“Come to Me,all you who labor and are heavy-laden and
overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. ( I will ease and relieve and
refresh your souls.)”— Matthew 11:28 (AMP)
I recently replaced
my oak kitchen chairs. Over time, the glue in the joints dried up and the chairs
started to weaken. They just didn’t do the job of bearing a persons weight as
they should. When someone would sit on them, they would creak and wobble. I
was afraid they’d fail to support the person as they should, and collapse under
the stress.
Stress—it’s a word we hear often in our culture. I heard the word was originally
developed as an engineering term to describe the amount of strain a physical
structure could take without collapsing under pressure— like my kitchen
chairs.
As
a nurse, I used the word “stress” when assessing factors that may have
attributed to a persons illness. Stress is a major cause, or aggravating factor
in 70 percent of disease. It not only relates to the physical aspect of a
person’s burden, but includes the emotional and mental factors as well.
God has
designed us to tolerate a certain amount of stress. It’s what motivates us to
get things done. But when we accumulate an unreasonable amount, it starts to
show up in our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
Almost anything can become a stressor. Health-care professionals have a
list and score stress. A few factors on the list include a marriage or a move,
the loss of a spouse through death or divorce, worry and anxiety over a “to do”
list that never ends, unresolved relationship issues, financial distress, or
other concerns that continue on for a prolonged period of time.
Health experts may advise rest, counseling or medication; but we must seek
spiritual direction as well. Jesus tells us to come to Him with our burdens. How
do we do that? Prayer is a key. God knows us better than anyone. Verbalizing our
concerns to Him and listening for any advice is important.
Advice
may come through a creative idea or an insight, an article or a book with a
topic of interest might catch our attention. God may show us how to change our
schedule, or handle a relationship. Acting in obedience to whatever insight we
receive is an important aspect of the remedy. While we wait for results, praying
for strength and counting our blessings—instead of stressing— can help us cope
with the pressure in our daily lives.
Annettee Budzban can be contacted at ahrtwrites2u@aol.com
Daily Smile:
STRANGER
IN MY HOUSE
A very weird thing has happened. A strange old lady has moved into my house. I have no idea who she is, where she came from, or how she got in. I certainly did not invite her. All I know is that one day she wasn't there, and the next day she was.
She is a clever old lady, and manages to keep out of sight for the most part, but whenever I pass a mirror, I catch a glimpse of her. And whenever I look in the mirror to check my appearance, there she is, hogging the whole thing, completely obliterating my gorgeous face and body. This is very rude. I have tried screaming at her, but she just screams back.
If she insists on hanging around, the least she could do is offer to pay part of the rent, but no. Every once in a while, I find a dollar bill stuck in a coat pocket, or some loose change under a sofa cushion, but it is not nearly enough.
I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I think she is stealing money from me. I go to the ATM and withdraw $100, and a few days later, it's all gone. I certainly don't spend money THAT fast, so I can only conclude the old lady is pilfering from me.
You'd think she would spend some of that money to buy wrinkle cream. Lord knows she needs it. And money isn't the only thing I think she is stealing. Food seems to disappear at an alarming rate -- especially the good stuff like ice cream, cookies and candy. I can't seem to keep that stuff in the house anymore. She must have a real sweet tooth, but she'd better watch it because she is really packing on the pounds. I suspect she realizes this, and to make herself feel better, she is tampering with my scale to make me think I am putting on weight too.
For an old lady, she is quite childish. She likes to play nasty games, like going into my closets when I'm not home and altering my clothes so they don't fit. And she messes with my files and papers so I can't find anything. This is particularly annoying since I am extremely neat and organized. She also fiddles with my VCR so it does not record what I have carefully and correctly programmed.
She has found other imaginative ways to annoy me. She gets into my mail, newspapers and magazines before I do, and blurs the print so I can't read it. And she has done something really sinister to the volume controls on my TV, radio and telephone. Now all I hear are mumbles and whispers.
She has done other things -- like make my stairs steeper, my vacuum cleaner heavier and all my knobs and faucets harder to turn. She even made my bed higher so that getting into and out of it is a real challenge. Lately, she has been fooling with my groceries before I put them away, applying glue to the lids, making it almost impossible for me to open the jars. Is this any way to repay my hospitality?
She has taken the fun out of shopping for clothes. When I try something on, she stands in front of the dressing room mirror and monopolizes it. She looks totally ridiculous in some of those outfits, plus she keeps me from seeing how great they look on me.
Just when I thought she couldn't get any meaner, she proved me wrong. She came along when I went to get my picture taken for my driver's license, and just as the camera shutter clicked, she jumped in front of me! No one is going to believe that the picture of that old lady is me.
- Author unknown
A very weird thing has happened. A strange old lady has moved into my house. I have no idea who she is, where she came from, or how she got in. I certainly did not invite her. All I know is that one day she wasn't there, and the next day she was.
She is a clever old lady, and manages to keep out of sight for the most part, but whenever I pass a mirror, I catch a glimpse of her. And whenever I look in the mirror to check my appearance, there she is, hogging the whole thing, completely obliterating my gorgeous face and body. This is very rude. I have tried screaming at her, but she just screams back.
If she insists on hanging around, the least she could do is offer to pay part of the rent, but no. Every once in a while, I find a dollar bill stuck in a coat pocket, or some loose change under a sofa cushion, but it is not nearly enough.
I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I think she is stealing money from me. I go to the ATM and withdraw $100, and a few days later, it's all gone. I certainly don't spend money THAT fast, so I can only conclude the old lady is pilfering from me.
You'd think she would spend some of that money to buy wrinkle cream. Lord knows she needs it. And money isn't the only thing I think she is stealing. Food seems to disappear at an alarming rate -- especially the good stuff like ice cream, cookies and candy. I can't seem to keep that stuff in the house anymore. She must have a real sweet tooth, but she'd better watch it because she is really packing on the pounds. I suspect she realizes this, and to make herself feel better, she is tampering with my scale to make me think I am putting on weight too.
For an old lady, she is quite childish. She likes to play nasty games, like going into my closets when I'm not home and altering my clothes so they don't fit. And she messes with my files and papers so I can't find anything. This is particularly annoying since I am extremely neat and organized. She also fiddles with my VCR so it does not record what I have carefully and correctly programmed.
She has found other imaginative ways to annoy me. She gets into my mail, newspapers and magazines before I do, and blurs the print so I can't read it. And she has done something really sinister to the volume controls on my TV, radio and telephone. Now all I hear are mumbles and whispers.
She has done other things -- like make my stairs steeper, my vacuum cleaner heavier and all my knobs and faucets harder to turn. She even made my bed higher so that getting into and out of it is a real challenge. Lately, she has been fooling with my groceries before I put them away, applying glue to the lids, making it almost impossible for me to open the jars. Is this any way to repay my hospitality?
She has taken the fun out of shopping for clothes. When I try something on, she stands in front of the dressing room mirror and monopolizes it. She looks totally ridiculous in some of those outfits, plus she keeps me from seeing how great they look on me.
Just when I thought she couldn't get any meaner, she proved me wrong. She came along when I went to get my picture taken for my driver's license, and just as the camera shutter clicked, she jumped in front of me! No one is going to believe that the picture of that old lady is me.
- Author unknown
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