Proverbs 18:21 (NIV) states, "The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
The past few months have given me much to reflect on, moments I did not plan for, encounters I did not expect, and emotions I did not understand. And yet, through it all, I find myself grateful.
Grateful for every experience, even the uncomfortable ones, because each day arrives new, untouched, unwritten by me and I am still learning, slowly, to receive it with open arms.
I have also become more purposeful about what I allow into my mind and spirit. Negative thoughts, draining emotions, and environments that felt like a pulling away from peace, I try, as best as I can, to step back from them, not perfectly but consciously.
Because I am beginning to understand something deeper about anxiety.
Anxiety often begins when we try to control what was never ours to control and we find ourselves rushing ahead of life.
I'm finding for myself that in doing so, we slowly lose the peace that was available to us for the present moment. But then I am reminded of a truth that shifts everything that God is already where I am going.
He is not waiting at some distant point in my future, hoping I will arrive with everything figured out. He is already there, in the unknown, in the unanswered questions, in the spaces I am still trying to make sense of and more than that, He is here, present, near and steady.
When I truly sit with this, something within me softens. The pressure to predict, to control, to have certainty about every outcome, begins to loosen its grip.
I no longer need to rush ahead of my life, because I am not walking into anything alone.
Peace, I am learning, is not found in having all the answers. It is found in trusting the one who already stands in every tomorrow I worry about.
This does not mean fear disappears overnight. It does not mean I suddenly stop overthinking or questioning. But it does mean I have somewhere to return to, a place of rest. A quiet reminder that I am held, even in the uncertainty, so I am learning to pause and to come back to this moment to just breathe and to release what was never mine to carry.
Trusting that wherever life unfolds next, God is already there waiting, not with pressure, but with peace.
Anxiety grows when we rush ahead of life and peace returns when we realise this, that God is already there.
