How Do You Respond To Stress And Hard Times?

By Kevin (Shooting the Breeze)

This past week was not a very good week for me.  On Tuesday afternoon I had a pallet of drywall land on my foot.  One word: OUCH!  Thankfully nothing was broken but it hurt and it still hurts!  Thursday morning, I found out that I have Type 2 Diabetes.  This was not the news that I wanted to hear.  Then to top off the week, later that afternoon the window on our van was smashed by vandals.  Ugh!  I felt like Alexander from Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

I have a confession to make.  I don’t deal well with stress and hard times.  My first reaction is to fall apart.  I begin to think negative thoughts.  I begin to shut down and all I want to do is crawl into some hole and stay there.  I know … not very healthy!  Unfortunately, this past week I experienced all these symptoms.  Again, it was not a very good week for me. 

Thankfully, I did have some moments of clarity during the week and in those moments the song “I lift my eyes up” by Brian Doerksen kept coming to mind.  This song is based on Psalm 121.  Here is a video of the song.  Listen closely to the words.

This song gives me great hope!  It reminds me that I have a heavenly Father who deeply loves me and cares about what is going on in my life.  I am thankful that I can turn to God with all my stress, frustration and pain and that He is there for me!  How do you respond to stress and hard times?

Kevin Martineau has been married 16 years and has three beautiful daughters (10, 7 and 4). He has the honour of serving God through his role as Pastor at Port Hardy Baptist Church on Northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. He enjoys blogging, reading, photography and watching hockey.