theses leaves and not asphalt an just throwing leaves in the air and watching the wind blow them can be fun.

This morning as I remembered  Genesis 8:22, " While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease,"  I was content to sit with a cinnamon stick in my cuppa and watch the leaves dance. In this season of my life, I'm thankful that the Lord has chosen for me to dwell in a part of the country that has a bit of all the seasons to enjoy. (Acts 17:26) 

That's my Friday choice----seasonal contentment with a leaf strewn view.

CHOOSE: TO CELBRATE LONGEVITY

Longevity. Our life span is not something we can choose.
"God has appointed the number of our days. He has determined the length of our lives." (Job 14:5)

In the last few weeks I have been to 3 funerals for folks younger than I. Many tried to make the funerals a celebration of life. I understand that but it also made me realize, as Daddy used to say, "I thank the good Lord for every day He gives me." Well said, Daddy. Celebrate life one day at a time.

Celebrate life. Celebrate the years. Use the longevity you are given as a time of service.
As folks retire they are rewarded honors for years (longevity) of service.
Today we honored a lady on her "almost 101st birthday." I don't think I've ever known anyone who has celebrated a birthday with triple digits. She is a woman blessed with "multiplied days and increased years." (Proverbs 9:11)

Almeda Burns will be one hundred and one years old on Thanksgiving day----so we celebrated early.
We ate and ate some more. Two desserts, no less. We sang. She blew out her "1" candle. Others at Town Village stopped by to greet her. But....her favorite part was being able to share memories with others from the King's Daughters and Sons, a Christian service organization.
Several were the daughters of her friends, "now all gone," as she said.

Eavesdropping on all those stories, I realized that she was worthy of the honor of longevity of service. Years of service, "In HIs Name."

CHOOSE: THE CORRECT FOCUS

Need a new outlook or a fresh focus?

Sometimes we just need to look up---

Whether in a chapel........

.....in a hallway at a storytelling festival...

......or on the road.

Other times we need to look down and absorb the words.

It's crucial to choose the correct focus because our "mind feasts on what it focuses on." (?)

Such thinking can make or break one's identity so a correct focus is key.(Proverbs 23:7)

CHOOSE: STORYTELLING!

Storytelling. An oral tradition that binds families together with shared memories.

Donald Davis is the master of such a tradition. He leaves his audiences "limp from laughter and with a lump in their throats" reports the New York Times.

Our kids and now our grands have grown up with his tales. Caleb (11) was privy to hearing him in person last year in Texas. This past weekend Owen (10) attended a storytelling festival at Balmoral Presbyterian in Memphis. 

A few years ago, hubby and I shared his Grand Canyon CD with family on our Westward Ho trip. We laughed "all the way to the bottom of the canyon" with him.

Davis says, " Storytelling is not what I do for a living---it is how I do all that I do while I am living."

I first met Donald Davis at the Methodist camp at Lake Junaluska, NC as a 17 year old. He worked in the bookstore and I was a camper. As a librarian, many years later, I heard him at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN.

As a Methodist minister, Davis understands the importance of passing on stories, both Biblical and personal to the next generation. (Joel 1:3 & Psalm 78:4) We should all do the same.

That's why hubby and I both choose storytelling and the importance of passing on that oral tradition.

CHOOSE: COMMUNITY

Recent sermons from ABC and FEC have emphasized the importance of loving God and loving our neighbors. (Mark 12:30-31)

Neighbors in the pew next to you. Neighbors across the street. Neighbors across the ocean. 

Getting to know others builds community.  Trust is built. Diversity is celebrated. Relationships are solidified in both the good times and the bad. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2)

Support is given whether in a hospice room or at a baby shower ---at least that's the way my weekend was spent.

Celebrations can be shared even when one is past childbearing age, whether it's parents of their "first" new born down the street ....

.....or the big reveal across town at the gym----a girl is on the way to join 3 brothers.

Wherever you are, get to know the ones God puts in your path and celebrate where they are in life and also be there to mourn with them when life ends. 

CHOOSE: LESS FRET, MORE FAITH

Less Fret, More Faith is the 1st chapter in Max Lucado's new book, anxious for nothing FINDING CALM in a CHAOTIC WORLD based on Philippians 4:4-6.

Sometimes I feel like a could write these anti-anxiety books my self. I just don't always live it.

I certainly know about fretting and remind myself often, "Fret not, Dots!"

I've memorized the Philippians passage but..........I couldn't resist the implication of "are you anxious about being anxious" and other revealing phrases in the intro, which seemed to describe me. 

...a low grade fear. A edginess, a dread.....not so much a storm as the certainty that one is coming.....so you don't sleep well. (p. 3)

Hm-m-m-m! 

Other gems included: 

• Anxiety is a meteor shower of "what ifs." (I'm already working on changing the "what if" fears in my life to "even if" faith.)
• Anxiety and fear are cousins but NOT twins. Fear sees a threat. Anxiety imagines it. (emphasis mine)
• The presence of anxiety is unavoidable, but the prison of anxiety is optional.

I pulled out these pithy grabbers to give an overview but these are not mere platitudes---there's much good info when you read them within the text. 

I choose to continue to read this book---maybe I will be able to "turn a page in this book that will help me turn over a new leaf in my life."

Will I be able to quench the anxiety with unquenchable faith? I'll let you know.

CHOOSE: TO INTERCEDE

Choose to learn from Scripture as you seek to pray for others.

John 17 is called by many as the "High Priestly Prayer." According to Justin Taylor, Desiring God, (10/2/07) this chapter on Jesus' prayer has "only about 650 words, takes only 3 minutes thirty seconds to read aloud but will take an eternity for use to fully understand it."

I, certainly do not fully understand it, but my aim is to learn what God has for me to glean at this season of my life. Reading the scripture in my Ryrie Study Bible gave insight and a few gems.

My goal is to learn from Jesus' intercession for us to aid me in interceding for others.

#1 for me is the Lord Jesus referring to believers as a gift from the Father to Him. Five times this "giving" is repeated. (vs. 2, 6, 6, 9, 24) 

#2 is that Christ is praying for those (believers) given to Him. 

That's enough for me to dwell on for a while. I, as a believer, am a gift from Father God to His Son Jesus, and Jesus prays for me. That's huge to share with others who need encouraging and to pray that  they too live out that truth, as One of His.

Now, I have been offered a "loan" of a book by a local pastor and I look forward to his insights on John 17 as well as other prayers of Jesus as well.