HE WHO HELPS

I will lift up my eyes to the hills-

From whence comes my help.

My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.

He will not allow your foot to be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, He who keeps Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD is your keeper;
The LORD is your shade at your right hand.

The sun shall not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night.

The LORD shall preserve you from all evil;
He shall preserve your soul.

The LORD shall preserve your going out
and your coming in
From this time forth,
and even forevermore.


Psalm 121, NKJV

Peace I leave with you . . .

DON'T COMPLAIN

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord,

plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you hope and a future." ~ Jeremiah 29:11

We've had some good days, and we've had some hills to climb.

We've had some weary days and some sleepless nights.

Yet, when we look around and we think things over,

all of our good days outweighs our bad days, so we won't complain.

How many of us honestly don't complain?

Come on, shame the devil and tell the truth.
Whether for justifiable causes or petty-anny reasons,

fretting and complaining only makes stress worse.

When we choose to complain,

the thoughts and energies invested on our pity-parties

could just as powerfully be applied to our confidences.

Whether it's sickness, loneliness, debt, lack of money,

or caught-up in some other hard place of despair,

God knows every one of our stresses.

Though sometimes the clouds hang low,

and we can hardly see the road,

Just keep trusting and believing

until God comes and dries all our tears away

and turns our midnights into days.

Peace I leave with you . . .

ONE MORE

Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request.

Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground

covered with dew." ~Judges 6:39

From way back when to this present moment, the more some things changed, the more some remained the same.

Take, for instance, the concept of "One More." Who is it that doesn't believe in the reality of One More?

Throughout life, we've embraced the lifestyle of expecting one more chance-one more time-one more day-one more hour-one more minute-one more this and one more that.

Why, then, should we be surprised when one more stress surfaces in our lives?

Whoever we are and wherever we are, more often than not, stress surrounds us. It matters not whether we're minding our own affairs, meddling in someone else's, or merrily rolling along, stress affects us all.

Where do we run? Where do we hide?

Sadly, we can't run and we can't hide from stresses of this world. When troubled by the thought or the onset of one more stress, we determine to do as Gideon did.

We go to God in prayer and ask Him for what we want.

Peace I leave with you . . .

STEP OUT ON FAITH

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart;

and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge him,

and he shall direct thy paths.

Do not be wise in your own eyes;

Fear the Lord

and depart from evil.

~ Proverbs 3:5-7 ~

Peace I leave with you . . .

DEAD HORSES

IT SOUNDS SO FUNNY to hear people say we're "Beating a dead horse to death."

Though none are guilty of actually beating horses, we stand accused of taking things to the extreme.

For instance . . . Our personal problems.

Notice how some survivors insist on explaining unfortunate incidents a thousand times. Over and over again.

Harping on negative people-places-and things elevates stress and stress-related issues.

Many times we dwell on the negative, even though it increases our stress. We fail to realize that the more we speak of ill situations, the more we think of them; and the more we think of them, the more we subject ourselves to stress.

Remaining in a negative rut keeps our stresses out of control.

If we are to reduce the ravages of stressful living, it's important to stop rehashing and rehearsing unfavorable stuff.

We may have to condition our mind to do this. That's okay. Go ahead and do whatever needs to be done. Read, write, pray, sing, dance, walk, run, ride . . . just find a way to stop needlessly repeating stresses.

Let's learn to eliminate the negative and accentuate the positive.


Peace I leave with you . . .

AROUND AND AROUND AND AROUND

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

~ Proverbs 3:5-6

Who was it that first said, "Life is like a merry-go-round?"

We, who've witnessed different stages of life and watched situations go up-and-down, and around-and-around, are inclined to agree.

Let's recall a particular time when we were going in circles. Remember how it stressed us to be stuck in those cycles of going around and around and never gaining or retaining a thing?

Life's ups and downs can tremendously aggravate our stresses. Not only are we thrown for unexpected loops, but we're sometimes faced with issues spinning completely out of control.

Rest assured, in any phase of life, the more around-and-around-and-around we go, the more up-up-and-away our stress will be?

What choices do we have?

What do we do when life's merry-go-round causes us stress?

Proverbs 3 offers the ultimate solution to "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. . ." As we experience mega-stresses over going around and around in circles, let's remember to trust God.



Peace I leave with you . . .

IMAGINATION

CAN WE safely say that we all, in one situation or another, have leaned to our imagination?

That, "Yes," we mistook something for real that really wasn't?

Many of us have perceived or believed things that have caused lots of stress solely because of imagination.


From seeing illusions, to feeling anxiety, to thinking terrible thoughts--our imagination revealed one thing, but we discovered another.

We might as well admit it, because we know it's true. We've been in situations similar to what The Temptations once sang, "It was just my 'magination, running away with me."

Imagination, itself, is not a bad thing. The power of positive imagination goes far beyond amazing. It's when we indulge ourselves to the point of creating stresses that causes us issues.

No doubt, we'll always be imagining. But we can minimize stresses from fogged imaginations by remembering these simple steps.

1) See things as they really are
2) Handle emotions with care
3) Consider the whole picture
4) Be receptive to the truth
5) Proceed with caution

Throughout life, even the best-of- the-best will experience some sort of jacked-up imagination. Before the stresses begin, let's be prepared to distinguish fact from fiction.




Peace I leave with you . . .