I am on fire!!!

Either that or I REALLY need to get out more and talk to adults ;) SO this thought was running through my head last night while I was getting ready to go to sleep... I was thinking about stress and the effect that is has on me. I feel like I have been under a pretty crushing amount of stress for the last little while, and I mean seriously, long term, when will this end, I can feel how heavy my soul is, crushing. I know that everyone has stress in their life. Sometimes it's a little, and sometimes it's a lot. It effects them in different ways. Mine seems to build, like a pressure cooker. I find that I start to get less and less patient with my family, friends and the general world around me... and really stupid drivers. I start noticing how sore my jaw is, because I'm clenching my teeth so hard while I sleep at night. And before I know it, I have become a different version of myself than I want to be.

The thing I was thinking though, and the reason I am writing this, is that I can't always make the stress in my life go away. Sometimes we are just going to be under more stress than other times. I have learned to be happy in spite of stress... I have learned to have peace and live my life and truly just be happy for what I have, for who I am... for what my life is. But I do let it get the best of me sometimes. I pray for a lot of things in my life. Sometimes my prayers get answered... sometimes they get answered but not in the timeline I would prefer, sometimes they get answered in different ways than I would like them to... and sometimes they go unanswered. But I have never, ever in my life, knelt down and pleaded with the Lord to help me carry my load... help me feel a release from my stress and not have Him immediately take it all away. That's how I can survive. I'm always sad that it takes me getting to my boiling over point before I think of asking for His help. But I'm glad that I do get there. Because it's the one prayer that is ALWAYS answered for me... always immediate relief. And even if nothing else in my life changes, I do. And I will forever be grateful for that. So if you find that like me... you have reached your boiling over point with the stress in your life. Hit you knees. You'll be so glad that you did. It's one of the reasons He did the atonement... we show our gratitude for that amazing, compassionate act of mercy, by using it.