Stress is a killer

The best way to know if you are stressed is to ask yourself: Is my heart troubled? I believe the number one killer in the modern world is stress. It is a slow but sure killer. The physical root cause of many medical problems today is stress. Stress can cause you to age prematurely, give you rashes, cause gastric pains and lead to abnormal growths in your body. Many symptoms are brought about by psychological problems like stress. Stress is not from God. Peace is from God. In John 14:27, Jesus says 'Peace I give to you, My peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. Let not your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.'

Even though I am a stay-home mum, I am not spared the stresses of life. I have experienced certain events (whether positive or negative) that caused me to be stressed. Recently the stress point was over Joshua's primary school adjustment. It was a major transition for me and our family. Every morning, I had to think of what healthy breakfast to cook for him, prepare him for school and check if he has homework. My schedule of quiet time with the Lord changed to be in the afternoons when he is in school. Thank God that the orientation was over but after that I fell sick. It was so bad that I had to take antibiotics but thank God I was still able to function in my daily chores.

Through all my stressful experiences, I was hoping to find a solution to stress. I found journaling very useful because I could record my feelings, my stress points and take it to the Lord in prayer. In writing down all these, I sometimes find the Lord encouraging me through a different perspective or causing me to see things clearly. Then I could also list down my thanksgivings and praise God for the marvelous things He has done far outweighs the negative things in my life. Writing down what God said to me also serves as a record or witness of the vision that will surely come to pass. When the evil one taunts me, I can refer to what God has said and rebuke him. But after a while I learnt that ignoring him is the best tactic. Why focus on him when I can focus on my Jesus! The altogether lovely One! The One who saves me and delivers me from my troubles!

Another thing that helps to reduce stress is by focusing on the good things. Philippians 4:8 says 'Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is virtuous, whatever is praiseworthy, meditate on such things.' For me, I found that what made me happy and joyful is to focus on the blessings, the wonderful things God has done for me. I find that if I could only focus on running my own race and not compare myself with others, I could live my life a whole lot better. Yes, I cannot control the things that happened around me but I can control my response towards them. I could focus on living to the fullest the life God gave me: spending time with God, doing things for my son, enjoying my meals, shopping for nice clothes, blogging, ministry work, enjoying family times during weekends etc.