How Do You Handle Stress

When I feel stress or anxiety, my natural tendency is to escape.

I want to stay in bed longer, scroll more and get lost in fluffy TV. Thats how I escape.

What I am learning is that escaping the challenges in life doesn’t make them go away and it doesn’t really help me feel better. Instead of escaping, if I can try to do things that are good for me in spite of hard things, I can cope with life’s stresses better and also grow from the challenging season.

I am optimistic, willing to work and willing to trust God but the current state of the world and everything that comes with that, brings fear into my life some days. I know God is at work here, He is doing a new thing and while new can sometimes be shiny, it can also be challenging.

Have you ever tried to learn a new skill?

Isiah 43:19 See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

This morning as I prayed, I thought about two Bible stories; 1.Danielle in the Lions Den and 2. The Three Men in The Furnace. I asked God to protect me just like He protected the people in those stories. They were in the lions den, they were in the furnace, they didn’t escape facing the challenge, they were in it. Let’s try to wrap our heads around how they must have felt. And yet, because our God is good and glorious and works miracles, they all came out of those challenges unharmed, without one scrape and without smelling like smoke. The God that delivered those people from their challenges is the same God I love and trust today and so, I will keep doing what I know to be good while God does all His good works and protects me.

Keep going friends, remember you are loved and we don’t need to be harmed by our challenges but possibly changed for the better, strengthened in our faith and able to pass on that encouragement for someone else one day.

Thank you for being here with me,

Heather

Photo Credit L.B. Imagery

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