STRESS REDUCERS

Stress is not a virus.  Most stress is the consequence of mismanaged lives. Sometimes it is our own mismanaged life and sometimes it is because we love someone else who does not know how to manage his or her life. Listed below are ten “Stress Reducers.”  If you follow them, you will not totally eliminate stress, but you will greatly reduce its effect on your life.

1.  Pray.  God calls on us to give our burdens to Him (I Peter 5:7). Make time to be alone with yourself and with God.  It builds emotional strength.  Jesus did this.  Are you any stronger emotionally than Jesus?  No?  Well, do like He did.

2.  Live within your budget.  Unless something is a true emergency, do not spend tomorrow’s earnings on today’s “I wants.”  Even among Christians, mismanaged finances are one of the most common sources of stress.

3.  K.M.S. (Keep Mouth Shut).  Never say anything that you do not want shouted from the housetop, because it just might be.  When you worry about something that you have said, you are stressed.  To put it another way, talk less - listen more.

4.  Learn to say “no” to projects that do not fit into your schedule. Accepting such projects will cause huge stress.

5.  Allow extra time to do things and to get to places.  Leave 15 minutes earlier and take a good book with you to read during that “spare time.”  It is amazing how much stress you will get rid of when you are not rushing to do the next thing.

6.  Get organized so that everything has its place and is in its place. If you could have back all the time that you have spent hunting for stuff;  you could take a long, long vacation.  It is stressful to be ready to walk out the door, but you can’t find your keys or purse or whatever.  Practice the “Backup Principle,” i.e. an extra car key in your wallet, an extra house key buried in the garden, extra stamps, etc.

7.  Learn to delegate tasks to capable others.  Remind yourself that you are not the general  manager of the universe.  If you weren’t here, the world would do the same thing it is doing now only someone else would have the stress.   Let them have it now.

8.  Make friends with Godly people.  I love the old adage, “Today I have grown taller by walking among the trees.”  Spiritual people are the trees that help us stand a little taller.  You will learn to deal with life by watching them or, another way of saying this is, you become like those you are around.

9.  Put a word in your heart everyday.  I call these “HeartWords.” When the need is there, the Word will already be in your heart.  The Psalmist said, “Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin” (Ps. 119.11).

10.  Remember, “This too shall pass.”

Lonnie Davis
Southwest Church of Christ
Richmond, Virginia