Question of the Week #9

Welcome to the ninth edition of "Question of the Week"...please answer in the comments OR write a blog post of your own and leave me a link to your answers! Feel free to borrow the graphic as well.

Where do you go for comfort? When you're feeling sad? anxious? depressed? out-of-sorts? Where do you turn when life has got you down? When you're feeling lost and "disturbled" to borrow a term from good-old-Wycliffe? Do you turn to God? Do you turn to your family? your friends? To food? To chocolate? To exercise? To a book? A song? A movie? Your favorite teddy? These days do come to all of us, and it has always been interesting to me to see how different people cope...coping is an important skill after all! If and only if you feel comfortable sharing, answer a few of these questions...I don't want to make anyone feel too exposed or vulnerable. But this is big, really big, and sharing ideas and thoughts could be helpful, you know...

My answer: I wish I could say I always turn to God in times like these. But I can't, so I won't. I think I am learning more week by week, month by month to lean on Him, to trust in Him. I'm not perfect by any means, but I am trying so hard to learn healthy coping habits--not self-destructive ones. A year ago, I might have said chocolate and cookies and mac 'n cheese. (Not that it's still not tempting...but...)

In the past, I've turned to food and drink (my favorite drug of choice, caffeine and sugar: Dr. Pepper; Coke), I've turned to my mom, of course, I feel she's one of the only people that have ever-always understood me. I've turned to music--pumping up my favorite song and/or favorite album. Losing myself in the melody. Drowning out my thoughts altogether. The second half of the White Album used to always worked for me...somewhere between "Everybody's Got Something to Hide" and " Cry, Baby, Cry" my angst gets dispersed. I've resorted to books too. Escaping in a good book, a comfortable book. (I think there was something cathartic about Gone With The Wind that relieved my stress during finals time.) Speaking of which, sometimes nothing feels better than having a good old ugly cry.

Now, I try to turn to different things. Depending on the time of day, and the mood swing. I turn to my mom still--there's no replacing that support! But I also turn to God. I turn to the Bible. I spend time reading. I spend time searching. I spend time praying. But what can help quicker than anything, I've learned, is listening to worship-filled music. For me, listening to a cd (or two) of hymns can do wonders. I can listen to them over and over. And even if I don't start out feeling it, if I'm not in a place to join in, it happens. Before I know it, I'm in a place where I'm praising. I've taken the focus off of me, off of my feelings of doubt and anxiety....and put the focus on God. Praising God lifts you out of "the depths of despair" (to borrow from good-old-Anne-Shirley).

I'll try to review some of my favorite albums this week. And I'll try to post snippets of my favorite hymns.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible