Growing in Grace – You Choose - Devotional by Gail Rodgers

Little irritations can seem so big at times. The backup in traffic; the spilled milk; we all have our own list of little things that grate on us as we go through our day.

“How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver!” Proverbs 16:16

Stress experts tell us that the little stresses, which are short term and temporary, need to be managed and put behind us. If we let them become front and center in our minds they will accumulate and leave us unable to handle the larger stresses of life that come to us all from time to time.

It’s an emotional banking system really. Don’t spend your emotional energy on things that don’t matter in the long haul. Let them go. Listen to music during the traffic jam, just wipe up the milk, and give yourself a margin of time in your schedule so you aren’t always running to the max.

A friend asked me one day how I was doing. I sighed and said, “Really busy“. Her reply startled me. She said, “I guess that’s what you’re choosing“.

I didn’t like her reply but I thought about it. There was a lot in my life I didn’t have the final say on, but there was also a lot I was choosing. So I simply began to choose differently and it made a world of difference.

Try changing some small choices in your life:

– Give yourself an extra 5-10 minutes in travel time to appointments.

– Eliminate some activities outside of home that are unnecessary. Do you really need to be there?

– Take time to look into the eyes of the people in your home when you speak to them.

– Identify the little stresses and determine to keep them to size.

– Say a prayer for strength as you need it.