My spiritual mentor of many years passed away last January. I miss her very much, especially now, with such alarming events going on in our world. So many times in the past when I was afraid or anxious, I would call her for comfort and guidance. She would listen and then give me her recipe for serenity: “Trust God and refuse to worry!”
My mentor was very human, and shared with me how she too often struggled with trust and with faith, through her ninety-plus years. Through the years, however, she had developed a four-part strategy for keeping calm in trying times… a recipe for serenity that worked, she told me, with both outside events and inner turmoil:
- Make a decision to trust God and to refuse to worry.
- Put up a STOP sign in your mind, when your thoughts drift towards anxiety or fear.
- Think only about today, not the future.
- Do the next right thing.
She taught me that trusting God is an act of will, not a feeling, and that refusing to worry is a choice I can make, even when I feel overwhelmed with fear.
I always wanted God to take away the fear and anxiety first, so I could go about my day in peace.
It never worked that way.
When I decided to act in spite of my fear and worry, however, I began to feel better. When I stopped looking at my fears (that is, “put up the stop sign”), and stopped thinking about what might happen tomorrow, then I had enough willpower to focus on the next right thing, and DO IT. Then I would put the anxiety behind that stop sign again, choose the next right thing to do, and DO IT. Eventually, at some point in my day, I would start to feel serene again.
My mentor’s recipe for serenity helped me through deadlines and layoffs at work, the illness and death of my mother, the deaths of two grand-daughters, thyroid surgery, my husband’s two bouts with cancer, and many other of life’s challenges.
My mentor also told me that when I didn’t feel I could trust or have faith, that I could ask God to give me those gifts.
Often when I sit and pray in the morning, these days, I share with my Higher Power my fears about world events, and what might happen. Then I tell Him I’m going to focus on just this one day, and I ask Him to give me a truckload of trust and faith, for this one day.
Because of my Higher Power’s presence and His gifts of faith and trust, I can live most of the hours of my days in serenity. And when I feel triggered into fear and anxiety, I can ask again for the gifts of faith and of trust, and then follow my mentor’s strategy for serenity: “Trust God and refuse to worry! Put that anxiety behind a mental stop sign, stop thinking about tomorrow, and get busy on the next right thing to do today.”