"Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:6

If you're anything like me, you have a natural tendency to just worry about things. School, grades, responsibilities, finding the right career path, doing your best, and succeeding; these are the things that constantly weigh me down with worry.

I tend to have a type A personality, so striving for perfection is something that I struggle with. I know that I am not perfect, but I have a test or something that I can measure my talents with, I push myself to the point of exhaustion in order to do well, and then worry about it before I get the results back.

It gets to a point where it is so draining because of how much I worry. I'll give you a recent example.

Being a dental hygiene major, I've just recently gotten to the point in my education where I've started actually being patients. Last week, I saw my first patient, and by the time clinic was over, I cannot tell you how drained and exhausted I was; I felt absolutely wiped out. It wasn't from the amount of work that I did in clinicals that day, but the amount that I had worried about how it was going to go before and during the appointment!

Being a little nervous about something isn't a bad thing because it makes you a little bit more aware when it comes to accomplishing the task that you have at hand, however, what I experienced was an excess amount of worry! That's when it begins to be a problem.

If worrying is something that you struggle with as well, no that you are not alone. It can be easy to let all the problems and things of this world make us worry.

However, you have to daily surrender to the Lord and let it all go.

Cast your cares on the one who cares for you.

1 Peter 5:7, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.”

I encourage you to allow God to give you peace and rest. It is one thing for us to say that we are giving God full control over our lives, but it is another thing entirely to actually act on it.

Fully surrender it all to Him and live in His peace and freedom. He has already taken care of everything for you! You do not have to worry!

Something that I try to do is pray every day that God gives me peace and surrender my worries to Him. I'll pray for the specific things that I am worried about, and ask God to just take those feelings that are consuming me away, and that I'm reminded that He is in control in and knows what is best for me so that I don't have to worry.

As you enter this week, if you have something on your heart that you struggle with in worrying about, take it to the Lord. I encourage you to simply just pray a small prayer asking Him to give you peace. The Bible says that God gives strength to His people and that He blesses them with peace (Psalm 29:11).

You are no exception.

So cast all your worries onto Him, let go, and let God.