Anxiety-Overcomers

Today in my message I shared the "Ten Commandments for Stress Reduction," I thought they deserved being seen again:

Ten Commandments for Stress Reduction  
I. Thou shalt not be perfect, or even try to be. 
II. Thou shalt not try to be all things to all people. 
III. Thou shalt sometimes leave things undone. 
IV. Thou shalt not spread thyself too thin. 
V. Thou shalt learn to say “no.” 
VI. Thou shalt schedule time for thyself and for thy support network. 
VII. Thou shalt switch thyself off, and do nothing regularly. 
VIII. Thou shalt not even feel guilty for doing nothing, or saying no. 
IX. Thou shalt be boring, untidy, inelegant and unattractive at times. 
X. Especially, thou shalt not be thine own worst enemy. But, be thine own best friend.

Humor is great medicine! If you ever get to a point in life that you're so stressed out that you can't laugh, you might want to seek professional help, seriously. That's a sign of depression.

It's really amazing how God put us together so differently than animals. Animals do not have the capacity for humor. They don't laugh. Humans, though, can guffaw and laugh and experience a joyous reaction to a situation we find funny, and when we do, something happens, chemically, in our brain, that is very healing.

There was a serious debate in the middle ages on whether or not Jesus ever laughed. Can you imagine that?! A Jesus that is God incarnate in human flesh who never laughs? He wouldn't have been human! Somehow theologians got it in their minds that laughter was akin to sin because the opposite of sin is seriousness. However, I find it quite difficult to believe the Jesus of the Gospels did not laugh. Anyone who turns water into wine to keep a party going laughs!

Stress often results from our taking ourselves and our situations a little too seriously. Sometime you ought to ask yourself about some stressful situation in life, "What's the worst thing that could happen?" It's almost always something we can live with, something that if we were to reflect on it years later, might even evoke a chuckle. Well, have the chuckle now! Laugh at yourself! See the irony of your worries! Give them up to God and then move in his direction. He's always waiting for you to put him, the omnipotent, omni-benevolent God in charge of your life so he can lead you beside the still waters of his peace.