You know how everyone loves Friday because it’s the beginning of the weekend, you can forget about work, kick back, and relax?  Well, this week when I saw posts on Facebook saying, “I’m so glad it’s Friday!”  all I could think was, “Why?!  How is it already Friday?!  I have so much to do before the weekend!”

Yesterday.  Yesterday was one of those days in which nothing went quite according to plan.  I have two fairly large work events on Sunday, one of which is a year-end banquet to celebrate the past year in the youth ministry and honor our graduating seniors.  The celebration includes a slide show, and while this is always a highlight of the night, it is a tremendous undertaking for the person putting it together (me.)  Roughly 200 slides plus music, timed as well as possible.  By the time I’ve completed it and run through it a few times with the music, I never want to see it again.

Yesterday afternoon, after finishing and rehearsing the slide show (<–not as seamless as it sounds;  more on that in a moment,) I received a text message from my good friend and coworker, Forrest.  A little background: Forrest was the youth director before me and is now our Director of Serve Ministries.  When we made the switch last summer, I created a new gmail account for the youth group, but Forrest occasionally receives emails to the old account (which is rarely checked anymore because everyone has the new address.)  So yesterday, Forrest sent me a text that said, “Uh you better check the other email address. [Someone] sent 15 pictures of [her child] last week for the slide show.  Just happened to check it for someone’s email address.”

I felt the blood rushing to my head.  Sweat beads were starting to form on my face.  The knot in my stomach became tighter.

I opened the old email account and saw one unopened email at the very top:

 

Wrong.  So wrong.  Forrest, you got me good!  😀

Prior to this, the projector in our fellowship hall refused to work properly during the test run of the slide show.  When I restarted my laptop (this fixes many technology issues at work,) all my documents disappeared.  Of course, at this point I had not backed up the slide show.  Delightful. 😉

Everything was resolved by the end of the day–my documents folder reappeared, my friend and coworker, Evan, helped me figure out the projector issue, and I didn’t have to alter the slide show.  However, the events of the week have inspired a post (okay, a few posts) about stress:

Negative Effects of Stress

Upset stomach

Headache

Elevated blood pressure

Trouble sleeping

Skin breakouts

More susceptible to colds

There are plenty more–and more serious conditions if stress is chronic.  No, thanks!  So how can we deal with stress so it does the least damage to our health?  Here are just a few options:

Stress Relievers

Exercise

Laugh

Yoga

Hugs

Take deep breaths

Listen to music

Talk to a friend

Pray

Take a bath

Drink lavender/chamomile tea

So, take a deep breath, go for a walk, and don’t let the stress get to you.  As Forrest told me yesterday, “The sun comes up Monday!!!”