It’s Day 12! We are 1/3rd of the way done with our #31daystohappy. I’m really hoping you have a better vision of the future and you are practicing keeping your activities in line with your goals. If you are just joining us, make sure to read about what the project is about here and what you need to do first here.
Today I’m both thrilled and scared to share the one thing that has made the biggest difference in my outlook on life. It’s a big deal. Maybe the biggest deal of everything we’ve talked about up until this point. It all really comes down to what you believe is in store for you.
Two posts back, I was asked in the comments how I stopped googling symptoms, one of my box 4 activities. It was a terrible habit that brought an enormous amount of anxiety into my life. But stopping a deeply engrained habit is hard.
Not everyone can relate to my box 4 items. You can insert your box 4 habit in place of mine and you will probably see that it is bringing you misery. I had always been a fan of webMD. While Weston was sick, I began searching his group of symptoms on google. Doctors provided us with no answers and he kept getting worse. I wanted to fix it, to take matters into my own hands. Looking back, what would I have done with the information anyway? What good would my being in control do? Despite my repeated googling, I found no answers and scared myself silly.
After Weston began feeling better, my little boy began to have headaches in the middle of the night. He’d wake up crying and in pain. Again, google taught me nothing, but the things I found scared me so badly I shook day and night. I began to have all sorts of crazy symptoms, too. More googling, more fear. It became a vicious cycle and incredibly hard to break. At this point in my life, I had put my faith in google, a terrible place to rely.
One thing changed everything for me. It is the bedrock of the deeply seated happiness I’ve found. It is the sword I use to fight the monster that is my anxiety. It is pure power. I’m talking about faith in God & my Bible. To break my habit, I sat down and I truly studied the promises in the scriptures. And then I decided I would believe them, and nothing else.
Anxiety challenges our need for certainty and security. In its purest form, anxiety is fear. It is the devilish ‘what if’ that keeps you in chains. To overcome my anxiety, I truly had to drop all of my what ifs at my Heavenly Father’s feet and trust that he alone controls my future and wants nothing but the best for me. He doesn’t just promise some good things. He promises that ALL things will work together for our good. 
This is something easier said than done. But, God has given us a tool in the Bible. In the Power of Positive Thinking, Reverend Dr Norman Vincent Peale spells out that the Bible is not a grouping of anecdotes. The book contains the most powerful and practical advice ever given to mankind. It literally teaches us how to be happy, and the root of happiness is faith.
How do we have faith? How do we stop worrying about the future and start living and enjoying the moment we have now instead? My answer is to trust God. If you are not a believer, you will still need to have faith in something. It will be different, I realize that and this post may not be as effective for you. But I hope you’ll still try today’s prompt.
DAY 12 PROMPT – #31daystohappy
Before getting out of bed in the morning, picture a loving Heavenly Father in control of your life. Before your feet hit the floor, memorize & repeat out loud Jeremiah 29:11 – 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.”
From here on out, whenever your anxiety starts to pick up, just repeat your mantra and remember that God is in control. Put your faith in Him, not yourself, not google, not any person. Faith is like love and requires an object, so choose where to direct it and focus your energy toward that. I personally found great relief from my anxiety by looking up each reference to faith in the Gospels.
If you’ve made it this far, whew! Writing my testimony was never on my list of things I hoped to do, but I have felt strongly these last few days that this needed to be said. It has been a huge part of my recovery. I have found great hope in these thoughts. I find that having uplifting scriptures crowding my mind keeps negative thoughts from fitting in. I’d love to hear any scriptures that bring you comfort in the comments.
Thanks for reading along!
I am not a doctor and nothing I write here is a substitute for medical advice. If you are suffering from a medical condition or unhealthy thoughts, please seek help immediately. For my full disclaimer, please click here
Hi Amanda, this is my current favorite: 1 John 4:10-11, This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Thank you for loving us, your readers, so much that you spend so much time and energy (and courage!) on this fantastic series. It is really helpful! Many blessings.
Thanks, Amanda, for sharing your faith and ideas. Jeremiah 29:11 is my life verse. But I love the idea of saying it in bed, just before my feet hit the floor. I’m going to start doing that, too.
This. Thank you so much. I needed to hear this.