Keep a quiet heart

            I've been reading, "Keep a Quiet Heart" by Elisabeth Elliot and it's been a great encouragement. As a person who suffers from anxiety it can be hard to keep a quiet heart, but I'm finding as I remind myself daily to keep a quiet heart it's becoming easier to actually live it.

      This past weekend we had really bad weather with hurricane level rain and wind. Thousands of homes were flooded, cars ruined and people evacuated to nearby shelters. Some people were reported saying this was the first time their homes, streets and area were flooded in the 30+ years living there. Others said they just finished repairing flood damages from Memorial Day weekend and now they were being flooded again. It's been horrible. Even though the sun is out today many neighborhoods still have high levels of standing water because the creeks and bayous simply can't absorb any more. We received up to 12 inches of rain in 6 hours in the worst hit places. Many school districts and companies are still closed.

          Several times a year (not including hurricanes) we get hit with really heavy rain and our street floods. It's never been over our sidewalk though. The way the street slopes  the water rises diagonally up our driveway then hits our sidewalk. The normal heavy rains usually send me into a panic and prayer. My heart is far from quiet. But Sunday night as the waters rose slowly passing it's normal height and coming into new territory my heart did not panic. I kept reminding myself to, "keep a quiet heart because a quiet heart is one that trusts God." No matter what the outcome of the situation I could trust God! 

         I kept my breathing calm and stayed in peace all night, even though the waters made it more than half way up our driveway, covering our sidewalk and then hitting the trees that sit in the center of our yard (new bench-marker). Oh, and lets not forget the quarter size hail! For a brief moment I found myself enjoying the drama of the hail. The hail came falling out of the sky with such speed that it caused rather large splashes when hitting the flooded street. But then suddenly it started slamming into our windows and I was over it! I was snapped back into reality real fast.

        Let's just say my comfort zone for high water has been expanded! Even though I didn't sleep  because I was checking the street and the news, I didn't find my heart panicking or racing either. I had many opportunities to give into fear and anxiety, but I stood my ground in peace. I'm very proud of myself. I truly kept a quiet heart. I kept my peace. I kept my focus. I knew with God I could walk through anything.

         I find myself whispering to my own heart nowadays, "be still", "rest", "trust" and being more gentle with myself. We nurture other people, why not ourselves? Our inner child, our inner adult, our inner person needs nurturing as much as anyone else. To keep a quiet heart we must learn to shepherd our heart.