Pastors are under a lot of stress this time of year. The added services, plus the stress of helping people with job loss, plus taxes, plus anything else that is going on within the congregation, all of these add up to a very difficult picture sometimes.
What do you do to relieve stress? Do you have a release valve somehow? Do you internalize it? Exercise? Play? Talk? Find some other distraction?
One of the things I have been trying of late is praying. Yes, I know, this isn’t that complicated. But verbalizing the things I am stressed about to our Lord in prayer is tremendously helpful. I am not alone with my problems. God is with me, promises to hear and to answer my prayers.
But I still get stressed.
So what do you do?
-DMR
Escapism. That comes in the form of reading good books aloud to the kids. Or going for a walk with my husband and looking at the signs of spring popping up in the neighborhood. Or watching a funny movie.
But also praying and hymn-singing.
I like to get out of the house and get together with friends. Both of these things help take me “out of myself.”
Talking walks with my dog…listening to Christian radio or CD's (Fernando Ortega, Chris Tomlin, News Boys, or more traditional fare such as Bruckner Choral, St. Matthew Passion, etc.)…But yes, praying at the beginning and end of the day is crucial, capped off by a scripture reading before I turn out the lights.