Lord, thank you for friends. Work in our hearts so we are sensitive to the needs of our friends. Help us to respond to your urging to reach out and be available. Thank you also for Your Word. Change us daily. Touch our hearts through Your Scripture today and every day. Lead us to open our bibles and invite You to soften our hearts as only You can. In the name of Jesus, amen.
Did the title of this post catch your attention? I hope so. The reality is that we can change our stress level in just five minutes or less, if we take action. That's the third key to living with less stress, and more contentment: activate. It just means doing something instead of stressing.
5 minutes can mean the difference between anxiety and peace.
How do you start your day? Do you lay in bed and spend 5 minutes in prayer, thanking God for another day with those you love, or another day to move closer to your goals? Do you ask Him to make your path straight today; to make you a more compassionate and loving person; or to give you the motivation to do whatever needs to get done today?
That first 5 minutes is the most important time in your day. It sets the tone.
If you have children, I invite you to let them see you pray out loud. It doesn't have to be formal or even lengthy. Pray in the car on the way to school, "Lord, thank you for blessing my kids today and keeping them safe. Help them to learn quickly and easily, and to be a good friend. Amen."
Spend five minutes with Your Father, the King. After all you are His child.
That first five minutes of my day activates my enthusiasm and diffuses any anxiety before it has a chance to take hold. It's the time I receive insight for the day ahead and remind myself that I am not alone.
I think of it like warming up my car in the winter. That few minutes of preparation allows my vehicle to run smoother, and be warm and cozy by the time I put it to work. It gets me organized and my thoughts in-line so solutions come more quickly. And it reminds me that my Father, who made the heavens and the earth, who set the planets in motion, and told the sea how far it can go, can do much better than me in planning my day.
Hey, some solutions require more than I have to give, so I start out my day asking for more than I have.
More often than not, when I begin my day asking God to plan it and make time for everything that needs to get done, amazingly, everything does! It just seems like the hours expand and choices seem more clear.
Read Proverbs 10:27 right now. I'll wait.
The fear (respect, reverence) of the Lord ________ days. I like that. It means He gives you a long life, and an eternal life in the end, but I also like to think of it as prolonging each day so that what must get done, does get done.
If I listen, His Holy Spirit also gives me insights as to what really needs to get done, and what can just as well wait.
Hudson Taylor spent 51 years as a missionary in China. This is a part of the world, remember, in which a person can be imprisoned or killed for simply being a Christian. Pretty stressful, right?
Taylor was asked once why he began each day praying. He responded, "You don't have your concert first and tune your instruments later."
Let's pray:
Lord, I ask that You put Yourself first in our thoughts every morning from now on. I ask that Your Holy Spirit bang on the door of our hearts until we let Him in, first thing. Don't let us get away with ignoring You. Help us to see spending time with You as the most important, most beneficial moments we have each day. Help us to seek You first, and trust You will add everything we need the rest of the day. In the name of Jesus, amen.
Love, Karen
Photo by Aleksandr Shebanov, courtesy of http://www.photoxpress.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comment.