I wanted to do something different for Sunday Best today because a lot of things have been different for us recently.
We have moved a fair amount in the last 7 and a half years of marriage but this is our first time buying a home and while it’s been exciting and wonderful and just an enormous blessing, I have been having really difficult anxiety. I’m an anxious person by nature so I’m used to the minor panics and irrational worrying but when my anxiety is deeper and left unchecked, it turns into something else. More like despair and hopelessness and I feel less and less like myself. And while this has been such a blessed time for our family, I could feel my anxiety turning. Thankfully, I feel like I’m starting to come out of it and I wanted to share one of the ways that’s helped me to come back to myself.
For the past 5 or 6 years, I have kept little note cards in my purse that have my favorite scriptures, quotations, and little revelations I’ve had while doing gospel study. I like to keep them with me so that in a difficult moment, I can just reach into my bag and have immediate inspiration. They help me to remember important doctrine and how sure I once felt of myself and my divine connection. So for today’s Sunday Best, I wanted to share a few of my favorite scriptures and quotations to read when I’m having anxiety. I hope these messages can help you or motivate you to create your own index of inspiration.
“Be of good cheer, for I will lead you along.”
“I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell.”
“That love never changes… It is there for you when you are sad or happy, discouraged or hopeful. God’s love is there for you whether or not you feel you deserve it. It is simply always there.”
“Thou art not yet as Job.”
“But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love.”
“Be of good cheer, little children; for I am in your midst, and I have not forsaken you.”
“I have found if you cast your burden at the Savior’s feet, He will carry it for you and replace anguish with love.”
“There is no room for fear in these holy places of God or in the hearts of His children. Why? Because of love. God loves us–always–and we love Him. Our love of God counters all fears.”
“My heart is torn with anxious fears, and yet the Spirit tells me all will yet be well.”
And this one is too long for one of my notecards but I felt like maybe someone else needed to read it as much as I did:
“It is challenging but vital to remain firm and steadfast when we find ourselves being refined ‘in the furnace of affliction,’ something that comes soon or late to all of us in mortality. Without God, these dark experiences tend to despondency, despair, and even bitterness. With God, comfort replaces pain, peace replaces turmoil, and hope replaces sorrow. Remaining firm in the faith of Christ will bring His sustaining grace and support. He will convert trial into blessing and, in Isaiah’s words, ‘give…beauty for ashes.'”
Happy Sunday, everybody.
xo
eb