The Source of Stress?

Last week my friend Kelli invited me to her Relief Society (that is the other class at church on Sunday that women in the LDS church go to) lesson because she was teaching.  First of all, it was an amazing lesson and she did a wonderful job, and second of all it was about hope.  She started her lesson talking about the different stresses life bring such as finals, dating, roommates, etc, and one that really got me thinking is the stress of the unknown.

Think about, in life the most stress comes from the things we don't know.  Roommates and dirty dishes...its like there is more stress wondering if they're going to do them then the actual fact that they are there.  Ya we are bugged because the dishes are there, but it is the stress of wondering whether or not you should do them.  Or finals, we study the materials we were given and the notes we have but we stress out because we don't know if there is some random thing in class the teacher mentioned and is going to test us on that.

Dating: we go on dates, have a good time and what not, but it is that worry about what the other might be thinking.  Are they interested? Do they want a relationship? Do you want a relationship? Is there something about them we don't know and should know?  We want to tell them how we feel but we don't know how they're going to act....you see that there, we're not afraid of saying it.  The fear is how they're going to react (the uncertainty of what will happen)

I'm telling you it all comes down to the unknown.  The fear that is there something there we don't know or that we're not seeing.  I've hit that crossroad in my life where I am graduation college and I don't know what to do and making plans for the future scares me.  Do I go on a mission? Should I go to grad school?  If I do what should I study (social work, speech pathology, etc) Should I just work? What if I meet someone and start dating them seriously? It is all scary because I have no idea what I should do.  I mean they're all great options and would work out in my favor but which one would work BEST in my favor.

BUT--> this is where her lesson comes into play.

Hope by definition: the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.

 Kelli made a great point: There are two words that can define life -- Hard and Hope.  Life gives you hard and God gives you hope.  You know what? We all have life hard one way or another and each life is so different whether the person deals with trials that are introverted or trials that are extroverted.  One thing we all have in common is the ability to have hope.  I personally get hope from God and the Gospel, and I think it is important for everyone to have something to give them hope whatever it may be.
  
So point of this post is to point out...we stress because of the things we don't know, the uncertainty, the questioning of whether it will work out or if our actions will have the outcome we wanted.  And this...is where we have to have hope, faith that it will work out in the end.  This hope is what helps relieve us of the stress.