Sometimes I think "worry" could be my middle name.

My name is Dawn, and I’m a worrier.

In fact, I’ve pretty much always been a worrier, even as a child. What if I get stuck with Mrs. Paxton as my third grade teacher? I’d fret. (You could hear her yelling all the way down the hall.) Will I have any friends in my class? Who’ll sit with me at lunch? And perhaps worst of all, What if I’m the last one picked for kickball teams?

I wish I could say I grew out of my worrying as I got older, but the truth is, I’ve just found different things to worry about. Late at night, when the house is still and dark and my family is sleeping—that’s prime worry time. Will I be able to meet that article deadline? How are we going to afford a new car? With all the bad stuff out there, how can I possibly keep my kids safe?

Dawn Zemke, Associate Editor

After completing five years on staff with Marriage Partnership magazine, Dawn is excited to become part of the editorial team at Today's Christian Woman. During her ten years at Christianity Today International, Dawn has worked with Leadership, Christian History, Christian Parenting Today, and Today’s Christian magazines and is currently associate editor for TodaysChristian.com, a sister site of TodaysChristianWoman.com. When she’s not writing and editing, Dawn enjoys watching movies and television shows with her husband and two teenagers (Bones is a current favorite), training her rambunctious goldendoodle puppy, and ringing in her church’s handbell choir.

We voted. Now what is our responsibility?

I’m probably one among thousands—possibly millions—who are grateful the presidential election is over.

I’ll admit that I’m a news junkie and that, for the most part, I enjoy and pay attention to politics. In fact, for the past year, my husband and I have talked off and on about running for our city council board.

But this season was enough even for me. The hateful, angry, disrespectful tones coming from both sides. The snarky comments about clothing budgets. The racial slurs. The threats to move to Ireland, even! And I’m sad to say, I heard some of these things from Christians.

Why I didn't think this song was about me

I struggled recently over a simple word—and I blame it all on Dr. Phil.

Not long after I signed onto the popular Internet social networking site Facebook, a little pop-up ad for Dr. Phil's personality quiz appeared on my home page. I'm a sucker for magazine quizzes and online polls, so I figured, Why not? What have I got to lose?

I clicked and proceeded to answer a short series of multiple-choice questions. Then I hit “send,” confident I'd receive an assessment that affirmed how nice, caring, and empathetic I am. When the results arrived, I eagerly scanned them. One word in my profile caught my eye: “Vain.”