Popular Bible study focuses on helping women balance stresses of life

Walk by a newsstand in the grocery store and flip through some women’s magazines. Chances are good that most — if not all — of them will have a least one article on stress. If that is not enough, then there are also books, newsletters and seminars by the dozen on how to deal with stress.
   
According to the results of a January 2006 survey by the American Psychological Association, the information is badly needed in today’s society. Fifty-one percent of women surveyed — as opposed to 47 percent of men — reported concern about the amount of stress in their lives. Stress is believed to cause women to age prematurely, abuse alcohol and turn to food for comfort.  
   
Cindi Wood couldn’t help noticing the trend. Presenting seminars in the corporate world, Wood felt a growing concern over the level of stress she was seeing in both Christians and non-Christians. At the same time, she was alarmed by all of the New Age teachings about controlling stress.
   
Wood decided to tackle the problem from a Christian perspective. 
   
“We know that all of that teaching is hollow without Jesus. Some of it is just false,” she said. “I longed for a Christian environment where I could speak freely.”
   
Two books and two Bible studies later, her Frazzled Female conferences are attracting thousands of women across the United States — both Christian and non-Christian.
   
A recent conference at West Hartselle Baptist Church, Hartselle, in Morgan Baptist Association drew more than 300 participants from area churches, as well as from Tuscaloosa, Cullman and Columbia, Tenn. The conference stemmed from a 10–week Bible study last year at the church. 
   
Polly Camron facilitated the study and found that many women in the congregation were interested in the topic with 20 to 25 attending the study time each week.
   
“I think our society programs us to multitask. More is better. If you aren’t doing three things at once, you must be sick,” she said, noting the study was “a breath of fresh air.” 
   
“Everybody got excited because a lot of it was things you could do quickly, not a process that took weeks,” she noted.
   
Gena Rogers, LifeWay Christian Resources’ editor of leadership and adult publishing, agreed.
   
“Most women are way too overwhelmed to commit to a long-term Bible study that requires hours,” she said. “Cindi has done a great job of sharing concrete information that women can immediately put into practice.”
   
That was Wood’s intention in writing the study. 
   
“The great thing is there are no expectations,” she said. “The whole message is practicality. The more frazzled you are, the better.” 
   
Although Wood shares de-frazzling tips such as turning a to-do list over to the Lord in prayer and using a “worry box” to deposit written-down worries that steal peace and joy from life, the real story is captured in the words of Jesus in Mark 6:31, a verse she refers to frequently in her writing and conferences: “Come away with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” 
   
“If I don’t have that devotional worship time with Jesus, I crash, even in the middle of doing God’s work,” Wood said. “So many times, we mistake what we are doing for the relationship. Our whole society has missed the teaching of the First Commandment. We’re getting it backwards.”
   
Terry Hughes drove more than two hours from Decatur, Tenn., to attend the conference at the invitation of her daughter. She said she was “a little tattered … definitely on my way to being frazzled.” But the conference reminded her of the importance of prayer. 
   
“Prayer is our lifeline. It is also obedience and we must discipline ourselves accordingly or face the ragged, tattered, frazzled consequences,” Hughes said.
   
Wood’s actions in demonstrating this point made an even greater impact than her words, according to Hughes.
   
“She physically dropped to her knees as she was speaking of the communication with the Lord — something that we don’t always take the time to do,” Hughes said. “You can bet that I am more aware of hitting my knees now.”
   
According to Rogers, Wood’s “The Frazzled Female” Bible study has sold 75,000 copies since its publication in 2004. “Victoriously Frazzled,” Wood’s new book released in August 2006, has sold more than 8,000 copies. Rogers, editor of both of Wood’s Bible studies, also led a group of 60 to 70 female LifeWay employees in the first study. 
   
“From the most seasoned Christian to the new believer, there wasn’t a woman … in the study who didn’t find something she could relate to,” she said. 
   
To purchase Frazzled Female items, visit LifeWay’s online store by going to www.thealabamabaptist.org.