Overcoming stress ...

There is something about life that once you think you've mastered a lesson, you're thrown right back into a situation that is infinitely worse than the situation you just went through. In consequence, you are forced to apply what you thought you just mastered.

This weekend, I felt as though the world was collapsing around me. My parents are out of the country and so even though my grandma was playing "babysitter," I still felt like I had to be responsible for my siblings; I had a ten page paper due on Monday that I wasn't able to wrap my head around Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, and I found myself treating deadlines merely as suggestions as I wasn't able to function enough to give them their proper respect. On top of all of that, I realized Sunday afternoon that I had made a huge detrimental mistake the previous Monday in a class where anything less than perfect is usually unacceptable.

I discovered something about myself in the midst of all of this chaos. When I encounter stress that is literally all consuming, my body just shuts down. Literally, I had no energy and no brain power. I could not comprehend anything. I would be doing research for that 10-page paper and would understand nothing that I read. It was all I could do to not think of the situation for more than 2 minutes.

I remembered my previous post at that point. Nothing in this life is certain, steady, or constant but God. He is the only thing/person I can depend on to be never changing. It was in that time this weekend that I had to remind myself that no matter what the situation, God is always in control and knows exactly what he's doing.

Thankfully, I made it through with my head intact. I still have much to learn and much to do as the end of the semester is here in full force. Somedays it's all I can do to get up in the morning and just say, "God, today is yours. No matter what happens, I know I'm in your hands. Be with those who are in situations worse than the one I am in, because in retrospect, I am still extremely blessed."