Saturday, December 22, 2012

SOLUTIONS FOR CHRISTMAS STRESS

These One A Days are added to daily.  There are over 1100 stories and commentaries on this blog began Nov. 24, 2009.  It is added to daily.

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              Click on http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com to read selected Sermons from over 50 years of Rev. Wyrick's ministry. (STARTING NOV 1 "HOW MUCH DOES A PRAYER WEIGH)  Below...other recent Sermon Titles


       To view Rev. Wyrick in 4 of his highly acclaimed One Man Dramas  ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BEN FRANKLIN CHARLES WESLEY, MARTIN LUTHER (NBC Special) click on the link below

                   http://www.speakerneil.com/

        Below the thoughts below read a quote from Rev. Wyrick's applauded 9th book THE SPIRITUAL ARAHAM LINCOLN

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Do you ever feel like you are about to jump out of your skin?  Your nerves raw and driving you half crazy?  You respond to a small irritation as if it were a major interruption?

       It's holiday time and instead of the holiday spirit you just feel stressed out and spiritless.

       What to do?

       Well...

       We both know that the list of what adds stress is long.

       There is that last minute gift you couldn't find or forgot.

       There are the parties (sometimes too many of them) and if two parties are the same night how do you pick and choose without hurting someone's feelings.

       Are you going to a party?  If so will you be the first to arrive and the last to leave?  And when yo get back home the tiredest.

       The decorations are delightful but they don't put themselves up and some manage to get lost or misplaced in a year's time.  Some things you just can't plan for in advance.  So plan for the unexpected.

       If you are a woman there is a meal that has be cooked.  It certainly isn't going to cook itself.

       Then there are the gifts to be wrapped, the paternal and maternal grandparents and who to visit first, maybe having to spend Christmas alone, missing loved ones who have passed away, ...and the list goes on.

       All of this is not new...remember Martha... “Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.” (Luke 10:40)

       Well, in a sense Jesus gives you the same advice as he did Martha.

       Pick your priorities.

       First things first and when the list gets too long chop some items off the list. 

       You've always put up the tiny village that takes everyone back 100 years but this year you're really running behind time and it would mean burning the mid-night oil...

       And make you terribly tired and irritable.

       Then don't put up the village this year...put it up next year...that isn't procrastination...it's facing facts rather than letting facts weigh you down.

       Yes, everyone always enjoys those special cookies you always bake or that special pie...but this year...time has just run out...will they enjoy a less irritable you even more?

       Same with whatever else you cannot seem to find the energy for this year...I'm 84 now I've given it several names...calendar consciousness...potent pauses... and the prayer comment "thank you Lord for all I still can do if not at warp speed."

       Pure and simple...Shake hands with common sense and invite he or she to share your Christmas Day with all of you.

       Remember...Christmas is for the Christ child...and family...and patient loving memories...

       It is not for the celebration of overload.

       Christ came to bring peace to this old world...and it begins with you and it begins with me.

       Have you been overspending?  Why? So you can worry about paying the bills in January?  Well, it's a little late to do anything about it this year...but next year don't pack pride in with your credit cards.

       Give with joy but not with financial underplanning.

 

       "Silent Night, Holy Night
All is calm, All is bright..."

       Maybe it would do you good to sing just these first two lines a couple of times.  With a crescendo on the word CALM.

       "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble."  (Psalm46:1)  When Martin Luther was surrounded by enemies those 500 years ago he read that Psalm once again and then sat down and wrote "A Mighty Fortress is our God."

       This year in the midst of singing Christmas carols maybe you should also sing "A Mighty Fortress is Our God."

       "Rejoice in the Lord always, delight, gladden yourselves in Him. Again I say rejoice!"  (Philippians 4:4)

       Speak to yourself about your faith more often than usual during this CHIRSTmas season.  Repetition about such a holy happy relationship can't do anything else but make you feel better and less stressed.

       A man named Paternus wrote these words to his son: “First of all, my child, think magnificently of God. Magnify His providence; adore His power, pray to Him frequently and incessantly. Bear Him always in your mind. Teach your thoughts to reverence Him in every place for there is no place where He is not. Therefore, my child, fear and worship and love God; first and last, think magnificently of Him!”

       What have you been telling your son or daughter or yourself about your God?

       AND!...Have you considered turning your phone off for an hour...maybe even for a  day...during this Christmas time...how long can you go without looking at your Internet?

       Just asking?

       How long during this season of the celebration of Christ could you go survive without your Face book?

       Just asking?

       We humans do continue to find reasons to add reasons to feel stressed.  One is our inability to handle change which becomes a particular holiday problem.

       The way we celebrate Christmas changes year by year.

        For some of us those little children of ours in the 20th century who grew older and now have their own children (and for some of us great grand children).

       Well, it changed Christmas morning.  In size, in the happy noise factor, in the different Christmas music which does not include Bing Crosby (Bing who?) in new traditions at the expense of old traditions sometimes.

       Perhaps your children need to stay at home for Christmas in their own house and can come to you their parents house the next day. 

       Accept this need for change. 

       Don't ruin it for everyone by throwing a hissy fit.

       Maybe they've moved to far away and there really isn't time and air plane tickets for a family of 4 or 5 is just to much. 

       Be understanding.

       Whatever makes everything better for everyone...do it...don't undo everything by making it our way or the highway statements. 

       Stress can be handled and handled best by never giving it a chance to get a toe hold.

       Learn to say "No."  You want to earn the reputation of being cooperative and helpful.  Fine...but you will be no good to anyone if you are totally exhausted.  I know I wrote about this earlier in these thoughts but it needs repeating.

