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{"id":1424,"date":"2023-11-25T20:33:28","date_gmt":"2023-11-26T04:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/gracebod\/?p=1424"},"modified":"2023-11-25T20:33:28","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T04:33:28","slug":"whatever-is-lovely-guarded-an-anxious-pre-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/gracebod\/2023\/11\/whatever-is-lovely-guarded-an-anxious-pre-thanksgiving\/","title":{"rendered":"Whatever is Lovely… Guarded an Anxious Pre-Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\n

Did you have as much pre-Thanksgiving anxiety as I did this year? Here\u2019s how Apostle Paul\u2019s \u201clovely\u201d advice helped me go from extreme sadness and fearing for my life \u2013 to unexplainable peace and giving one of the most significant hugs of my life. Credit: pexels.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cDo not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.\u00a0<\/strong>Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,<\/strong> whatever is admirable \u2013 if anything is excellent or praiseworthy \u2013 think about such things.<\/strong>\u201d Philippians 4:6-8 (NIV) (bold mine)<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This year \u2013 2023 \u2013 was my 1st Thanksgiving celebrating as a Christian. There were a lot of things that were the same as all the years before \u2013 for example, we still had a \u201ckids\u2019 table\u201d at my husband\u2019s son\u2019s house. And there was a lot that was very different \u2013 I mean, the kids at<\/em> the kids\u2019 table were a lot<\/em> taller.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to think about the deeper differences of this Thanksgiving in the context of Apostle Paul\u2019s how-to advice to \u201cnot be anxious about anything.\u201d<\/a> Because I got clobbered with a ton of shockingly intense anxiety in the days before turkey day. I actually got to the point of fearing for my life and the lives of my teenage sons.<\/p>\n

Would I be able to practice what I\u2019ve been writing? Could I possibly \u201cnot be anxious\u201d when the anxiety was so deeply frightening? How could this level of anxiety be replaced with any sense of peace \u2013 just by thinking about \u201csuch things\u201d as \u201cwhatever is lovely\u201d?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

