When you are really stressed, your mind bounces all around.  You can't focus or stay on task.  You actually end up wasting a lot of time trying to remember what you were doing or where you left off on a project.  Or you might say the winds of life are pushing you all around and you are feeling beaten up by the waves of problems that are crashing into you.

During these times it is helpful to remember that we are a spirit, we have a soul (your mind, will and emotions) and we live in a body.  It's the soul that is being battered in life.  It's the soul that needs renewed.  It's the soul that needs help.

The Bible tells us in several places that we are to talk to our soul and tell it how to feel.  Psalm 103: 1-2 "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits."  

The song It Is Well, has a line in it, "So let go my soul and trust in...

I grew up in the 80s and there was a popular song out called We’re Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister.  Now, no need to write me letters because I’m not saying that I love the band or their meaning behind this song.  The song, however, has been featured in movies, TV shows, and commercials repeatedly. Dee Snider, the writer of the song, says he’s happy if the song is used, “any time that the team is down by two, or somebody had a bad day at the office, they're gonna stand up and sing We're Not Gonna Take It.”

Now, I know you’re probably thinking, where are you going with this Donna?  This doesn’t seem like your usual Christian blog subject. I mean, Twisted Sister???

The body of Christ today is standing up in greater and greater numbers to say, “We’re not gonna take it anymore.”  We’re tired of being stressed out, beaten up by life, feeling defeated at every turn. We’re not going to just sit...

You’ve heard the phrase, “It’s like riding a bike.”  Maybe you told a friend I haven’t been skiing in years and your friend says, “Come on, it’s easy, it’s like riding a bike.”  You can fill in the blank. I haven’t ____ in years. I haven’t taught a class, quilted, fished...you name it and the likely response would be, “There’s nothing to it, it’s a piece of cake, it’s like riding a bike.”

Nowadays I’m more likely to take the piece of cake over a bike ride but I certainly rode a bike “back in the day.”  What do we mean by this phrase, “it’s like riding a bike”? We can’t just mean that something is easy. Do you remember learning to ride a bike or teaching your child to ride a bike?  It’s not easy, is it? It takes time, practice and determination. If we can add in a person to help us and give us advice and guidance...

Marjorie felt like her life was set in stone.  She would always be stuck at this dead-end job.  Others always seemed to have it better than her...more money, prettier, the attention of the boss.  She was enduring the constant disappointments of life but she was trying to do it nobly.

No other life seemed possible...she was stuck.  Life had not turned out at all the way she thought it would. This must be God’s will for her life. This must be her cross to bear until someday in Heaven when everything would be better.  It’s just the way things are in a sin-fallen world, she told herself.  

Then one day while reading a book from a famous Christian author, she got a glimpse that maybe there was more to life than she had been experiencing.  Her longing for more got awakened. She felt Jesus wooing and calling her to a new way of living. It was a divine invitation to play an irreplaceable role in history.  

All her striving and...

My husband and I splurged on a trip to Cancun for our 30th wedding anniversary and stayed at a beautiful all-inclusive resort.  We enjoyed the wildlife that walked around the resort freely especially the beautiful peacocks. The beach was pretty and we had great weather.  And the buffets...well, they were huge and filled with amazing variety, but one thing we kept finding ourselves saying about the buffets was, “it’s just a little off.”  

Everything was presented beautifully and like I said there was so much to choose from, but none of it was particularly good.  We would rather have one plate of really great food than four plates of “just okay” food. And the food was one of the experiences we had been looking forward to on this trip!

An enjoyable life is also about quality over quantity.  It’s having a quality of existence. 

Jesus says in John 10:10 AMP, “I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it...

I felt myself getting irritated.  Yes, the bill was only $16 but it was unexpected and I didn’t think it should have been charged.  It wasn’t the amount of the bill that had me upset and starting to feel stressed. I could handle $16 but it was the principle of the thing...or so I thought. 

I’ve discovered some symptoms I have when feeling stressed can really sneak up on me and it takes me a while to realize that I have allowed myself to become stressed.  They include getting short with others, finding other people irritating, feeling taken advantage of, tasks that would not usually be an issue seem large and daunting, and a lack of energy.

I’m getting better at becoming aware of these symptoms and recognizing that I have an issue to address.  Admitting you have a problem is the first step, right?

So, when I recognized that I was getting disproportionately upset over this $16 bill I had to talk to God about this.  When it comes to...

I’ve discovered that one of the things I can do to eliminate stress is to be on the move with God.  God is always moving. He has things that He needs to be done on this earth. He invites us to work with Him to accomplish His plan and walk out our destinies.  

Perhaps it seems more like your destiny is to do housework constantly, to go to that same boring job again, or to always be just scraping by.  And when life looks like that we think, “There has got to be more to life than this!” We are either bored or stressed if we think we are stuck with this as our destiny.

You likely know that the life you are living now is not your destiny.  There is something inside each one of us, even most Christians, that cries for more - that knows there has to be more.  This is why we are seeing so many superhero movies right now. We all want to live exciting lives of power and adventure.  It’s put into our spiritual DNA because we are made...

We’ve been talking about how the presence of God is the ONE THING needed to end stress. (Read prior blogs here.)

It’s much easier to pursue God and His presence when things are going poorly, isn’t it?  When you are desperate you are willing to live radically and spend extra time with God and His Word to try to find the answer.  But when things level out and you are feeling satisfied, it is easy to let that relationship slip. Dedication gets pushed off by distraction. 

It takes faithfulness to stay with Him when things are going well.  This is the condition of much of the church today, especially in America, where most people have their basic needs met.  They are comfortable and don’t recognize their need for more of Him. Or maybe you seek Him desperately while unemployed, but once you get the job you back off.  If you’ve been stuck at a certain level in your spiritual walk it could be because you withdraw when things...

“You will learn to walk in the spiritual realm as easily as a bird flies.”  This prophetic word given by God to one of His prophets makes my heart soar (pun intended).  Isn’t this the dream of every Christian?

I’ve been talking with God about why it seems to be so hard to see results in our Christian walk.  We believe by faith for something we need in our life, something that we see promised to us in the Bible, and yet it doesn’t happen.  This seems hard. Aren’t the things of God supposed to be so simple a child could do it?

I’m beyond the point of thinking maybe this isn’t God’s will.  No, I see this promise I need in the Word and so I know it is His will.  Why isn’t it happening?  

My mind goes next to it must be me because God never misses it.  Good theology but if I’m missing it, and I’m trying really hard, how hard is He making this?!  No, that doesn’t...

I had a dream on January 18, 2019, in which my father (who died from cancer in 2011) walked up to me wearing a tuxedo.  He looked amazing and about 30 years old. He asked me to join him for supper that night and I told him that I couldn’t and we decided to meet the following night instead.  In my dream, I reached out with both hands and grabbed his upper arms and I remember he felt very solid, tall, muscular...very healthy. I was confused in the dream. Thoughts were going through my mind like, “I feel like I haven’t seen you in years” and I also had thoughts of, “Wait a minute, aren’t you sick?  But you look so well!  Why haven’t I been spending time with you if you are sick?” I couldn’t quite seem to grasp the concept of time in my mind as I talked with him. He handed me a piece of paper in the dream and said that I needed to go watch this video from one of my favorite pastors.  

The next day when I...