Have you ever suffered from test anxiety? Ugh! I have. Far too often!  It is all-consuming Immobilizing. I can still remember my first driver’s test. And my first time driving alone. I had an accident. Driving on a wet pavement. I hit the brakes. And spun around in the road. Ended up in the ditch on the other side of the road, facing the opposite direction. YIKES!!! I was really scared to drive after that.

And…a whole different level of fear came when I went back to school after my kids were grown. Now that was tough! I had to learn so many new things…like computers! I made so many stupid mistakes as I learned! The “young kids” had no trouble grasping the concepts. But…It was “Greek” to me! I was intimidated and felt I would never learn all those new things! And that fear carried over to other areas of my life, and it grew bigger over time. I knew I had to learn a way to get past that paralyzing anxiety!

I’ve noticed that we can even have a type of test anxiety about the challenges we face each day. They can suck us into what feels like the black hole of anxiety. It seems like we cannot control our fear. It begins to control us. And then what we dread is all we can think about. It can be almost like everything disappears except for the thing that we fear. What we focus on grows. That happened to me often as a single parent of two.

We can begin to feel overwhelming feelings that consume us to the point that we neglect God-time! We (crazy though it sounds) think we are too busy to take time with God. We are too distracted. Our focus is on what is wrong and fearful. But that is the very thing that I have learned that carries me through. God-time!

It’s easy to forget that in the midst of daily “testings” that this world is not our home. God wants to show us how to rest in Him. But in order to learn that skill…that discipline, there are no short-cuts. He adores His “kids” and wants to be the place we run to for refuge from the storms of life. He wants to lift us OUT of that black hole that can feel like quick sand. I understand that with quick sand, what is needed is to be still. Because, the more we thrash around, the deeper we are pulled into the hole. Pretty good analogy, huh?

Resting in Jesus. And I have learned the only way to do that is to get to know Him. And so that takes God-time! Bible time! That is the answer. So we learn to trust His heart. And that takes deliberate practice when things are calm, so that when things are UNcalm, we have already learned how to lean into Jesus. And hold on tight! And wait for the stormy emotions to pass so we can think clearly.

What do you do during times of anxiety?  Please share…we would love to know!