Hiss

One thing that really disturbs me is the presence of a little voice whose speaker I know far too well. If you care to notice it, you can hear it too, though hopefully not as frequently as I do. It sneaks into your mind when you are presented with temptation, and if you're not carefully watching and defending the city, it can easily penetrate the walls and wreak havoc in your life. If you let it, it will slither under your skin and take control of you, moving your limbs, controlling your tongue, poisoning your thoughts. By grace, though, you can learn to tell it apart from good thoughts and in this way prevent it from infiltrating and ruining. (A note here: one need not be familiar with the voice to recognize it as bad - if we can recognize the voice of The Lord, we can tell all others apart from it and thereby know from which to flee.)

A few things it whispers to recognize as warnings:

It's worth it

There won't be any consequences

If there are consequences, they won't be bad

The reward will outweigh the punishment

A little guilt on your conscience is better than missing this opportunity

Nobody else thinks it's wrong

Lots of people do it

Just a little will do

You aren't harming anyone

Nobody's watching

You know you want it

It doesn't expressly say not to

It's not as bad as other things

God will overlook this one

It's really not bad

You're overreacting

When I hear these things I recognize their source, and the only way to convince myself that he's wrong is to remember who is right and the severity of ignoring what I know He would say. I imagine a slithery, scaly little thing sliding under my skin, and I think about how horrifying it is to know that there is such vileness inside me. I don't want the monster whispering to me, I want to sweep him out and scrub the floor where he stood with bleach. So I try to think about God instead, fill my heart and mind and soul with Him because if I do, there isn't room for anything else.

Continuance

When I get nervous because I know things are about to change, I find that it's helpful to remind myself that some things will stay the same. For example:

There will still be sunshine.

There will still be good food.

There will still be sleep.

There will still be people who love you.

There will still be a place to come back to at the end of the day.

There will still be music.

There will still be holidays.

There will still be funny jokes.

There will still be coffee.

There will still be a God that loves you and will support you when you forget all of this.