Mo Mydlo - Overcoming Anxiety: Your Biblical Guide to Breaking Free from Fear and Worry

Most CHARISMA HOUSE BOOK GROUP products are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchase for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, and educational needs. For details, write Charisma House Book Group, 600 Rinehart Road, Lake Mary, Florida 32746, or telephone (407) 333-0600.

OVERCOMING ANXIETY by Mo Mydlo

Published by Siloam

Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group

600 Rinehart Road

Lake Mary, Florida 32746

www.charismahouse.com

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked MEV are taken from the Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright 2014 by Military Bible Association. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2015 by Mo Mydlo

All rights reserved

Cover design by Justin Evans

Visit the authors website at unforsakenministries.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Mydlo, Mo.

Overcoming anxiety / Mo Mydlo.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-62998-028-7 (trade paper) -- ISBN 978-1-62998-029-4 (e-book)

1. Anxiety--Religious aspects--Christianity. 2. Worry-Religious aspects--Christianity. 3. Trust in God--Christianity.

I. Title.

BV4908.5.M93 2015

248.86--dc23

2015027623

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication.

I am blessed to dedicate this book to my husband, Tommy. Tommys confidence in Christ, love of the Scriptures, and passionate desire to serve God has allowed me to be completely transparent with him for the past twenty-one years. This transparency has enabled God to heal me and put me in a place to help others. Tommy is a prince among men.

CONTENTS

I WANT TO THANK my mom and dad for always encouraging my writing. Mom, your editing help is priceless, and Dad, your prayers for me while youre out on the tractor have never been ignored. You both have been the best parents anyone could ask for. Thank you for helping me to understand the unconditional love of God.

I want to thank my mother-in-law, Anne Marie, for being a shining example of a mother to me while my children were young and I was dealing with severe anxiety. Your love for me meant more than you will ever know.

To my precious children, Jacob, Travis, Sara, and Eli: If I never did another thing while on this earth than be your mommy, I will have been gloriously blessed. I completely adore you all. I pray daily for your future spouses and my future grandchildren, and for you to always pursue lives centered around Jesus Christ.

To my spiritual kids, Angel and Kurtis, I love you dearly. Every day since God has placed you in my and Tommys lives, we have thanked Him for you.

To my sisters and brother: Thank you for always loving meeven when I was so self-righteous as a child that you nicknamed me Mother Mo. We should have known back then I would be in ministry. Love you!

To the women at Unforsaken Women: Your dedication to me and to our precious once-a-month Thursday night womens event means more than I could say in words. Please know that when I wrote this book, I pictured many of your faces nodding and agreeing with me as I would type each word. Thank you for your love and support.

To the many pastors, Bible teachers, and authors from whom I have learned over the past sixteen years: Thank you. I owe much of my peace to your hard work and diligence in presenting the gospel to the nations.

I AM ABOUT AN inch from being forty-two years old, and I can honestly say that the past forty-two years have taught me many lessons. But the best lessons I have learned have come in the past sixteen years spent devouring Gods Word.

I have always been a worrier. Have you? Quite honestly I cant remember when I didnt struggle with anxiety. Did I know what it was? Not really. I remember my mom saying: Maureen, stop worrying or youre going to give yourself an ulcer. Really all I think that did was make me worry about what an ulcer was. For my sweet mom who will read this, and mothers all over who will sometimes blame themselves for having a child with anxiety, may I please say to you: its not your fault.

Sometimes anxiety cannot be pinpointed as to why we struggle with it, when we first noticed it, or if a traumatic event or series of events are what lead up to it. The truth is, sometimes two different children, raised in the same environment, under very similar circumstances will react differently to the same stimuli. Thats at least what I have observed with my six siblings and myself. Pretty much half of us struggle with control issues and obsessiveness and anxiety, when the other half seems to allow lifes struggles to roll off their backs pretty easily. Call it temperament, upbringing, or nature versus nurture, one half of the crew could be found quite often biting our fingernails, staring off during conversations, obviously dealing with other thoughts, with occasional bellyaches that led to frustration for my parents.

We moved a lot. I know some people would try to pin my anxiety on that. But, I remember worrying about things before we ever packed up the first moving van to start fresh in a new school or home. So that sort of negates that theory.

I vividly remember our first home. We had a sliding glass door off our family room. Because we lived on a hill, I could see all the way down the hill to the road that would lead to our house. It was starting to get dark, and I was worried about my dad. He was so special to me. As mom was cooking dinner, I kept asking her, Where is Daddy? What if he is in an accident? What if he doesnt come home? Mommy, what if he is dead?

My poor mother didnt know how to handle my anxiety. I was the first of her daughters to voice such continual concerns to her on a daily basis. My what-ifs must have been draining and concerning to her. After all, she had five children at the time to account for, much less answer all my dreadful questions. She did her best. But nothing seemed to ease my fear until I could visually see my father pull into the driveway with his truck. I would run out and greet him, throw my arms around him, and let it go. But the unhealthy closure I developed with situations such as this created more and more fears. My world was not peaceful until I felt some sort of control. This control was temporary and fleeting and somewhat contagious. One fear grabbed the next fear, until I guess you could say I was chronically worried about everything.

I feared my parents getting a divorce, my parents dying, my parents starting to smoke (they werent smokers, and my mother didnt even drink alcohol). I feared sickness, disease, and embarrassing situations such as head lice or vomiting in public. I feared letting my parents down in some way, not being perfect, not getting great grades or performing in a respectful manner. I feared everything that could possibly go wrong with our family. I loved my parents and my siblings so much that I think my immature, childlike thinking led me to believe that if I didnt worry about it, I didnt care enough.