Navigating Stress

I am currently at the end of my very first trimester of College, and boy it’s been tough. My school is not joking around when they give me my weekly workload, so I have been in GO mode for the last three months. I have learned a handful of helpful tips and tricks that have made it much easier, but no life hack can help with the inevitable weight of stress. I have found it very easy to embrace the stress and just accept the spinning feeling that my life has presented to me recently.

One thing I’ve really noticed is that when you pray for God to give you peace, often times it doesn’t happen like THAT! You really have to partner with God and work towards your goal with Him. Many times we treat God like a vending machine where we put in our request, and just wait for Him to give it to you. When in reality, you have to be willing to put in the work, and practice living out the truth with God.

There were and are, things that give me stress, that’s life, but learning to navigate that with God is such an important tool going forward in life.

The biggest thing that I have found to be true when navigating stress is that keeping God at the forefront of your life is key. I know you’ve probably heard that before, but it’s very true.

One night I was talking with my older and much wiser sister Emma. I was talking to her about how stressed I was and how I didn’t know what to do. She told me to remember to still center my life around Jesus, to pray, to worship, and to keep my relationship with Him relevant. I realized then that it is SO EASY to take a step back from my relationship with God when I am totally busy and overwhelmed.

Keep your relationship with God relevant to your daily life. Don’t let it become something you put on the back burner, because when you seek Him out and choose to be with Him, that is when you are placed in His perfect peace that surpasses all understanding.

I am not saying that this will eliminate stress in your life, but it will eliminate the stress taking over your life.

Some simple ways you can spend time with God to help strengthen your relationship with Him is through prayer, worship, and opening your bible.

Keep in mind that prayer doesn’t have to be extensive, long, or drawn out, simply talk to Him in the car, in the shower, in between one activity to the next. Whenever you have a second, just talk to Him.

Remember that worship is simply exalting and praising God, so you can really worship Him in SO many different ways. For me I like to play worship music in the car to just keep myself centered on Him. I like to find ways to praise Him for what he has done in my life by being thankful, which I think is another form of worship. So talk to God and see How you can worship God in your daily life!

And finally, opening your bible. Again it doesn’t have to be long nor drawn out, but just take a moment to learn more about God’s character each day to help you fully understand who it is we serve.

These are just simple ways to keep in touch with God so that stress doesn’t have the effect it once did in your life.

So don’t give up on God when peace doesn’t happen in an instant, remember to work toward that goal with God centered in your life.

You are doing a great job and I am so proud of you, so don’t feel discouraged when you don’t feel peace right away…God wants to help you get there!!