My entire life I’ve waged war against anxiety. I’ve longed for the day when I wouldn’t be afraid of vomiting or social gatherings. After all these years, I’m still facing anxiety. Maybe you’ve heard those stories of victory and overcoming I’m learning that those aren’t the only stories. But that doesn’t mean the rest of us are hopeless—if we choose, we can find quite the opposite.

April was c-section awareness month. All month long I scrolled past social media posts empowering me to stop seeing my scars as a failure but as celebration of what my body could do. Those posts angered me. My body did fail me, I thought. There’s a bit of truth to that, but I’m learning that there is still cause for celebration—though not in me and my body, but in a God who is much greater.

Though I still blush at my overflowing emotions, I don’t dislike them as much as I once did. I can see the good in them, and I’m learning what it means to let them flourish while not letting them rule me. Our feelings are a part of God’s “very good” creation and a gift to be both acknowledged and stewarded to his glory.

In the Fall, both soul and body were broken by sin. Our bodies were then plagued by sicknesses and diseases, and ultimately death. But before this, when God formed us, he declared the whole of us as good—not just the soul. Both are created by God, both are created to glorify him, and both will be redeemed by God.