In recent days, I found yet another advantage to the seemingly endless list of advantages of working from home. When the bottom falls out and your stress is in total control of you and you have none over it, as the tears start to fall, you can go stand in the shower and let them fall in unison with the gentle flow of water that washes away the tension.

To date, I thought only prayer and chocolate could erase such tension. Now, don't take that wrong. If you tell me you've never been too upset to pray, I won't believe you. Of course I'm not especially proud of the fact that I am capable of getting so upset over anything, but I am. That's why I figure God gave us chocolate, to get us through the hard times until we can settle down and talk to Him again.

Granted, it's times like I am talking about when I know we should pray more. "Pray without ceasing" I believe are the instructions we've been given. But I'm human, and humans forget and fail. Sometimes they even fall down.

But it's not as hard now to get up again as it has been in the past. I have learned to recognize the Hand that reaches out even when I don't ask for it. It's hard to imagine such love and acceptance. Just downright awesome, isn't it?

In case you are wondering what got to me this week... It's the personal pain of loved ones and friends. I have this gift, I've been told, to empathize well with others. And it's an okay gift as long as you don't get to empathizing with too many folks at one time. Then it starts to feel like a curse, rather than a gift.

I think it all has to do with thinking you have to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders rather than handing it off in prayer to the One whose shoulders are big enough to handle it.

Now, handing off your cares and those of others to our heavenly Father does not mean we don't continue to care. On the contrary, it means we care so much we can't walk away from the pain. We have to help. And sometimes there is nothing we can do, but pray. Then again, through prayer our eyes are often opened to things we can do to help.

It always surprises me the things that start coming to mind once I have taken certain issues to the throne of grace. I receive far more inspiration and peace from that action than from eating chocolate. But, remember, I'm human. Don't judge too harshly. After all, you have your weaknesses, too. Right?

It is one thing to acknowledge a weakness. It is quite another to dwell on it. One thing I have discovered over the years. Our weaknesses are so closely related to our strengths that it is sometimes hard to tell them apart. And when you figure how God is always working in and through all aspects of our lives for our eternal good and His glory then you have to be careful not to judge yourself or others too harshly.

Ah, yes, 'tis hard to know what is right and wrong sometimes, what we should work to change and what is best left alone. Prayer is the key, though. And sometimes it's the only way. And, when the answers don't come as expeditiously we would expect, we learn to rest while we wait. Action is not always the best response to the pain of others. Oh, we always want to act, to do something to ease or erase the pain of those we love. But remember the butterfly...

Recall how the old farmer grew so tired of the butterfly's struggle to escape from his cocoon that he snipped it open so the butterfly could be more easily released from that which was causing its pain. Ah, but the butterfly fell to the ground and died. It was the struggle that strengthened his wings enough for him to fly. When the struggle was gone so was life...

I subscribe to the thought-for-the-day service that Zondervan Publishing offers over the Internet. Recently I read one which I found most profound and timely. And so, as with many things I find too good to keep to myself, I pass it on to you today: