It's been a pretty awesome week studying Stressed-Less Living: Finding God's Peace in Your Chaotic World
with Stephanie Clayton (thanks girl!) over at Melissa Taylor's Online Bible Studies. Honesty moment here. The first half of the chapter is a blur to me. Not because I didn't read it, or because there wasn't some awesome insight there. When I got to "swimming against the current" I felt like my heart stopped and God whispered, "pay attention". 
I'm a momma of four pretty awesome kids. My oldest turns 18 this coming Friday (Happy Birthday!), my son is 15, and two more daughters ages 13 and 4. Yep, three teenagers and a preschooler! When Tracie wrote, "When children are little, the demands they place on a parent are physically exhausting...but as they grow into adolescents, the physical exhaustion is quickly replaced by emotional exhaustion in the highest form" my head was bobbing up and down as fast as it could. Teen drama mixed with preschool temper tantrums quickly add up to S.T.R.E.S.S.! Especially with teens who want to do what everyone else does and parents who just don't always think like everyone else.
But you know what? I wouldn't give it up for anything. God entrusted my husband and I with training up these children in the way they should go and I figure that if He thinks we can handle it then we probably can. I think this holds true for a lot of relationships in our lives.
God places people in our lives for a reason, and sometimes those relationships stress us out. Ever been stressed out by your parents? Your best friend? Your boss? Your spouse? "It's hard being a Christian in a lost and broken world..." and that is true in any relationship. It's hard to chose to honor your mother and father sometimes, especially in a world that tells us it's all about us. It's hard to tell your best friend that you disagree with their actions but you still love them. It's hard to works as if for the Lord when your boss acts like he has horns. And it's hard to remember that your spouse is a part of you and you need to treat them with love and respect when you don't feel loved and respected yourself sometimes. But when we remember that a relationship is not just between you and that person, but between you and Jesus and that person, it's a little easier to to do the right thing. If we can remember Matthew 25:40, which paraphrased says what we do for others we do for Jesus, then maybe we can stop stressing out about the situation and relax knowing that God's already involved.
Until next time,
