I have countless fears. And not only are they innumerable, but most of them are also irrational. I don't know if you've ever had this feeling, but it often happens to me when I enter a more suspicious room, possibly without windows, so out of nowhere, a thought strikes me: “What if it's an earthquake? How do I get out of here? ". And..again, concerning my children i strug with many fears. Sometimes I get the impression that my mind only sees danger around me. When they run on the stairs ... I can already imagine a bad accident, when one of them is running with a sharp pencil in their hand, I have already visualized the possible injury of one eye and so and so on.
Fear over fear over fear, which do not only steal my peace, but also give me the impression that it all depends on me, that I am in control of all things. But I posses so little control. It is all a lie. Accidents can happen all the time. When it doesn't happen to me, it's a blessing from God, it's not because I keep things so well under control.
Lately, I've noticed two things:
fear has the role of tormenting me, of preventing me from enjoying people and events,
and the second thing I've noticed is that, as much as I allow fear to stay in my mind, the more other fears appear, out of nowhere.
A few months ago, I found a saying in a book (written by Ann Voskamp) that sounds like this : "Starve your fears and feed your faith" and it stayed with me for a long time. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I was doing the exact opposite: I was feeding my fears, letting them make "branches" in my head, and starving my faith. I realized that the more fear I left in my mind, the more frightening my thoughts became.
At one point, after I was forced to, I confronted many of my fears and came to a conclusion: in life you mustn't fear anything but God.
After all, life only takes us where He wants us to go, and our fears disappear only by facing them.
The good news is that as our fears disappear one by one, our faith slowly and gently grows. Believe that it will be fine. Believe that the Most High wants the best for you. That is when the joy returns.
If you are no longer afraid of an accident when your child is running, you’ll be glad to have the opportunity to see him play and to laugh with him.
Only now you do realize that fear steals your joy. It may not be the same for everyone, but we all have our fears whether we are aware of them or not.
So what‘s the solution?
I think we have to:
make an effort to become aware of them (I wrote them on a piece of paper, for example),
then we have to face them, to think rationally what are the odds (and I mean in percentages) that the worst case scenario would happen,
then try to make a plan, a very specific and detailed one with actual steps that will help you avoid the worst case scenario you imagined earlier
and then choose to believe that even if, in spite of all things, something happens, God will take care of every situation that’ll come unto your way.
And that's how you faced fear. The next time the same thought comes, you tell yourself that you are taking steps to avoid it and even if it befalls on you, all will still be good in the end, with God's help.
And so, not only does fear disappear, the thought will not reappear, but you’ll have less and less such thoughts of fear. Basically, you reconditioned your brain to think positively, you gave it good "food".
I believe that especially during this pandemic times when all news are bad news, fear is heightened, jobs are lost and the future is insecure, well.. especially during this times we need to confront and starve our fears.So if you cannot rejoice, find your fear. Nail it down and face it. Because fear steals joy. And I'm not talking about books, I'm talking about experience. The more you leave thoughts of fear in your mind, the more they pile up. Face every fear, enjoy life and fear only God.
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