Stressed Less Week 11

"We all get stuck in ruts from time to time and find ourselves in situations that we want out of."

In this week's chapter, Tracie shared 6 "action items, that if you are willing to implement in your every day life, will serve as crucial stepping stones towards achieving your goal of living a stressed-less life."

In summary, they are:

1. Realign your life to God’s word. "All too often, our Bibles are nothing more than a pretty book that sits on the coffee table collecting dust. We may carry it back and forth to church, but we don't really consider it a resource tool for living."
   
2. Recognize your need for God’s help. "Just as stress is a disease that takes its toll on our overall existence, self-sufficiency syndrome is a disease of the heart, as well. This syndrome is characterized by our desire to handle everything on our own, afraid to show any sign of weakness or neediness to anyone, including God."
   
3. Adjust your focus to God, not your circumstances. "...take our focus off of our circumstances and put it on God."
   
4. Be filled with the Holy Spirit.  "...when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we are empowered to stand firm against the pulls of the world."
5. Be faithful in your prayer life. "God created us with an innate desire to be connected to him. When we fail to do so, an emptiness forms in our hearts, and our enemy is more than glad to fill it with things other than God."
   
6. Believe God is Who He says He is.  "God is always God, despite our circumstances."
   

Blessings this week:

61. We were able to quickly replace our old air conditioner with a new one when it went out on us. Thankful for this because they are not always easy to find during a heat wave!

62. Opportunity for hubby to lead small group for a week. I'm always blessed by our small group, but is always a special blessing to get to hear him teach. He did a great job!

63. B and I visited the library for the first time this week. He seemed to enjoy it, and has really been enjoying the books he checked out.

64. I have been working to have supper at a certain time each night, and much earlier than we sometimes eat, and I was able to do it fairly consistently this week. Planning and organizing are really a challenge for me especially when it comes to meals, so I'm thankful whenever I'm able to get closer to that goal and to have a plan in place.

65. New dining room table. Can't remember if I shared this before. We got this for what I would consider a steal, and were basically able to do a swap after selling our old one for close to the same price as the new one (new to us that is). The owners mentioned the chairs were a bit "rough" (they were),  but after recovering them, polishing up and oiling everything,and tightening the screws-finally after 6 years I was able to get a "new" dining room table.

It's actually a counter-height table, still trying to figure out how to incorporate the high chair.

Chapter 11 Take Aways:

-"Unbelief put our circumstances between us and God; faith puts God between us and our circumstances."

Stressed Less Week 10

So we are now in actuality on Week 12, but I am too blogs behind so this is my attempt to catch up : ) I'll just share some blessings and take away's from my journal since it's kind of hard to remember what happened yesterday....let alone 2 weeks ago.

"Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy."

                                                                                      1 Peter 1:3

This week's Chapter was entitled "Broken for Breakthrough." Rather than trying to rehash my personal moment of breakthrough, I'll refer back to a blog written several years ago...http://confessionsofaniowafarmgirl.blogspot.com/2009/03/lucky-7.html

Blessings this week:

56. Potty training went well...at least the first week.

57. Putting up a clothesline. I have never had one, but I love the fresh scent it leave in the clothes!

58. Finally being able to get all my flower beds mulched around the house (with help from the hubby and son).

This is the last side, all of these plants were moved out of the stuff I thinned out on the porch side of the house.

59.  Being able to start work on the bathroom (current house project, trying to be prayerful about it and not let it consume all of my time though)

60. Air Conditioning!

Chapter 10 Take Aways:

-"If you are in a pit of stress or despair, don't succumb to defeat. Don't accept that difficult place as your fate. Even though God has allowed you to be there right now, he never intended for you to live there...The only way to see past the problem is to believe that he has not forgotten or abandoned you and that, at the exact time that he has ordained, he will reach down and pick you up."

-"And even if you have not been looking for him, he has been looking for you."

-"Despite what some people tend to believe, God truly does love and shows himself to all people because he wants every person to put their faith in him....God had let me go my own way, but when I was ready to be rescued, he showed up with flying colors."

Stressed-Less Week 9

This week was all about the weapons we can employ to help us reduce the stress in our lives. By being in God's Word regularly, prayer, and choosing to acknowledge the victory we already have through Christ, the power of stress is diminished and we are no longer subject to it's control. It's not about controlling the stress, but about choosing to rely on God's power to overcome it. 

Blessings this week:

51. God showing me I can trust him through answered prayers.

52. B and I meeting my hubby for lunch.

53. A fixed truck that didn't cost us a fortune.

54. Family date night.

55. Naps. I don't take them a lot, but when I do it means I needed one!

~

Chapter 9 Take-Aways

-"Real strength results from persistent communication and fellowship with him and allowing his words to guide us through each day."

-"I had given the devil a foothold in my life because I had not fully relied on the strongest weapon of all in this war against the unseen--God's Word. As a result, I had not guarded my heart from the enemy's tactics."

-"...the devil is most happy when you disregard his tactics as nothing more than tough luck. The enemy knows that if we don't acknowledge the invisible battle we are engaged in, we will not reach for the weapons that will bring us victory."

-"If you choose only one weapon to fight off your stress, let God's Word be it."

-"Prayer is a weapon that nobody can ever take away from us, not even our worst enemy."

~