By Amber Weigand-Buckley
I’ve always carried “keep calm and carry on” as my personal motto, even before I married my British hubby.
But I recently discovered I’d been getting it all wrong. Growing up in a household where my dad battled depression and anger, the unspoken rule was simple: shut up and keep the peace.
I thought this was strength.
This truth hit me during a particularly stressful morning commute. As I sat in traffic those words struck me differently: Keep calm and don’t carry it on.
My husband learned the same stiff-upper-lip mentality.
We both believed keeping calm meant hiding our emotions and soldiering on. But God doesn’t work that way—He asks us to relinquish, not suppress.
At the red light, I literally had to release my white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel and turn my palms up in surrender.
That simple gesture became my posture of releasing what I was carrying to the One who wants to take it.
“Cast your cares on Him because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7 NIV) isn’t just a nice verse—it’s an invitation.
Sometimes my anxiety is a tangled ball of worry about finances, family, and world events.
But when I hand the knotted up feeling for God to untangle I find real peace.
As you read this issue I pray that you will embrace the calm when a flip of your hands—palms up!
