Take Five Minutes for God- Summer Session 1

Mrs. Mary would like to share with you the topical lessons her youth students are doing this summer! Each week there will be a new session posted!

- How We Deal with Stress Can Lead to Unforeseen Consequences

What do you do when you are feeling stressed out? Let’s face it, we all have things that stress us out. Some people will eat. A lot of people like to spend money to make themselves feel better when they are stressed.

Do you know why we will eat or spend money to make us feel better when we are stressed out?

Who here has heard of the hormone called DOPAMINE?

That hormone is called the pleasure or reward hormone. For example, when you get a good workout in, you get a rush of dopamine because you earned it by working out. That dopamine is a reward your brain gives you for earning something good for your health. The key word here is: earn.

So why would spending money be a problem to get this rush of dopamine?

A lot of people use these terrible things called credit cards when shopping for things to make them feel good. Did they earn that dopamine by swiping a card?

Let’s look at it like this: if I ask you to go rob a bank with me, are you going to do it? ABSOLUTELY NOT! It’s against the law and not worth the consequences.

So why do people grab a credit card?

Contrary to what a lot of people believe, a credit card is not free money. We can compare using a credit card to robbing a bank…it is legally robbing the bank but think about it. It’s taking money from someone else to get a temporary fix of dopamine that you didn’t earn.

Here’s the kicker…I just recently paid off my last credit card. Mr. CB and I do not have any credit cards. The card I paid off was for my business when I had it. My business has been closed now for three years, and I just paid off my business card. So, while spending the money was fun and made me feel good at the beginning of the purchase, that credit card company punished me on the backside. I did not go to jail like if I were robbing a bank, but I did have unforeseen consequences. If you do not pay your credit card off every month when your statement comes in, that dopamine hit you had for a few minutes becomes a nightmare and it starts to eat away at you. Credit Cards have crazy high interest, so a $20 item can easily become a $45 item or even more! A credit card is an easy way to steal something you haven’t actually earned. It’s lying to yourself saying you earned a reward. A reward is not a reward if you did not put effort into earning it.

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 5:10- “Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.”

Money will never be enough. It is a broken crutch. If you lean on money or credit cards in your time of stress not only, will it break, but it will break you. Our sin is like credit cards. The sin at the time may give us a dopamine hit and make us feel good, but in the end, it will have unforeseen consequences and become a nightmare and possibly break us. Everything we do and choose in life has consequences. Our sin separates us from God, until we give that over to Him. Until we use God as our crutch and nothing else, for He will never break. The only thing that can pay our debts and set us free is the Blood of Jesus. Stress will always be a part of life, but it is up to us to learn how to deal with that stress. We do not want unforeseen consequences or to be eaten away at. Take all your cares to Jesus.

1 Peter 5:7- “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”

We struggle to handle life sometimes, but God doesn’t, and He cares for us most! Take it to Jesus and let Him help you through your stress and struggles. Earn your dopamine and good things in life. Things are so much sweeter when you’ve earned them.

I pray you are saved today and that you do not turn to things to make you feel good that in the end will harm you.