Daly Focus Blog
Author and speaker Patsy Clairmont is well known for her wit and sense of humor. But she also has an amazing testimony of overcoming a chronic anxiety disorder and panic attacks.
Anxiety is about the scary “what ifs?” in life. Patsy imagined horrible scenarios about everything that could happen and rehearsed them over and over again in her mind. Her anxiety was so acute that she felt emotionally paralyzed and hid away at home.
Patsy says:
“Fear has friends – anger, guilt, shame.
Remember Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, David’s giant nemesis who challenged the entire Israelite army to a fight? He was nearly ten feet tall. His armor weighed 150 pounds, and his spear weighed nearly 30 pounds.
David was a shepherd boy. A teenager. Yet when he heard Goliath’s taunts, he didn’t run and hide in fear. He said, “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” Then he stared Goliath down and trusted God for victory.
See if this scenario sounds familiar.
Your son is playing with his toys when you stop by and tell him it’s time to clean up his room. You walk away, but instead of complying immediately, your son keeps right on playing.
A few minutes later, you return and discover that your instructions have been ignored. How would you respond?
Many moms and dads respond by exploding in anger.
The question is why? There’s no reason for a child’s ignoring simple instructions like “clean up your room” or “take out the trash” to make a parent’s blood boil, and yet it often does.
Jim Daly is a husband, father and President of Focus on the Family and host of its National Radio Hall of Fame broadcast. His blog, Daly Focus, is full of timely commentary and wisdom designed to help you navigate and understand today’s culture. His latest book is Marriage Done Right.
