Matthew 11:29-20 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from
Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your
souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (NASB)
Hello,
This time of year I hear a lot about stress. It doesn’t seem
to matter if you are hosting others or travelling; if it is your side of the
family, or the in-laws; if it is turkey or ham….still people feel stressed. (quick
note, I am not grouping grief with stress – to me those are completely
different)
But why the need to feel stressed? I believe that instead of
sensing stress and getting more stressed that you are stressed (yup…that’s you
isn’t it?....) we have an opportunity when it comes to stress. We have the
chance to allow the recognition of stress to become a signal that we need to
re-focus. You see, when we are stressed we are too focused on the things of
this world and temporary impacts – not on how God wants us to be dealing with
the situation we are in. When we see that we need to remember that God told us
His yoke was easy and His burden is light. When we aren’t feeling that way, we
either haven’t put given Him our struggle, or we don’t have His perspective –
and this is a clue to change that.
A personal story on this from a few years ago….Christmas was
at my house and the only pie that was brought was Pumpkin and one other (I forget
which)…but there was no apple or pecan…..and I chose to get stressed and irritated.
I was a quiet jerk for a while, until I decided to remedy the situation and the
day after Christmas I went to the store and bought a pie and brought it back. There
were many strange looks, and I had this momentary proud feeling until I
replayed the whole thing in my head and realized I had mentally wasted an
opportunity to be with family and dwelling on things that mattered. If I would
have let the stress I was feeling trigger me to re-focus or give it to God I
would have had a much better time and had an opportunity to serve and be used.
Silly story, but be on the lookout for stress – and use that
as a trigger to refocus!
Have a Merry Christmas,
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