       Avoid overindulgence...food or otherwise...enough said.

       Christmas should be a holy happy time and this can be best achieved when we have left ourselves enough time to pray a prayer of thanks.

       If we don't have time for such a prayer then we have put our finger on the pulse of the matter right there.

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TO GO TO COLUMNS WRITTEN ON go60.us  BY NEIL...CLICK ON THE URL BELOW

                                                http://go60.us/

          THEN CLICK ON "VOICE" AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE...THEN CLICK ON "MEET OUR WRITERS."

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Below is a quote from Rev. Wyrick's 9th book THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

      It is little wonder that once the war was over, wretched memories fed anger loud and long.  Neither side could be proud of some things that happened during the war or at their many prison camps.  The meanness in some men had multiplied.  They felt their uniforms allowed it.

Andersonville, or Camp Sumter as it was officially known, in southwest Georgia is remembered as one of the worst. 

By the end of the war, it had held 50,000 prisoners on a piece of land no larger than twenty-six acres. 

Some men had called pits in the ground their home.  During its short fourteen-month existence, 13,000 soldiers who had survived in battle died in captivity under the most terrible conditions. 

When the war was over the superintendent was hanged.

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      WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE BOOK

       "Positive, powerful utterances...skillfully enhancing our understanding and appreciation of Lincoln while revealing the Divine source of his strength."

       Lt. Colonel C.A. Olsen (Ret.) Asbury College (Professor Ret.)

       "The Spiritual Abraham Lincoln is an extremely well written book that investigates what might be termed the spiritual side of President Lincoln. It's both scholarly and very readable. I came away impressed at Mr. Wyrick's portrayal of the President and with an altered and enlarged vision of the man:'

       William Hoffman, Award winning fiction writer; author of Blood and Guile, and Wild Thorn

       "Wyrick has authored a wonderful examination of the spirituality of one of American history's most devoutly religious leaders...a pleasant and readable book that has a rich depth of information."

              Maynard Pittendreigh Presbyterian minister

        "When it comes to invoking religion in support of any of their decisions, politicians need to sit at the feet of Abraham Lincoln. Reinhold Niebuhr once called him 'America's greatest theologian.' Why so great? Because he invariably distinguished between human works and the works of the Almighty. As Wyrick says, 'He wore the mantle of humility easily: because he was more impressed with what God was doing in the world than with what he, president of the United States in the midst of an awful crisis, was doing. That is why in his last major speech he distinguished between both human causes in the Civil War and the Almighty's 'own purposes.' Lincoln would have agreed that it is better to leave God-talk out of politics than to decorate human proposals with divinity. This is a book for our American time. Through his careful study of Lincoln's career, Wyrick compels us to remember that piety belongs in politics only when piety transcends politics."

       Dr. Donald W. Shriver

       Emeritus professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Author of An Ethic for Enemies: Forgiveness in Politics

        "V. Neil Wyrick's fine work allows the reader to appreciate Abraham Lincoln's Christian commitment and his prophetic role in American history. Should have a wide readership."

       James H. Smylie Professor of Church History (Ret.) Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia

       "Neil Wyrick's The Spiritual Abraham Lincoln should be read by anyone attempting to understand the man who was probably the most complex person to ever hold the office of president of the United States. Dr. Wyrick is intent on demonstrating that the spirituality so often expressed in Lincoln's writings and speeches was not merely lip service to a Deity, but rather expressions of a profound faith in a real God. It was this faith that provided the wisdom, compassion, insight and sometimes steel that Lincoln would need in full measure as he led the United States through the Civil War. Dr. Wyrick's clear and unpretentious style of presentation is very much in keeping with the character ofhis subject, and in so doing, Wyrick makes his point very well that Lincoln, his beliefs, and the faith that formed them, are as relevant to a troubled America in 2004 as they were in 1863."

       Daniel Allen Butler, author of "Unsinkable"; The Full Story of the RMS Titanic, The Lusitania and The Age o f Cunard

       

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      Neil also writes for go60.us to check out his writings...

            CLICK ON  www.go60.us   IT WILL TAKE YOU A NEW WEBSITE FOR SENIORS....

       click on "Voice" on the home page and then on the list of authors click on Neil Wyrick

Recent articles Rev. Wyrick has written for this web site are:  REFLECTIONS


·         Here Comes Summer (July 2012)

·         Spring (May 2012)

·         Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow (April 2012)

·         Wayward and Windy (April 2012)

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      Some of the sermon titles posted recently on Wyrick's Writings


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BELOW ARE MORE QUOTES FROM NEIL'S RECENTLY POSTED SERMONS on Wyrick's Writings

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A QUOTE FROM THOUGHTS POSTED ON MY OTHER BLOG WYRICK'S WRITINGS ON SUNDAY APRIL 15. ENTITILED

 

       Two stores faced each other across a very busy street.  Their owners were in constant competition with each other.  One day, the owner of one store put out a sign that read – If you want it, we have it!

Almost immediately the other owner put out a sign –If we don’t have it, you don’t need it!

 

      

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      Click on the URL below to WATCH NEIL IN HIS WORLD FAMOUS ONE MAN DRAMATIZATIONS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BEN FRANKLIN, CHARLES WESLEY AND MARTIN LUTHER


       To Order and Read Neil's 9th book THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN

       GO TO amazon.com

       QUOTES ABOUT THIS WONDERFUL INSPIRING INFORMATIVE book

       STILL RECEIVING RAVE REVIEWS 8 YEARS AFTER IT'S PUBLICATION.

      

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