Perhaps you have just woken up and have your coffee in hand or maybe you are reading over your quickly fleeting lunch break. Whichever is the case, I invite you to take this brief stress test: Is your life so packed with things to do that you can’t seem to get anything done? Do you have a gnawing pain in your stomach all the time? Do you always feel like you are forgetting things you are supposed to do? Are you tired, short tempered, or discouraged?

If you answered yes to most of these questions, you are indeed stressed. A woman in our church, who I will refer to as Mrs. Anonymous, was also no stranger to stress. In fact, she and her frugal husband had decided to buy a fixer-upper… which we all know ‘fixer-upper’ is code for ‘stressful situation for months’. One day she was near her wits’ end because of her family, her schedule, her job, her fixer-upper and her non-crafty husband. One day, her husband was determined to finally fix the front door. He began by oiling the door… squeak. He opened and closed it a few more times…squeak, squeak. Then he tried some grease and began to open and close the door… squeak, squeak. Then, he added some elbow grease which was followed by the loudest squeak of all. Well, that last squeak did it for Mrs. Anonymous. She literally had a breakdown. She did some stress driving, then stress eating, then she went stress shopping which was followed by a stress workout. She drove home feeling slightly better about life until she opened the front door…squeak.

Are you searching for a way to relieve the stress in your life? One of the main stressors in life is not having enough time. Although some demands placed on you are unrealistic, most things come down to time management. Usually, we need to prioritize better and learn to better manage our time. We waste a lot of time doing unimportant tasks before we get around to the tasks that are stressing us out the most. If we would simply do those tasks first, our whole day would be so much better.

So what is stressing you out today? Is it a squeaky door, broken relationships, your spouse, your kids, your boss, your health, or all of the above? Perhaps the future is your stressor. Turn all your devices off and spend time looking at life’s issues through the scope of His Word. Take a moment to bring it before the Lord, ask for Him to help you manage your time so that when the squeaks of life come, you are ready to stress less!