Stressed-Less

Is it ok to be stressed about starting a Bible study that is geared to help you combat stress?  Well, that is where I found myself this week.  I have been excited about beginning the study, but yet anxious about whether I could stay caught up and find the time to do it!  But just as Tracie says in her first chapter, it is up to ME to choose a good attitude, it is also up to me to make time to complete this study...my health depends on it!

I can remember Mrs. Margie, my Kindergarten teacher, telling me to stop wringing my hands. She would whisper, "Don't do that." and gently place her hands on top of mine.  I don't know what a kindergartner has to be stressed about, but I honestly think I was stressed about something.  I don't wring my hands anymore, but I do twist my fingers when I am anxious or in pain.  

In high school I was voted Most Stressed...YAY!...just what every girl wants to be remembered as!  In my defense, I worked a crazy job, took crazy hard classes, and then there was the actual thing called high school...boys, friends, gossip...you know...the drama of it all!

College was no different.  My second semester, Freshman year, I broke out in hives every Thursday night.  It became a joke to see when I would start itching. I always had a paper due on Friday as well as a hard Bio lab.  Without fail the little whelps always appeared about 8:00 pm and would disappear the next morning.  I thankfully made it through college and during  my last semester I took a Stress-management course, which I made an A in, but I can't say it actually helped :).  I remember a heated discussion with the professor on why in the world he would make us do a presentation when that was such a major stressor!  Why would one cause stress in a stress management class????

I've read books, tried techniques I learned in the course, and unlike Tracie, I have even tried yoga :). Trust me when I say I have prayed, and I do always feel relief...for a while...but the stress comes back, and I try to solve my own problems all over again!

That is what I am hoping to change and what my prayer for this Bible Study is.  When I lay my problems and worries and stresses at the Lord's feet, I want to actually let go of them and walk away.  I know He can handle them, and I know He only has my best interest in mind.  But the control part of me wants to analyze everything, and I want to try to help Him "fix" my problems.  

He loves you and me more than we can imagine or fathom...and that love means He wants us to live an abundant life full of joy and not full of negative stress.

I can't wait to see what God has in store through this study of Stressed-Less Living by Tracie Miles. If you want to check it out please visit the website!  Together we can work on "Finding God's Peace in Your Chaotic World".  http://melissataylor.org/and-more/


Today's Verse
1 Peter 5:10
But the God of grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.