SHAPING OUR WORRIES

Good morning, Ladies. Actually, it just turned afternoon. I'm having lunch with you today. And tea. I'm enjoying your company.

First of all, I apologize for not being here on Friday. I was getting ready for the tweens' blog party and it took longer than I expected. (Then Typepad, the server, crashed just as we were getting started so we didn't get to have the party after all! GRRR!) Anyway, I was all ready to post for you and just plain ran out of time.

So to get back on track, let's look at some prayer requests. Your sisters have asked you to pray for --

LAURA's whole family who are dealing with mistreatment of her grandmother at a nursing home, and with her grandmother's injuries. Please keep us posted, will you, Laura?

    ALISHA who is in remission (yes!) but who doesn't know quite how to move forward from there. She also needs prayer for whatever is going on with her kidneys.

    GRACE ANNE whose best friend is stepping aside to let GA have a boy they both like, a move which though generous makes GRACE ANNE feel bad for her BFF. Affairs of the heart can be so confusing.

    IRELAND whose beloved great grandmother, Erma, is in the hospital without a clear diagnosis.

 Merciful Father, please hear the prayers of your daughters as they join hands and hearts before you.

   YOUR RESPONSES TO THE LAST POST:

    I asked you to reflect on success, and your comments were, as usual, amazing. Youv'e concluded that --

        * success may be overcomng the FEAR of failure and being able to say you're doing your best and that's all that matters.

        * but right now it gets all wrapped up in what people will think of us, how we'll come across to other people, which prevents expressing how we really feel -- until it festers inside; perhaps success would be speaking without fear of judgement -- how freeing would THAT be

        * we do find comfort in Mother Teresa's words: "God has not called me to be successful. He has called me to be faithful." And in the quote PAIGE shared with us: "You can't let God down because you were never holding GOD up in the first place."

        * and yet fear of the unknown is still a tough one to find comfort for

So what do you say we try? PAIGE made a suggestion for our Lenten series which will start this Wednesday. She said what if we give ourselves up to 40 days without worrying? I know that isn't like giving up caffeine or chocolate or pizza, which is so much easier (okay, except for the chocolate). It would take a lot of being intentional -- and maybe some guidance here on the blog -- and a lot of support from each other. It just seems to me that an attempt to cease worrying would be an amazing Lenten discipline.

Do you want to explore that together? (NEED YOUR COMMENTS HERE -- EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT ONE TO COMMENT MUCH)

Before we go any further, let me assure you that we will not eradicate worry before Easter! First of all, it is absolutely human to be concerned, anxious, angsty. Look at Baby Maeryn in the above pic, taken when she was 18 months old. She was clearly fretting over something, even before she could SAY the word "Worry." (Now at two she will tell you, "I'm afraid," "I'm happy!" and my personal fave, "I'm FRUSTRATED!")

And besides, some worry is a good thing. Or maybe it's concern I'm talking about. If we weren't concerned about people, we wouldn't care or pray or try to help. I think the kind of worry we're talking about is the debilitating kind, yes? That's where we'll put our focus.

Jesus will be incredibly helpful to us along the way, and we'll be consulting him frequently in the Gospels. But I'm not just going to dish out, "Be anxious for nothing" and hope it sticks! We'll look at ourselves and our situations and see how we can apply what Jesus says AND grow ever closer to God, in whose presence worry is practically impossible.

If you do vote to enter the mysterious world of worry with me, we'll probably structure our series around 6 areas of worry that you're dealing with right now. WHAT I NEED FROM YOU (IN YOUR COMMENTS) ARE THE MAIN TOPICS YOU WORRY ABOUT so I can narrow them down to six. I'm thinking about things like: SCHOOL, RELATIONSHIPS, THE FUTURE -- that kind of thing. NO need to be specific yet -- just main subjects.

Let me leave you with this passage from The Message which I would love to use as the centerpiece of our study.

    "Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life." (Philippians 4) 

I don't know about you, but I feel better already! Okay -- so -- I need to hear  (a) whether you want to pursue this topci during Lent and (b) what the main areas of worry are in your life. LEt's hear it, Ladies!

 

Blessings!

Nancy Rue       

        

Comments

[Paige]

Sorry to hear about the tweens not getting their blog party :( That's so... well FRUSTRATING!

As for six areas...
School
Family
Future
Relationships
God/Faith Related
Self

Those are just my thoughts :) I don't know!

[Grace Anne]

I think this sounds like a great idea!!!

My main areas of worry are probably:
~ school
~ the future
~ the way I look
~ relationships
~ what other people think of me

I'll post another one if I think of it!

[Alisha]

Hey ladies
I just want to clarify one thing before I move on - while I am stable I am not in remission in the usual sense of the word (That my disease is going away.) My disease is not going away, ever. Right now what remission (Or stability or homeostasis or whatever you want to call it) means for me is that my labs are stable (Revealing no big ups and downs in my liver function tests) and there are no tumors visible on my scans. I'm still taking meds 5 times a day and on G-tube feedings overnight (Plus a handful of other meds for my heart and my bones and my digestion and stuff like that) but my labs and scans are saying my liver is currently stable (Hence the term stabilized remission.) My other condition (dysautonomia) is still very much active and a huge pain in the butt, and who knows what's going on with my kidneys, but we're working on that.
Now that that's out of the way... my 6 top worries...
1. my health (Obviously!)
2. relationships
3. school4
4. self (self image)
5.the past and the future

that's all I can think of for now but i'll let you know if i come up with another one

[Katie]

I think we should do it! :)

Right now I'm mostly worried about college. It's freaking me out and I have this huge scholarship weekend coming up that I'm terrified for!! :(

[JennaT]

Hi Ya'll !!!!!!!! Praying for you all and your familys. The five areas I worry about:
1.Relationship(parents,siblings,friends,guys)
2.school
3.self
4.the future
5.Heaven (This may seem weird...I'm not worried about going to Heaven....I know it will be awesome! I'm worried about my family,friends,people in general.....that I know who don't have a relationship with Jesus.)

