Another definition of stress is:

Importance, significance, or emphasis placed on something.

If you think about it in this way, stress could be anything in your life that has been emphasized greater than everything else. Any issue that has grown out of proportion. It could be bad, such as a death, illness, or decreased income, or it could be good, such as a promotion, wedding or birth of a child. While most life stresses come and go, some are always with us. Big stresses as the ones mentioned above usually change with time but the little stresses that are sometimes a permanent part of our lives are the ones I want us to think about this week.

Everyone gets a flat tire once in a while. By flat tire I mean little aggravations in life. Things that cause us momentary pause. What bugs one person may not be as stressful to another. Getting an acutal flat tire wouldn't be as stressful to a man as it would be to a woman. And a woman having a flat on a frequented highway or when she has a cell phone with her wouldn't be as stressful as when traveling on a deserted stretch of road at night without any phones available. (Especially if you are like me and can't even find the tire let alone change it!) We all have little stresses. They seem big issues when they first occur but after a few weeks, they fade from our memories. These are the stresses we need to learn to cope more efficiently with. When something happens to you that upsets you, ask yourself just how important it is. How big of an issue is it? Try actually rating it from 1 to 10. Decide how long you think it will last and how you could better cope with it while it does last. Some stresses are with us always. Such as a nagging family member, an obnoxious neighbor or a too demanding boss. How do we cope with these stressors? Well, you could quit your job, move or get a divorce; but a better solution might be to learn to cope with them. Knowing what bugs you and why is the first step.

Write down the things that bug you most. What or who is bugging you at home? (And be sure to write down why it is bugging you.) What's making you crazy at work? Put down everything you can think of. Now go back and put them in order. Put the things that bother you most at the top of your list. Now I want you to seriously think about these things this week. Take notice of the person or situation at work who is making you crazy. How do you react? Is there some other way you could react to this stress that would make you feel better about yourself? Do the same thing with the things that are happening at home. Are any of these issues long lasting. By this I mean will any of them be there the rest of your life no matter what you do? If this is the case then you need to learn to live with it. This is not always easy but if you continue to be stressed out over something you cannot possibly change you are just beating your head against a brick wall. I have a couple of situations like that in my life and believe me when I say that you must learn to stop trying to change something you cannot change. It is the only way you will ever be able to live any kind of peaceful life. I've learned that some things must just be lived with! But many other stresses in life can be changed and some will even go away by themselves in time.

The second step is to decide if your big stresses are worth living with, such as the obnoxious neighbor or the demanding boss, or if you need to make a change. Then decide which of the other issues on your list you want to begin to deal with.

The third step is to take these stresses to God and ask for His help to deal with them.