An extremely anxious pre-thanksgiving<\/h2>\n*** ** ***Basically, The Satan turned up the heat on 2 long-standing, simmering situations. And they quickly morphed into cunning weapons that slammed me back into my pre-Christ, pre-salvation ways of thinking.<\/p>\n \nTwo days before Thanksgiving, my son from my 1st marriage turned 28. He didn\u2019t answer my texts or phone calls \u2013 for the 4th year in a row.<\/li>\nTwo weeks before Thanksgiving, I found out my husband\u2019s ex-wife would be there \u2013 and we would be face-to-face for the 1st time in 25 years.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n*** ** ***I have a gut feeling the above sentences are self-explanatory in their capacity for producing extreme flares of anxiety. But so you know just how bad it got, here\u2019s what specifically happened when I suddenly was not strong enough to withstand The Satan\u2019s mental and emotional attacks.<\/p>\n \nDespite months of prayers to somehow re-establish a connection with my estranged son, the sadness overtook me. I suddenly didn\u2019t know what to do in the face of his silence on his actual birthday. I actually felt that God had forsaken me on this one. And that feeling was terribly dark and overwhelming.<\/li>\nI knew in my head I would someday have to obey God\u2019s desire for me to reconcile with my ex-husband\u2019s wife. After all, I had been \u201cthe other woman,\u201d \u201cthe adulteress.\u201d But I didn\u2019t foresee how easily The Satan would plant and grow my fears that she might take her revenge on me or my boys. Seriously, the \u201cpoisoned food scenario\u201d played itself out waaay too many times.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n*** ** ***\u00a0<\/p>\n My feeble requests to God<\/h2>\n***** ** First, I\u2019m thankful that the Holy Spirit made me aware of what was happening with each situation. I prayed so hard. First, I admitted that I was completely incapable of overcoming this level of anxiety of my own power. Then I begged, \u201cHelp!\u201d<\/p>\n ** *****Quite literally, I lived out \u201c\u2026 in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.\u201d And here are the specifics, so you can learn from my humble process:<\/p>\n \nI asked my Life Group from my church for prayers over me and my son. Not prayers for some miraculous reconciliation. Simply prayers for peace.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n***** ** Now, this was harder for me than it sounds. Because I felt the need to fill everyone in on the backstory that I was an adulteress. And I\u2019d never done that anywhere, to anyone except God Himself.<\/p>\n ** And you know what was miraculous? One of my Life Group Brothers, a young man younger than my estranged son, reminded me that my identity was now in Christ \u2013 and He had already made me white as snow.<\/p>\n ** \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 2. I used this healing reminder as my anchor.<\/p>\n ** And from this solid rock of a place \u2013 from Christ Jesus \u2013 I prayed for help in shielding The Satan\u2019s attacks to my imagination.<\/p>\n ** Plus, full reveal: I also prayed for acceptance of death from this earth if my husband\u2019s ex really did poison me\u2026 or if I died in a Thanksgiving day car crash or passed from a heart attack in my sleep.<\/p>\n ** *****\u00a0<\/p>\n How my heart and mind were guarded in lovely ways<\/h2>\n******* ** If you knew my pre-Christ internal landscape that way I experienced it in my mind and my heart, you would know that it was a vividly scary, suspicious, distrustful place. My mind was perpetually running at 100 mph from imagined death threats and disasters from all sorts of directions.<\/p>\n ** And if you could somehow know my in-Christ internal landscape, you would know how vividly lush, creative, appreciative \u2013 and notably fear-free \u2013 it has become. Quite simply, it\u2019s been a lovely place to inhabit inside.<\/p>\n ** *******So, for me to return to the previous internal landscape was not just scary in-and-of itself. I was more terrified that I had made some grave error and lost Christ \u2013 and The Satan had re-established himself there.<\/p>\n I am so thankful this is not true \u2013 and that this will never be true. I\u2019m also thankful for the test. Because now I know the extreme power of prayer<\/a> \u2013 both my own and those of others over me.<\/p>\n \nI haven\u2019t (yet) heard from my son. Yet I somehow, inexplicably, feel \u201cthe peace of God.\u201d I fully trust that God has a path for me with regards to my son \u2013 and a path for my son with regards to me. And no matter what that is\u2026 I\u2019m good with it. I\u2019ll still pray, ask for prayers, and listen to the Holy Spirit for action whenever it is time to take it. But I\u2019m good with it \u2013 and it is lovely.<\/li>\nMy husband\u2019s ex-wife and I shared the warmest hug I had never imagined possible. I said a last-moment prayer to fill me with light, salt, and love as I walked to the door to greet her, and the Holy Spirit urged me to hold her longer. I felt a wave of Jesus\u2019 love wash through me and into her, and she said, \u201cThat\u2019s the best hug.\u201d Underneath my tears, I knew this was lovely.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n******* ** *******\u00a0<\/p>\n Whatever was lovely for you this Thanksgiving?<\/h2>\n********* ** Whether you\u2019re in-Christ or not, searching or found, feeling anxious or at peace \u2013 wherever you are on your journey today, I have a question for you to ponder:<\/p>\n ** *********What were 2 things that ended up being lovely for you this Thanksgiving \u2013 especially if they didn\u2019t start out that way?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Please do pray over these 2 things. And feel free to ask for others, including me if you like,<\/a> to pray over you!<\/p>\n I pray that the peace of God, which truly does transcend all understanding, will guard your mind and your heart as we continue post-Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cDo not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.\u00a0Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5118,"featured_media":1463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[95,38,24,22,137],"class_list":["post-1424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anxiety","tag-fear","tag-paul","tag-philippians","tag-thanksgiving"],"yoast_head":"\nWhatever is Lovely... Guarded an Anxious Pre-Thanksgiving<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I just had an extra-anxious pre-Thanksgiving. I was guarded by advice from Apostle Paul: Think about whatever is lovely. 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