Stress where does your strength come from?

“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”Philippians 3:14 NIV

I copied this scripture today to make us all think. Yesterday I ate some spaghetti that had been in my fridge for nearly two weeks. Bad move I am feeling very sick today. My daughter is seeing relatives that she has not seen in nearly five years the stress is immense, we cannot make people be a certain away and that often hurts our core. When I was going through my brothers death and also the struggles in my marriage stress paid it's toll. I got colds faster, I felt at times tired and sick. The thing is our bodies can only process so much. I am convinced that stress shortens a person life, that our immune system starts to break down and our brains function is often not up to par it is a little slower at times. I think some people just give up and turn to their illness or depression as an escape. The stress on single parents is huge everything falls on them. The stress of life can be huge in itself. Elderly people can experience this trying to juggle little income, or families trying to look after relatives. You name it from corporate worlds to being single stress is there.

I think in life you have to regroup and work out what is important and who can support you.

Life will always have stress it is in finding a new hope and allowing good to shine through the darkest hours. My hope comes from the Lord we have no hope in ourselves and can easily get bogged down. The reality is we cannot do this alone.

Our strength lets us down. My mum loves the poem by Rudyard Kipling If, I think it is very true. It hits home on so many levels.

If...

Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Above all the question has to be asked where does your strength come from?

My simple answer I try my best to say My strength comes from the Lord.

Please have a cup of tea with me today.