Hard conversations at work, communicating with your children in the midst of their fears, achieving success in everyday life. These are just a few of the anxiety-inducing things that Lauren and Rick discuss in this week's episode.
Rick calls anxiety the window into our belief system, but also references Philippians where we as Believers are called to not be anxious but instead to pray. He also references a leadership tool called non-anxious presence. Lauren jumps in by saying that she has to hide some of her anxiety from her kids in order for them to not feed off of her anxiety. Rick agrees that he also struggles with acknowledging his anxiety in front of his children.
Even in the midst of anxiety, Rick and Lauren recognize that things like prayer and acknowledgement - naming their anxiety out loud - can help immensely because the story God's telling is bigger than our fears.
Because COVID-19 is such a huge part of our lives right now, Rick and Lauren realize that it's important to talk about their anxiety around the virus. Rick admits that he has had a lot of anxiety lately because of COVID-19, but he realizes that some of that comes from him not trusting God completely. Realizing this, Rick says, has allowed him to get closer to God and closer to his coworkers by being honest and inviting Jesus into the hard places. Lauren joins the conversation by talking about her family's struggles during COVID-19, and how she knows she needs to reframe and restructure her attitude and thoughts towards her current circumstances. One way Lauren says she knows she needs to reframe is by being more thankful every day, not just the days that are easy.
Along with being more thankful, Rick adds that this time of anxiety is a lesson for him to let go of his attachment to the things that make him comfortable. He references a passage in Matthew where Jesus tells us to not be anxious about anything.
To wrap up the episode, Rick talks about 1 Peter, where the author reminds us where to put our hope.
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