Worry Less, So You Can Live More.

**This post may contain sponsor, affiliate, and/or referral links. I have been given Worry Less So You Can Live More by Jane Rubietta (PDF copy) free of charge in exchange for this review. However, the opinions in this post are my own. For more information please read my full disclosure statement here. **

I have let fear run my life for a long time. It has stopped me from dreaming, from achieving and from going out and experiencing life. In college, I remember the countless times I chose to stay in my dorm instead of going out and making friends.

Instead of jumping on every opportunity to help out a fellow film student with their student project - I shied away, afraid of what might happen - afraid I might be disliked or a fear that I might actually make friends and they let me down. 

Instead of taking chances and going to every thing I possibly could, I would make up an excuse and slink back into the little box I created for myself. I lost out on a lot of great friendships that way. Because of what? FEAR. 

"Worry is the next of kin of fear, and fear has been one of my tightest boxes. Fear of being disliked, fear of failing, fear of not being good enough. Fear of abandonment, of arguments, of making mistakes. Fear of dreaming, because this incorporated all the other fears." 

Jane Rubietta 

Worry Less, So You Can Live More 

Looking back I am reminded of all the missed experiences and I regret.

I remember my affliction and my wandering,

the bitterness and the gall.

I well remember them,

and my soul is downcast within me.

Yet this I call to mind

and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail.

Lamentations 3:19-22

Which of course leads to the next of kin of fear which is worry. Every time I want to put myself out there I worry, worry that things will go terribly - that I will later regret going and putting myself out there to be hurt. But you want to know something? 

I never do! All the things that occupy my mind with worry never actually come true. 

Have you noticed that? You go into something freaking out about all the bad things that could happen and then they don't actually happen? 

What I am learning is that if we let fear and worry place us in a box, we don't allow God to work in and through us. He doesn't care if we think we will fail because if we allow ourselves to come out of our box - he will be leading us and with God we cannot fail.

How many times have you let fear stop you from living? 

We are not alone - many have walked this path before us. Take Jane Rubietta for instance, author of Worry Less, So You Can Live More. She put herself in the fear box too, but she found her way out. 

In her book, Jane Rubietta gently guides you from worrying to truly living. By using personal stories of her own journey of God leading her away from worry and anxiety and towards delight and joy. She encourages and leads us step by step to start reducing the worry in our life, but reminding us to look and depend on our Lord God completely. With a personal story at the beginning of each chapter that provides a lesson, followed by how we can apply it to our lives, then concluding with questions for personal introspection - Worry Less, So You Can Live More motivates lasting change in how we see our life and circumstance. 

It gives us an honest view of how to live life moment by moment enjoying the small things God gives us to delight it because God doesn't want us to worry, He wants us to be free to enjoy the life He gave us. 

When reading I recommend taking it a chapter at a time to really soak up , reflect and apply Jane's points to your own life for overall effectiveness. Go slow and make sure you write out your answers to the reflection questions because when you are aware of where you are, you can lead yourself in the direction you want to go. 

I pray that this book blesses you and encourages you to start giving everything over to God and start living the way life is meant to be lived: Fully.

The one thing that really stood out to me in her book was that Jane encourages us to say the Lord's Prayer on a regular basis. Reciting the prayer God gave us refocuses our attention away from our worry, fear and regret to the one who provides our every need. 

As I mentioned in, Your Tongue Can Be A Snare to Your Soul, God has a way of drawing our attention to what he wants us to learn at a specific time, and for me, now is no different. If you remember my post, Prayer In A Bathroom Stall, Max Lucado's book also emphasizes the importance of the Lord's prayer. 

God definitely is sending a message that I need to say the Lord's prayer to stop focusing on the problems, worries and anxieties of this world and start looking toward Heaven and at God for true unchanging Joy. 

So anytime I get worried about the future or if something not of the Lord comes into my mind, I say the Lord's prayer and my focus returns to where it needs to be: Our God, the creator and keeper of this world. 

27Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:27, 34

Your Turn: What has God been teaching you lately? 

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