Stress



Henry Ford once said, "When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it..."




The other night, a family member close to my heart emailed me and started venting out about the tremendous pressures in life she is facing. She is not getting the help she needs from her own family and it is hard to be ignored when she only meant well...



My son was feeling "bummed out" when he found out he got a letter grade equivalent to "C', despite him studying so hard from the previous night prior to the test. I told him, "it was ok". We will all have our own failures. But from that mistake, he can learn from it, move on and strive harder until he reaches his desired goals.


My husband is scheduled to go to another city [work-related] and that means it will only be my son and I together during those times that he won't be home. Then I have to be both the "father and mother" to our son while he is away.


I'm feeling the "pinch" from a dear sis-in-law of mine who's trying to make both ends meet every month. I've been in that situation before and I know it's really a very difficult trying times when you are trying to provide for your family and sometimes, just don't have enough resources.


Wherever we are, whatever we do, we all face stress at one point in this lifetime. The way we deal with them depends on our own attitudes. When we fall, we can choose to get up right away or stay there and feel sorry for ourselves. When we lose something, we can choose to earnestly find it or just let it be gone forever. When someone hurts us, we can choose to confront that person, forgiving at the same time or we can choose to pay back and give them back the hurt they have caused us. Stress is never a fun thing. But it can be a great learning tool we all can use to become more strong, more patient, more enduring, more loving, more forgiving and perhaps, to have hope, instead of feeling despair.


I know that when we learn to accept God's love and start to understand His ways, stress is not a "stress" anymore when we start to trust in Him. Jesus even said from John 16:33, "I have told you all these so that you may have peace in Me. Here on earth, you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, I have overcome the world." What else would be the BEST way to deal with stress than to turn to God Who had been there and overcame that?


Psalm 55:22 - "Give your worries to the Lord and He will take care of you. He will never let good people down." [NCV]


Psalm 86:7 - "I call to You in times of trouble because You will answer me."


Isaiah 41:10 - "So don't worry because I am with you. Don't be afraid because I am your God. I will make you strong and will help you. I will support you with My right hand that saves you."


Matthew 11:28, 29 -Jesus said, "Come to Me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Accept My teachings and learn from Me because I am gentle and humble in spirit and you will find rest for your lives."


2 Corinthians 4:9 - "We are persecuted but God does not leave us. We are hurt sometimes, but we are not destroyed."


Isaiah 43:2 - "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you." [NASB]


Psalm 23:4 - "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."


Psalm 34:17 - "The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles."






Mountains




Wow...seasons have come and gone so fast, leaving me thinking where the years went. The years just slipped through my fingers like how sand would...

There are so many things we give up sometimes in our lives as the years go by. A project maybe? A dream? A relationship? Hope? Faith? There will always be mountains that face us and challenge our endurance. In this life, we face the mountain of illnesses, of different kinds of problems, of fear, and even of death. There will always be times when turning back seems the wisest thing to do, yet, sometimes, we can't make a "u-turn" for some reasons. We just have to face that huge mountain. I know it will be okay if we try to conquer that mountain, not with our own strength but of God's. We can always go to Him and ask Him to help us climb that mountain we are facing.

Psalm 61:2 - "I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the Rock that is higher than I."

God's Love

My family and I love the ocean. The tides may come roaring at times but the sight and sound give you the feeling of being surrounded in a peaceful place. The effect was calming.
As the vast, blue skies meet the horizon, both directions seem endless. It surely brings out the best in me, of being inspired to write more about the Lord. He is the One Who created all these for us to enjoy. Truly His works are reminders of His faithful and unconditional love for mankind.


Just like the endless skies and horizon, so it is with the Lord's love. This is a beautiful prayer from Paul from Ephesians 3:17-19, "I pray that Christ will live in your hearts by faith and that your life will be strong in love and be built on love. And I pray that you and all God's holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ's love - how wide and how long and how high and how deep that love is. Christ's love is greater than anyone can ever know but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with the fullness of God." [NCV]


All posts/composed songs copyright by RCUBEs.



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