Spiritual direction can help in times of stress

"Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and overburdened and I will cause you to rest."

- Mathew 11:28 AMP

I replaced my oak kitchen chairs. Over time, the glue in the joints dried up and the chairs started to weaken. They just didn't do the job of bearing a person's weight as they should.

When someone would sit on them they would creak and wobble. I was afraid they'd collapse under stress.

Stress is a word we hear often in our culture. I heard the word was originally developed as an engineering term to describe the amount of strain a physical structure could take without collapsing under pressure - like my kitchen chairs.

As a nurse, I used the word "stress" when assessing factors that may have attributed to a person's illness. Stress is a major cause, or aggravating factor, in 70 percent of disease. It not only related to a physical aspect of a person's burden, but includes the emotional and mental factors as well.

God has designed us to tolerate a certain amount of stress. But when we accumulate an unreasonable amount, it starts to show up in our physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.

Almost anything can cause stress. Health care professionals have a list and score stress. A few factors on the list include a marriage or a move, the loss of a spouse through death or divorce, worry and anxiety over a "to do" list that never ends, unresolved relationship issues, financial distress, or other concerns that continue on for a prolonged period of time.

Health experts may advise rest or counseling, but we must seek spiritual direction as well.

Jesus tells us to come to him with our burdens. How do we do that?

Prayer is the key. God knows us better than anyone. Verbalizing our concerns to him and listening for any advice is important.

Advice may come from an idea or insight; an article or a book with a topic of interest might catch our attention. God may show us how to change our schedule or handle a relationship.

Acting in obedience to whatever insight we receive is an important aspect of the remedy. While we wait for results, praying for strength and counting our blessings - instead of stressing - can help us cope with the pressures in our daily lives.

• Annettee Budzban is a Christian author, motivational speaker, life coach and nurse. She can be contacted at Annetteebudzban@aol.com or (847) 543-8413. Visit her website at annetteebudzban.com.