Fear of the Dark

My grandparents, Charles & Florence Personeus

Pelican Church with attached parsonage (left) in the Fifties

As a child, when I visited my grandparents in Pelican, Alaska, each summer, my bed was in a huge room above the church sanctuary. To get to it, I had to climb two flights of stairs and then a few more steps and turn left into the dark room. There was no light switch on the wall. It took all the courage I could muster to run to the center of that room, heart pounding, and fling my hands high over my head until I located the single cord to pull to turn on the overhead light. The light quickly dispelled my fear.

I don't know why I was so afraid. I wasn't usually afraid of the dark. But going into that dark room spooked me.

Isn't that like our fear of the unknown?

We are unsure of what lurks in the future. We imagine so many things that MAY happen--poverty, sickness, loss of loved ones, and the list can go on and on. We die a thousand deaths from fear of what tomorrow may bring.

In Matthew 6: 25-34, Jesus warned His disciples about worrying over the future. Essentially, He reminded them that God takes care of the birds and the flowers of the field. "Are you not of more value than they are?" He asked.

Then He told them that people seek after food, drink, and clothing, but their Heavenly Father knows they need these things.

Courtesy Google.com

In other words, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Here are some of my favorite quotes about worry:

"Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles. It empties today of its strength." 
--Corrie ten Boom


"Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere."
--Erma Bombeck


“There is a great difference between worry and concern. A worried person sees a problem, and a concerned person solves a problem.” -- Harold Stephen


“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.”
– Winston Churchill


“Worry a little bit every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years. If something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry. Worry never fixes anything.”
– Mary Hemingway

I find comfort in the song written by Ira Stanphill, "I Don't Know About Tomorrow." When I find fear creeping in, I sing those words and worry must flee.


Books by AnnaLee Conti

He Never Sleeps

Last week, I wrote about how my mother lay awake worrying about house fires and how to get everyone out of the children's home she and my father operated in the early fifties in Alaska. (See Fire!) Although she got sick and had to give up the children's home, through that she did finally learn to trust such things things to the Lord.

But I had to learn that same lesson myself.

Bob in Vietnam 1969

When my husband, Bob,  resigned his regular commission in the Army to go into full-time gospel ministry, the Army asked him to keep a reserve commission even though he had satisfied his required time in the military.

The Army needed personnel to fill in for certain officers in the regular army when they took leave. But they couldn't use just anyone. They needed officers who had performed that job while on active duty. Instead of fulfilling the requirements of reserve duty the usual way one weekend a month, he could chose which two week time period he would serve.

That allowed him to fulfill his active duty requirements between terms at seminary. It also provided extra income then as well as later when he was a pioneer pastor.

While Bob was in seminary in Springfield, Missouri, our son was a preschooler. We rented a small, one-story house with windows all around. I worked at our denominational publishing house as an editorial assistant. My job included a lot of proofreading and editing.

The first time Bob went away for his two-week tour of duty was the first time I would be home alone at night with a young child. The first night, I lay in bed afraid to close my eyes. All through those long hours, I stared toward the open bedroom door imagining every shadow to be an intruder. What would I do if someone broke in?

The next day, I could hardly function at work. My eyelids drooped, and I struggled to stay awake as I tried to proofread. I knew I could not survive two weeks like this.

Courtesy Google.com

That night, when I got into bed, I prayed, "Lord, you promised in Psalm 121 that You neither slumber nor sleep. There's no sense both of us staying awake. I'm going to trust You to watch over us and take care of us." And I deliberately closed my eyes.

It took a determined act of my will, but I kept my eyes closed. It wasn't long before I fell asleep and awoke refreshed in the morning.

Each night, I repeated that prayer. Before long, I had no problem sleeping in the house when Bob was away. Of course, I always took the necessary precautions of checking to be sure the doors and windows were all locked.

Do you have trouble trusting the Lord in everyday situations? Try what I did. Find a Bible promise that relates to your need and pray it. Determine to trust it to God.

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Prescription for Peace Part 3, Worry

Robin, Courtesy of Google.com

Overhead in a Tree One Day

Said the robin to the sparrow,
     "I should really like to know
Why these anxious human beings
     Rush about and worry so."

