When both Ann Voskamp and Hannah Whitall Smith write this morning about anxiety, I begin to think God is trying to get something through to me. I don't feel as if I have been particularly anxious lately, but maybe the thing lies more in the wording that Mrs. Smith uses: that I'm maybe not anxious about things, but I'm trying to "manage" it all on my own rather than giving the management of it over to Christ. Even, and first of all, the "management" of myself.

"In laying off your burdens, therefore, the first one you must get rid of is yourself. You must hand yourself and all your inward experiences, your temptations,your temperament, your frames and feelings, all over into the care and keeping of your God, and leave them there. He made you, and therefore He understands you and knows how to manage you, and you must trust Him to do it. Say to Him, "Here, Lord, I abandon myself to thee. I have tried in every way I could think of to manage myself, and to make myself what I know I ought to be, but have always failed..."

Isn't that what I spend much of my time worrying about? The management of my temptations, my feelings, etc.? Mrs. Smith goes on to point out how Christ calls us to be as little children in regards to trusting our Father to manage everything. And how it grieves Him when we do not. How would I feel if I saw my children living as if they could not trust me to provide for their needs? If they feared where their food and clothes would come from; could not rest securely that they would have a warm bed tonight; if I outlined the plan for the day and they said, 'I'm not sure, maybe we should do it my way'? They run to me with every little problem; sometimes painfully so. But would I not be sad to see them instead struggling to solve everything themselves because they feel they shouldn't bother me with it? I want my children, to a healthy extent, to enjoy the carefree mindset that blesses childhood, knowing without a doubt that their parents have their best interest in mind. And God calls us to trust like children, knowing without a doubt that our Father has our best interest in mind.

Even in regards to food and exercise.

I'm sorry if you're tired of it always coming to back to that for me. Feel free to insert your personal "thorn" here.

Wouldn't it be ridiculous to here a child, when offered dessert, say "Oh, I shouldn't"? Or hear them guiltily confess,"I can't eat that, I haven't run today." Instead, they either receive it with joy or they turn to their parent and ask if it would be good and wise for them to have it. Maybe those are the exact boundaries I have been searching for.

Mrs. Smith goes on from there in the same vein, "Next, you must lay off every other burden, -your health, your reputation, your Christian work, your houses, your children, your business, your servants (my yes, those servants are such a burden ;)); everything, in short, that concerns you, whether inward or outward."

Yes, this is a scary world we live in, but this has caused me to wonder: I want my children to be able to live at peace knowing that I, and ultimately God, will protect them; not hiding under the bed in fear of ISIS. How much more so doesn't our Father, who actually can affect complete protection and ultimate victory want to "keep (him) in perfect peace he who's mind is stayed on Thee"?

"Be careful for nothing" that is what Christ says to us through Paul. Can you paint a picture any more child-like than that? Not in an irresponsible sense, but in a sense of complete trust of the one that holds our world in His hands.

P.S. Have you noticed my lapse into old-English style of writing? Sorry, that's what I get from reading a book written in 1832. If I were reading an Irish book you would probably pick up on a certain brogue. ;)