As a teenager, your life is busy. You have many things that are begging for your attention. You’ve got things like a mountain of homework, your friends, family and job responsibility all asking for your time and attention.
As a doctor in a Washington Post article put it,
“Our teenagers are becoming more over-scheduled and over-stressed” – Anisha Abraham (Georgetown University Hospital) “
With so many responsibilites and things begging for your time, how should you decide your priorities and deal with all the stress that faces you daily?
Here’s a few things I found helpful when going through a stressful time in my life.
- Make time for God – Always make sure that no matter how busy you are, that you’re allowing time in your life for God. Your time reading the Bible or listening to a good teaching mp3 is key to your success for the day. Its kind of like trying to drive a car without the tank full of gas. You can go for a bit on fumes, but you won’t go far if you don’t fill up with gas. Making time for God will fill up your spiritual gas tank so to speak. It helps you have the peace and gives you a foundation to stand on when things get tough in your life.
- Learn to be ok with what you’re able to do – This isn’t an excuse to be lazy, but sometimes you have to learn to be okay with what you can do. You might not have the award winning science project and also be able to get first place in choir competition. That’s okay. Just do your best, but realize there are only 24 hours in a day and sometimes not everything will be perfect or get done exactly the way you would like it to be.
- Pick what’s important – There are so many things calling for your attention. You have friends that want you to hang out. You’ve got homework to do for school and you need to practice your instrument for band tryouts. With so many things calling for your time you’ll probably have to say no to something. You’ll have to decide what things are the most important and then you may have to say no to some things that aren’t as important. If you don’t learn to say no to some things, you’ll find out you’re really stressed in life.
Its important to remember that when things get busy and stressful in life you can always go to God and ask for his help. Many times He can show you a plan or a creative way to get the things done that you need to do so that you don’t have as much stress in your life.
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“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” -Hebrews 4:16 (NKJV)
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Always be sure that in times of stress you don’t let your friendship with God slip. Its easy to leave God out when you get busy and feel the stress of everyday life. Your relationship with God is key to getting through stressful situations, so decide to not put it to the side.
Pray: God I come to you in the name of Jesus and I thank you for your help that is always there for me. You said that I could come to you to get grace and mercy in my time of need. I ask for your grace, I ask for your help now in my time of need and I believe that you are giving me the wisdom and strength I need to live today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Listen: I’m Good by Trip Lee