Sparrow, Courtesy of Google.com

Said the sparrow to the robin,

     "I think that it must be
They have no Heavenly Father
     Such as cares for you and me."
              --The Prairie Pastor



The majority of the American population worries about many things--the economy, jobs, health, you name it. In fact, worry is the number one health priority in the United States. Hospitals are full of people who worried themselves into physical and mental illness.

Doctors tell us that worry affects the entire body and actually causes diseases of the nervous system, digestive system, the glands, and the heart. In short, worry is not only a sin against God by demonstrating a lack of faith, it is also a sin against ourselves. Worry kills.

It's been said that "worry is interest paid on trouble before it is due." Many of the things we worry about never happen.

There are two things we should not worry about:

1. Things we cannot do anything about. In that case worry is useless.
2. Things we can help. Instead, we need to get busy and do what we can.

Worry never does any good. In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus describes the futility of worrying. In fact, He says worry is equated with having "little faith." Worry about food, clothes, and housing dominates the thoughts of unbelievers. Since "your Heavenly Father already knows all your needs," we are to "seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need."

"Oh, I'm not worried; I'm just concerned," you say. How can you tell the difference?

• A worried person sees a problem.
• A concerned person solves a problem.

Sometimes, I even catch myself worrying as I pray. Instead of praying about my concern and entrusting it to God to work it out, I find myself picking up my burden and carrying it on my shoulders again, repeating my request over and over. I'm not saying to ask once and never repeat it again. I'm talking about worrying over it instead of thanking God for the answer that is on the way.

I read of one person, J. Arthur Rank, who came up with a practical way to keep from worrying. He designated Wednesday as worry day. Whenever he was tempted to worry about something, he wrote it down and stuck the note is his "worry box." On worry day, he read all the notes. Often, he found that what he had been worried about had either been resolved or hadn't even happened.

Corrie ten Boom, who survived a Nazi concentration camp where she was imprisoned for aiding the Jews, said, "Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength."

Worry is a sure way to ruin a perfectly good present by imagining calamities that may never come. Jesus rose again and is seated at the right hand of God the Father to take care of our present. God's prescription for worry is to seek His kingdom first. Do what you can to prevent trouble, and trust Him to take of the rest.

The Worry Box

It's been said that "worry is interest paid on trouble before it is due." Are you a worrier? I was--until I learned how useless worry is and discovered strategies to stop worrying.

Worry is the number one health problem in the USA. Hospitals and mental institutions are full of people who worried themselves into physical and mental illness. Doctors tell us that worry affects the circulation, the heart, the glands, the whole nervous system. Research has proven that worry breaks down resistance to disease, and it actually causes diseases of the nervous system, digestive system, and the heart. In short, worry is not only sin against God by demonstrating a lack of faith, but it is also sin against our own bodies. Worry kills.

A poem I found on an old greeting card says, "Overheard in a Tree One Day," got me to thinking:

Said the robin to the sparrow, "I should really like to know

Why these anxious human beings rush about and worry so."

Said the sparrow to the robin, "I think that it must be

They have no Heavenly Father such as cares for you and me."

I discovered that the big difference between worry and concern is that a worried person sees a problem, while the concerned person solves a problem. Worry never does any good. First, it's useless to worry about things we can't do anything about. We must trust them to God. Second, if we can do something about it, we need to get busy and do what we can.

God's prescription for worry is recorded in Philippians 4. I have found that it works every time, in every case, if applied moment by moment according to the instructions of our Great Physician: (1) Rejoice in the Lord always! (v. 4); (2) Don't worry but pray (v. 6); (3) Dwell on good, helpful thoughts (v. 8); (4) Keep our minds on Jesus (v. 7, 9). Since we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (v. 13) and God has promised to supply all our needs according to His endless riches (v. 19), why worry? I now replace worry thoughts with these Scriptures.

If you are a worrier, here's an idea to try: J. Arthur Rank would write down all his worries and put them in a box for Wednesday, designated his Worry Day. On Worry Day, he would read them all and usually found that by then most things were already settled.

For a happier, healthier life, don't worry!