Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Surviving the Holidays part 2

We started yesterday talking about surviving the holidays. One thing that seems to happen during the holiday season is added stress. How do we deal with this added stress during the holidays?

This week we are looking at how Jesus delt with stress, and we are specifically talking about 4 key principles that help us to deal with stress.

Yesterday we talked about the principle of identification. Today let's talk about the second principle, the principle of prioritization.

If you want to relieve stress you have to prioritize. You have to stay focused on the most important things.

That's exactly what Jesus did in John 8:14 He said "I know where I came from and where I am going." Jesus was saying, I know my purpose and nothing can distract me from it. My life is prioritized.

One reason we have so much stress in our lives is that we get things out of order. We focus too much on the unimportant things and don't focus enough on the things that matter, and then we stress about the important things not getting done.

We may spend too much time watching tv, and then stress because we don't have enough time to do something that really needed to get done. Or we may spend too much money at the mall or at our favorite restaurant and then stess because there is not enough money at the end of the month to pay the bills. The problem is priorities.

In order to relieve stress we must do the most important things first in every area of our lives.
The fact is you can't do it all, and when you try, the result is stress. So you have to prioritize. Do the important things first, then when there is time and money left over you can pay attention to the less important things, and somethings you have to eliminate all together.

I like what I heard said one time "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."

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