Linda Dillow - Calm My Anxious Heart: A Womans Guide to Finding Contentment

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Table of Contents

Calm My Anxious Heart invites us to examine a universal need for contentment. As each aspect of this need is probed, Linda gently points us to the One who can meet all the longings of our heart.

MIMI WILSON, author of
The Once a Month Cookbook

NavPress is the publishing ministry of The Navigators, an international Christian organization and leader in personal spiritual development. NavPress is committed to helping people grow spiritually and enjoy lives of meaning and hope through personal and group resources that are biblically rooted, culturally relevant, and highly practical.

For a free catalog go to www.NavPress.com or call 1.800.366.7788 in the United States or 1.800.839.4769 in Canada.

1998, 2007 by Linda Dillow

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without written permission from NavPress, P.O. Box 35001, Colorado Springs, CO 80935. www.navpress.com

NAVPRESS and the NAVPRESS logo are registered trademarks of NavPress. Absence of in connection with marks of NavPress or other parties does not indicate an absence of registration of those marks.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60006-141-7

Cover design by studiogearbox.com
Cover image by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Creative Team: Terry Behimer, Darla Hightower, Arvid Wallen, Kathy Guist

Unless otherwise identified, all Scripture quotations in this publication are taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (niv ). Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Other versions used include: the New American Standard Bible (nasb), The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977; the New Testament in Modern English (ph), J. B. Phillips Translator, J. B. Phillips 1958, 1960, 1972, used by permission of Macmillan Publishing Company; the Living Bible (tlb), 1971, used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189, all rights reserved; the Amplified Bible (amp), The Lockman Foundation 1954, 1958, 1962,1964,1965,1987; the New King James Version (nkjv), 1979, 1980, 1982, 1990, Thomas Nelson Inc., Publishers; and the King James Version (kjv).

Dillow, Linda,

Calm my anxious heart/Linda Dillow.

p. cm.

ISBN 1-57683-047-0; 160006-141-9

1. Peace of mind Religious aspects Christianity. 2. Dillow, Linda. I. Title.

BV4908.5.D55 1998

248.4 dc21

98-6268

CIP

Printed in the United States of America

6 7 8 9 10/ 12 11 10 09

To the women in Eastern Europe who lived contentment before me.

ALSO AVAILABLE FROM NAVPRESS

My Journey to Contentment LINDA DILLOW

Map your progress as you write personal reflections and comments from the book Calm My Anxious Heart .

To order your copy of My Journey to Contentment , visit our website at www.navpress.com or call (800) 366-7788.

Chapter 1

My Journey to Contentment

Chapter 1

My Journey to Contentment

As Meredith slumped into a chair in my kitchen, I prepared myself for yet another litany of her tragic life. She had asked to meet with me to talk about how she could become more content. Without a doubt, Meredith was the most negative person Id ever met she even looked negative!

What we are on the inside, what we continually think about, eventually shows in our words, actions, and even on our countenances. Merediths posture and facial expression plainly revealed that she lived her own private reinterpretation of Philippians 4:8: Finally, Meredith, whatever is untrue, whatever is not noble, whatever is not right, whatever is impure, whatever is unlovely, whatever is not admirable if there is anything that is not excellent or worthy of praise think about such things. Merediths life was a living translation of her negative thinking.

Ironically, many women would have traded lives with Meredith in an instant. Her life was far from tragic. She was blessed with good health, a petite figure that stayed that way without effort, a husband who loved her, two adorable children, and even new furniture her husband had recently purchased to make her happy.

I asked Meredith why she was so unhappy when God had given her so many good things. Without hesitation she spouted off her complaints: First, God hadnt given her a house. She wanted her own home. She deserved it. And her husband yes, he loved her, but she just hadnt realized his many faults. Yes, her children were adorable, but they were also negative and complaining (I didnt have to guess why!).

Meredith was like a horse with blinders on, only seeing the dirty road straight ahead. She never raised her gaze upward to God or counted her blessings. She had a blurred perspective, an unholy habit of discontent.

CONTENTMENT BEGINS WITH AN ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE

While Meredith was convinced her easy life was difficult, Ellas life was truly one long series of hardships. But Ella had a holy habit of contentment. Her vision was clear, and she lived with an eternal perspective.

What do I mean by perspective? According to Websters, the term suggests looking through; seeing clearly; the capacity to view things in their true relation of relative importance. I like to think of perspective as a way of seeing. An eternal perspective, then, is Gods way of seeing. When we have Gods perspective, we view our lives and evaluate what is important from His viewpoint. Thats what Ella did.

Along with her husband and children, Ella worked as a missionary with the pygmies in Africa for fifty-two years. She had left her country, her family, and all that was familiar. Primitive doesnt begin to describe her living conditions in the scorching heat and humidity of the African bush. But Ella found no relief because electricity, air conditioning, and other modern conveniences were only a dream. Some days it was so unbearably hot that she had to bring the thermometer inside because it couldnt register past 120 degrees without breaking.

Ellas daughter, Mimi, is my friend. Mimi wondered how her mother had done it how she had lived a life of contentment when her circumstances would have caused the hardiest to complain. Recently Mimi unearthed a treasure, a much more significant find than gold or silver. In an old diary of her mothers, she discovered Ellas prescription for contentment:

Never allow yourself to complain about anything not even the weather.

Never picture yourself in any other circumstances or someplace else.

Never compare your lot with anothers.

Never allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise.

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