IMITATION OF LIFE

". . . I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it

more abundantly."

John 10:10 KJV

In Tyler Perry's hit movie, "The Family That Preys," to her best friend Alice Evans, filthy-rich Charlotte Cartwright poses a sassy--but serious--question: "Are you living or just existing?"

Do we dare ask ourselves this kind of question? Stress-survivors, more so than any other class of people, are often guilty of routinely "existing."

Because we become so boggled in stress and anxiety and drama, we tend to forget that life can be peaceful . . . That life does possess rich rewards.

Let's think for a moment: Why do so many of us resign to stressful and meaningless lifestyles? Does it make any sense to continually struggle and stress with less-than God's best?

Struggling and striving for whatever the reason may be, undoubtedly, elevates our stress.

Jesus reminds us that real life--abundant life--comes from Him. It is His presence in our lives that makes the difference between imitation of life and abundant living.

Apart from Jesus, we cannot obtain true increase and/or peace. And until we embrace His awesome Being and accept the abundance He came to give, it is impossible to leave all our imitations behind.

Peace I leave with you . . .

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

IF WE'VE STRUGGLED with stress over-and-over and back-to-back for extended periods of time, we eventually reach a point where we literally become stressed out.

Then one day we wake up to the fact that we are sick and tired of stress. We simply cannot stress anymore. As if by "Divine" strength, we make a conscious decision that we are K-I-S-S-I-N-G stress goodbye.

GOOD RIDDANCE!

Like the Late Great Gospel Singer, Frank Williams, We come to the conclusion that if "Jesus Can't Fix It, Nobody can!" And with every beat of our heart, we vow to lay our stresses at Jesus' feet, and to trust Him for the outcome.

It's rarely an easy decision to make. But as we sing our K-I-S-S-I-N-G song, surprisingly, we begin to feel a long-forgotten peace. Even if our issues still exist, our mind is at peace.

Once we make up our mind to kiss stress goodbye, we must be careful not to create any stress during the K-I-S-S-I-N-G process.

There's not a list of instructions to fret over. We need not make this harder than it has to be. The most easiest and effective way to kiss stress goodbye is just do it!

Let's kiss worry goodbye . . . kiss irritations and aggravations goodbye . . . kiss can't eat and can't sleep goodbye. . . and kiss grouchy goodbye.

There are no ifs or ands or buts about it; We can do it, if we set our mind to it!



Peace I leave with you . . .