Confessions of a Recovering Worry-Wart

I first learned what worry
really felt like the moment I became a mother. I think there must be something about parental responsibility that turns on the “worry buttons” in the brain. When LM had his grand mal seizure and was taken by ambulance to the ER last year, I became a chronic worrier. The first thing I did when I woke up in the morning was to worry. I worried all day, and then I went to sleep worrying. “What if’s” ruled my life. Lately as we’ve dealt with LM’s seizures and subsequent diagnosis, I began to analyze my feelings and I realized just how much I had let worry consume my life. I recognized that living full of worry is not a happy or peaceful way to live. I also realized that the feelings I had when I was worried were the same feelings I had when I was afraid, and that in reality, worry is just another name for fear. But I think there is one significant difference: Fear tends to paralyze and keeps us from acting, while worry has the opposite effect. Worry prods us to overact, grasping tighter and tighter for a feeling of control over any and every aspect of life; it causes us to forget to trust our Lord and Savior. Worry is just another tool of Satan to distract us from Truth. Worry is lack of faith and a road block to spiritual progression. President Hinckley said, “Let us recognize that fear (and worry) comes not of God, but rather that this gnawing, destructive element comes from the adversary of truth and righteousness. Fear is the antithesis of faith. It is corrosive in its effects, even deadly.” So I am trying not to worry so much. And I’m doing everything I can to increase my trust in the Savior. My hope is to someday be so full of faith and trust that there won’t be room for worry. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7).