Five Minute Friday - Pressure

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One word. Five minutes to write about it. This is the idea behind Five Minute Friday and this is today's free-writing post.

under pressure

no pressure though!

peer pressure

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I understand pressure. Time, expectations, fear, and other elements put pressure on us all the time. It's inevitable. How I react and respond to pressure makes a difference though. Will I let the pressure squeeze and twist and break me? Or will I let it shape me and strengthen me?

To be under pressure is inescapable. Pressure takes place through all the world; war, siege, the worries of state. We all know men who grumble under these pressures and complain. They are cowards. They lack splendour. But there is another sort of man who is under the same pressure but does not complain, for it is the friction which polishes him. It is the pressure which refines and makes him noble. ~Saint Augustine

Pressure and stress can weigh on us and drag us down, crush us. Or it can make us better. Just like steady pressure is needed to help glue bond something broken back together, and just like pressure is sometimes needed to stop a wound from bleeding, it can be necessary and helpful. Pressing too hard can be harmful though. 

The pressure from the world and people around us is not something I can control, only respond to. Hopefully, by trusting in God's strength and grace, I will respond with grace.

No pressure, no diamonds.

~Thomas Carlyle

When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure. ~Peter Marshall

As pressure and stress bear down on me,

I find joy in your commands.

~Psalm 119:143

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On a lighter note, let me leave you with this gem:

Hermits have no peer pressure. ~Steven Wright

This post is linked at Five Minute Friday for the word prompt "Pressure".

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