Praying Katie,Alisha,Grace Anne, Ireland, and Laura! Love ya sisters in Christ!

Jenna

[Kate]

my gosh, i am praying for you all!! xxx

this could not come at a better time... how do you do that, mrs rue? seriously, thank you, so excited for this.

the. future. like a lot.
school/what do to after high school

[Therese]

I think its a good idea. :)
My worries are:
*The future (Not so much the way, way future, more like, the next few months.)
*Relationships
*Myself (What others think of me, whether or not I'm who I'm supposed to be.)
*School/college(Getting really stressed over my studies and worrying about what college I'm going to go to.)
*The past (Sometimes it just really drags me down.)
*God(Am I spiritual enough? Do I pray/read my Bible enough?)

[Marlee]

I know I don't comment much but this is really important to me! Worry and anxiety are huge in my life and I would love to do this in-depth. Mostly I worry about:
School (I have rigorous classes with a lot of homework and it's hard to keep up)
College (I'm a senior so I'm waiting for acceptances and scholarships)
Relationships (platonic and romantic and those in-between)
My future career/college major choice
Health

[Abby:)]

Don't have time to read the entire post now but I have a prayer request - where I live, Summer Stock (google it) is doing Swing this summer which is super super exciting because it doesn't have any dialogue in it so there's a ton of singing and dancing. It's normaly pretty hard to get into Summer Stock here, but I think I have a good chance of making it because I'm pretty good at partnering and I'm very close friends with the choreographers. But I'm also scheduled to go to NY this summer for 2 one-week dance intensives, and I'm worried that the dates will conflict and I won't get to do Swing. I was in almost the exact same situation last year - long story short, I got to do both shows and had SO much fun at both, so could you please pray that something similar would happen this year and that I'd stop stressing? I get really worked up about stuff like this. Sorry that was long and I'll read/comment on the post a little later.

Praying for everyone!!

[*Rachel*]

Glad to hear from you Marlee! :) And Alisha, sad that you aren't really in remission. Prayers are always always always with you girl, so happy to have you on the blog :)
I'd love to do this as a Lent topic!!! I feel like this is something we all struggle with, and it seems to come up in our comments no matter what the main idea of the post is. Here are my top six:
1. Time - not using it well enough, not having enough to be with my fam and friends as much as I'd like, etc.
2. School - namely, what college to head off to in 2 years and even what to study once I'm there
3. Soccer - it kind of goes with college; I'll have to have my mind pretty much made up on if/where I'll play in college by this time next year
4. Relationships - if I'm supposed to get married, how will I find him and know he's the right one for me? And for friends, how can I find ways to make more time to just be with them and find ways to lead them to holiness when I know they're drifting?
5. Self-Image - both in the physical sense and personality wise
6. God's WIll - as in, being able to know it at the right time, follow it, and just trust without freaking out about it or trying to micro-manage

Okay, so I just re-read and realized I got pretty specific there. I guess the first word in each would be the more succinct way of putting each topic :) Praying for all of you beauties and can't wait to begin this Lenten journey together!

Love and Blessings,
*Rachel*

[*Rachel*]

Oh, and Mrs. Rue - for some reason, the Google Group made me re-apply as though I was never accepted. I just submitted the same info again, so it's still me in case that was confusing! :)

[Grace Anne]

I think the sixth thing I worry about is like, spiritual stuff.

[Abbie]

Hey, hey, hey everyone! I haven't been on in SO long and I don't know why I stopped coming. Reading back on the series has been SO encouraging.

The things I worry about the most are probably...

-the future (what creative venture i'm supposed to pursue, who i'm going to marry, where i should go, etc.)
-looking/feeling/sounding awkward, which could be categorized as what other people think of me
-getting enough sleep
-family life
-time is a huge one for me, probably my biggest.

I'm TOTALLY down for not worrying. That would be refreshing.

I've been praying for you girls, and I'm definitely planning to hang around here a lot more often! :)

[Alisha]

*Rachel*, i am in remission (well as close as you can be with a chronic illness) but not the kind of remission where i get better. I am stable, so i am in stabilized remission but i'm not better and save them finding a cure or me getting a transplant i never will be. I feel like this isn't making a lot of sense so i should probably stop talking :) Marlee- are you new? If not, sorry, i was gone from the blog for a while so i might have missed you. Anyway, welcome! I live your name, its so pretty!

[May]

That series sounds really helpful!
I totally agree with the topics already brought forth (school, the future, family). I might come up with one myself but I think that worrying about self-image is a big thing and we should go into that!
Praying.

[Sasha]

Love the idea! We should go for it :) Some things I typically worry about are:
*School
*Relationships
*Other's opinions
*Time
*Future
*My appearance
Really hope we can dive into this series, it sounds super helpful!

[Alexandria]

I would really like if we did this, it couldn't come at a better time. The six things I worry about :

1: School( homework,SAT,future college prep )
2: Future ( I used to know exactly what I was going to do and be,but some God things I think have totally flung them upside down,I spend a LOT of time silently screaming about what on earth I am doing)
3:Guilt
4:Relationships with my close friends( Out of three ,only one has not turned on us)
5:Piano
6:Time ( I have a hard time finding it)