Fear and Anxiousness

Well this isn't exactly how I wanted to welcome the month of March because waking up at 3:00am hasn't always been my desire. Ask anyone that knows me; I'm not a very nice person when my sleep has been disrupted. But here's why I'm up and writing.

Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night shaking and startled at something you just dreamed; thanking The Lord that it was only the dream? As you try to go to sleep you can't shake the dream, and it just keeps going even when you're half awake? Well that's what I did last night. My biggest fear isn't that CPS would take my children away because of my stupidity. My biggest fear is that something horrible would happen to my kids that I can't control and they would be gone forever. I could probably speak for most moms, if not dads, that this is how 99% of the parents out there feel. However, how do you cope with such fear in the middle of the night? How do you go back to sleep not thinking about the worst thing that could happen?

Here's how I take care of it. I start praying and asking God to take the dream away. I pray that He would protect my babies because, in reality, I can't. I can only train them to be alert of whose around at all times. Along with fear, at least for me, is usually anxiousness. This is where after the fear, my heart races and I can't be still and I think of more things to be afraid of, etc, etc. It's just a downward spiral. Gotta love the pair - fear and anxiousness. Oh how I loath both! I've struggled most of my life with both, so I guess fortunately and unfortunately, I've figured out a way to take care of it as soon as it starts. If I don't, it gets worse and worse. If I can't shake it with prayer, I get up and read my Bible. I have scripture verses memorized that deal with fear and verses memorized that bring me peace and rest. I sing songs of thanking The Lord and praising of His great name. Believe it or not, these are all things that were taught to me when I was young. I remember learning these passages wondering why and if I'll ever remember or need them. These are the things that I try to instill in my kids so that when they are old they will not depart from it. I'll talk about that in a later post.

Scriptures to combat fear
http://www.womensbiblecafe.com/2011/05/50-scripture-verses-on-fear/
Psalm 91
Ephesians 6:10-18

Scriptures for peace
http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/bible-verses-about-peace-20-great-scripture-quotes/
Romans 16:20

Scripture to pray over our children and family
http://ati.iblp.org/ati/family/articles/family/hedgeofprotection/
http://www.circleofmoms.com/christian-mommies/scriptures-to-pray-over-your-children-259246
http://hopefaithprayer.com/scriptures/gods-protection-for-his-people/