Anxiety

Worry...the thief of joy

"I've always prided myself on the joy and light heartedness that I naturally carry with me, however the past few weeks have seemed to just straight up steal that away from me. Through many different instances I became worried, annoyed, sad, and felt like I was carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders, I've felt a mass amount of stress physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. I've broken down a few times, frustrated at the fact of how much I felt like I was carrying on my shoulders.
I think it's so culturally "okay" to be worried, it's masked as "caring a lot", but the truth is, worry is considered a sin just as much as jealousy, envy, gossip, etc. Worry eats away at us, it puts stress on us and on our relationships, cause essentially, if it's about a person, we're taking the responsibility of that person on our shoulders, when that responsibility shouldn't be on anyone's shoulders but their own and God's. It really makes you become someone you don't want to be..internally and sometimes externally..and that's definitely what it's done to me the past few weeks.
I got to the point this morning where I was over it with feeling this way, I sat down and journaled it out, I decided to give all the stress, all the worry, all the cares over to Jesus, cause after all, that's super biblical, isn't it? ;) & it shouldn't have surprised me, but it did, that all that stress began to melt away. The truth is, the worries and cares don't become mine until I make them my responsibility, but just as quickly as I began to carry that stress, I can just as quickly let it go! I chose and am choosing to release it to the best, most trustworthy and caring person out there, who I know will take it from me and give peace in return. It's when I take my eyes off of Jesus that I make the decision to carry the stress and weight of life on my own shoulders. It's really essentially a trust and pride issue. Cause in my mind, for some stupid reason, I think I can handle life on my own, and I 100% totally cannot.
Today was just a beautiful reminder to trust, to let go, to not take responsibility that is not mine to carry, and to continue to be a person full of joy, no matter what the circumstances. I'm so much more at peace now than I've been over the past few weeks, and that is a beautiful place to be!"

1 Peter 5:7 "Cast all your anxiety (cares/stress/frustrations) on him because he cares for you."

Like this blog post? Check out more of Natalie Hochstatter's writing at www.bynataliejoy.wordpress.com