Stress: Is it Good or Bad?

I submit my answer to this question: both.
This past week has been CRAZY in my family! Several big things happened; some are still in the process of happening. The biggest thing that affected the whole family was a wedding. My little brother got married...before me. And before my older brother. As much as I love my little brother and my new little sister, it's a hard thing to watch happen. Of course I'm happy for them, of course our older brother is happy for them, but it is still difficult to stand by and watch.
This is just one of the stressors that have helped bring my family closer together. Jealousy can be a hard thing, so I decided to draw closer to my brother and his new wife rather than allowing my jealousy to create a wall between us. This decision (along with their choice to reciprocate) has helped a lot in the hard situation I have been in. As things turned out, the wedding was absolutely wonderful! I was excited for my own big day, but not madly jealous like I thought I might be. The most prevalent feeling I had was joy for the new couple.
Another likely situation would have been my older brother and myself coming closer and forming an alliance against the little brother who would dare jump ahead of us. This didn't happen either because we chose to all come together. It required thought and conscious decisions. And it all has worked out beautifully!
The moral of this story is that we choose happiness. We can choose pain and disconnect, but any of these feelings really are chosen. We decide to overcome feelings by feeding more positive feelings and understanding one another or we choose to let the stress and negative feelings consume us.
Today I choose peace and an eternal friendship with my brothers and my new sister-in-law. What will you choose?