FUEL Ministries Youth Group March 18, 2020
Pastor Mike Keeton
During this time of crisis stress will be an issue for all of us. Some of you will be locked up in your house with each other and stress may be at a greater level than normal.
One thing that we can do is to go outdoors and enjoy the beautiful weather we are having this March. Many of you will be holding school in your house and my daughter Kristie, who homeschools her five children on a regular basis, reminded my wife Cheri who is babysitting our grandchildren Mikey and Matthew to make sure you have fun teaching these little ones.
Stress can be a part of your teenager’s life just like adults so, I share with you the following information so you can sit down with your teenagers and read and talk about this subject in their life. Please don’t judge or get upset if they say you cause them stress. Parents, you may have to read and talk about stress with your little ones but take the information I am sending and make it your own for your children.
Please know that this information I am sending you is from a counseling book I have in my library about counseling teenagers by Dr. Tim Chapman and Dr. Chap Clark. So, if you have further questions please don’t hesitate to write me and I will try to answer your questions.
We need to pray for one another more than ever and I want to challenge you to call on our senior adults to make sure they are ok. I called my sister and brother-in-law yesterday to check on them in Tennessee and my sister mentioned that many of her neighbors called to make sure they were ok and if they had any needs and those calls meant so much to them but she realized that they are senior adults now and then she reminded me that Cheri and I are senior adults as well. Oh the love of a sister. For some reason you never think you are at that stage of life. If you have a directory please take the initiative to call on our seniors and if you need numbers or names please call the church office.
During this time I will be sending you things like this to read and share with your family and hopefully it will make you feel like we are still connected to one another.
Cheri and I are praying for you all and please don’t hesitate to just call if you want to talk or have a good joke to share to help us laugh during these difficult times.
God Bless and with love,
Pastor Mike
Some things to keep in mind…
Don’t prioritize your schedule; instead, schedule your priorities.
Never get so busy making a living… You forget to make a life.
You always protect what you value.
People serve what they love!
Attack the problem, not the person.
Stress and Demands
Stress is the common term for general adaptation syndrome (GAS), or the fight or flight syndrome. It is the body’s natural response to threatening situations, which prepares us to fight or to flee-it arouses us and gives us the energy we need (the GAS needed) to resolve or remove ourselves from the stressor. Stress is a normal part of life and can be both negative and positive, alerting us to a problem or areas needing attention.
Stress is mostly negative when a person experiences it constantly, without relief of relaxation between challenges. Chronic stress is often a function of the constant negative appraisals a person makes about life, seeing things as more threatening than they really are.
Sometimes stress comes from a difficult life situation, but sometimes stress results from negative perceptions about life situations.
Stress without relief can lead to physical symptoms, such as headaches, upset stomach, elevated blood pressure, chest pain, and problems sleeping. Stress can also affect a person’s relationships adversely. And stress can affect the body, mind, and spirit.
If you don’t lean to control stress, it will eventually control you.
What would you say are the stressors in your life right now?
Action steps.
- Gain perspective. Gain some perspective on what is causing the stress. “Break apart” the stress overload into manageable pieces, and begin to address each component.
- Consider what God is doing. One of the best antidotes to stress is seeing God’s purposes in the difficulties and believing that God intends some good outcome. God may use certain situations to develop one of the fruits of the Spirit in you. Knowing that God uses every situation, even the petty, irritating situations of life, to teach you can help you feel less stressed by things you cannot change.
- Get alone with God. Planned times of quiet and solitude are a good balance to a busy life. Many use prayer as a way to change a stressful situation. Although this is not a bad idea, often prayer does not change the situation as much as it changes you and your orientation to stressful people and situations.
- Share your burdens with others. You can share your burden literally or figuratively. In other words, you can ask others to help with some of your responsibilities and you can talk about your stressors, which can bring relief and prayer support. Perhaps some of the stress is because you are doing too much.
- Guard your heart. Stress has a way of orienting us toward the things that are wrong in our lives. It pushes us to forget the good and godly things in our life and, instead, to see and believe that only bad things are going on. Guard your heart and mind against such stress-induced negativity and pessimism.
- Live intentionally. Stop majoring on minor things. At the end of life, many will realize that they spent most of their time on what mattered least, and the least time on what mattered most. Decide what is really important, choose your priorities, and live for them. Become more intentional about the way you spend your time and energy. Learn to say no to things that are just not that important.
- Get help (Respect your limits). Often our lives become filled with stress because we refuse to accept our limits or we are completely boxed in and paralyzed by them. Feeling overwhelmed may be a reminder that you are not living within the limits and boundaries that God has created for you. It may be time to reevaluate, cut back, say no, or slow down.
- Laugh a Little (Laugh a Lot). Allow for some levity in your life. Take time for a comic strip, a favorite saying, and a joke. From time to time, find something to laugh about for so long and so hard that your sides hurt when you are done.