Welcome to Sabbath School !
Burnt Mills Sabbath School
Dear Sabbath School Member and Friend,
Welcome to Sabbath School ! May 8th is a special day of honor for all our mothers, grandmothers and mothers-to-be at Burnt Mills. We hope you can be present at the 10:30 am program. Steev Yovan will lead out in a special program recognizing our dear mothers through thought, song and gift ! Please plan to attend and bring that special person along !
And as you reflect on this mother's day weekend, we hope these profound selected sayings will be a blessing:
I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life. -Abraham Lincoln
"No man is poor who has had a godly mother." - Abraham Lincoln
"The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the mother's side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother, and to become fully independent." - Erich Fromm
"A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take." - Mermillod
"Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother." - Lin Yü-tang
"Every mother is like Moses. She does not enter the Promised Land. She prepares a world she will not see." - Unknown
"The mother loves her child most divinely, not when she surrounds him with comfort and anticipates his wants, but when she resolutely holds him to the highest standards and is content with nothing less than his best." - Hamilton Wright Mabie
"Motherhood brings as much joy as ever, but it still brings boredom, exhaustion, and sorrow too. Nothing else ever will make you as happy or as sad, as proud or as tired, for nothing is quite as hard as helping a person develop his own individuality especially while you struggle to keep your own." -Marguerite Kelly and Elia Parsons
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Psalm 118:6 - The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
Proverb 17:22 - A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Hebrews 13:6 - So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?"
1 John 4:18 - There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
Stress. It’s something we all feel at times: the final exam…the bills to be paid…the baby crying…the boss yelling…the roof leaking…and the car quitting. These things are a part of everyday life. Stressful events happen, but it’s how we handle them that matters.
When faced with chronic stress, we begin to notice not only emotional but physical symptoms. At first, stress manifests itself in milder symptoms such as headaches or an increased vulnerability to colds. However, the more exposure to stress along with an inability to handle it properly, can lead to more serious conditions:
depression
diabetes
hair loss
heart disease
hyperthyroidism
obesity
obsessive-compulsive or anxiety disorder
sexual dysfunction
tooth and gum disease
ulcers
and possibly certain cancers
It’s been estimated that as many as 90% of doctor’s visits are for symptoms that are at least partially stress related.
On the other hand, having a happy attitude can do wonders for our bodies. In an interview on happiness, Psychiatrist Dr. Donald Rosen explains: “We’ve known for a long time that stress has adverse effects on an adult. People with highly stressed lives have increased incidences of heart disease, stroke, chronic illness, autoimmune illnesses and cancer. What's exciting is that having a positive emotional tone does more than mitigate the negative effects of stress. We know that they resist infections better and that when they do get sick they get less sick.” He suggests that happiness is “more of a way of being than a way of feeling at any one moment….”
Dr. Rosen also shared facts of a Detroit study of nuns that began back in the 1930’s. Researchers read the nun’s diaries, looking for references to positive words and the number of different types of positive words. The result? Those nuns who had the most references to positive feelings and words lived nine years longer than nuns who recorded more negative thoughts!
So how does one replace stress with a happiness that brings peace? It’s a process. It requires looking at the balance of your life, eating healthfully, getting adequate sleep, exercise, a hobby, spending time with family and friends, and giving back in some way. But this week’s memory text holds the most important key: “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”
So peace—perfect peace—comes when our minds remain, linger, and wait, on Jesus. It’s an act of surrender; it’s a deliberate choice we make because we trust Him. We trust that He can handle any problem and every heartache. We keep our minds on Him by spending time talking with Him, reading texts of assurance in the Bible, and fellowshipping with happy and positive Christians.