Managing Stess

My journal prompt today asked how I manage stress. Here's what I wrote: How do I plan to manage stress this year? I don’t really experience stress. Not like others describe. Even when I was working and had lots to do, I somehow didn’t feel much stress. Perhaps it comes of trusting that God is in charge. Maybe there’s an element of living in the moment involved too. My childhood was filled with stress, but somewhere along the line, can’t say precisely when, I learned that stress, like worry, is a useless endeavor. I try to live by the Spirit. I try to be prepared. Much of what I do in my daily routine happens in that vein and so I find myself relaxed, confident, at peace and joyful almost all the time. It just occurred to me that one pivotal moment came with my reading of Being Enough by Cheiko Okazaki. One of her mantras, was In Principle, Great Clarity; In Practice Great Charity. I was thrilled by her teachings in that book and read it over a few times. Since then, I have had Charity toward others and more particularly toward myself. My best IS good enough. Brigham Young said it, Gordon B. Hinckley said it. Sister Okazaki said it, and I have come to believe it! One key component of that for me, is the realization that my best is not some Platonic ideal that I can conjure in my imagination. My best includes my limitations, health, understanding, circumstances, and competing demands. God, understands all of this. So many times, when my efforts seem short of my hopes, the Spirit whispers, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Then I realize that God is doing the heavy lifting, and while I’m hoping to help with that, I’m also called to learn, discover, make mistakes, and most especially, discover that He, not me, is God. Just today I listened to a Radio program about a Government Agency. The interviewee had been involved with the Agency since it’s inception in the late fifties. In those days he said, “The agency was run by WWII Vets whose leadership philosophy was Command and Control. These days, their activities are so much more collaborative. It made me hark back to those childhood days, when school, home and church were all very much Command and Control. Quite, naturally, I came to see God as Command and Control as well. It took me a long time to view Jesus Christ as my yoke-mate and not my task master. My peace and progress are very much a product of our collaborative effort, not His demands and my compliance. Having Jesus as my yoke-mate relieves me of stress. I could shrug off the yoke at any time, but why would I. “His yoke is easy, and his burden is light.”