Everyday Prayers for PeaceShembull

### At All Times, in Every Way Sometimes it’s easier to find peace in the big, life-changing things than it is to find everyday peace. Painful emotions often come up again and again without warning and mess with the way we experience life. We don’t ask for them, random things can trigger them, and most of us would prefer to slam the door in their face and call that peace. They often show up in the small parts of life—the cracks and crevices we thought we’d swept clean but somehow got dirty again. Denying difficult, peace-stealing feelings isn’t necessarily the answer. Sometimes we need to allow ourselves to really feel what we’re feeling , so to speak, so that our minds, hearts, and even physical bodies can heal. Most of the time, the feelings that return are ones that haven’t been dealt with, or at least not completely. And they can be sneaky. After a particularly heated argument a few years ago, my oldest son looked at me and said, “Mom, I don’t think you’re really mad about what we’ve been arguing about. I think you’re mad about something else, and our disagreement was just the icing on the cake.” He was right. Something had caused me some pain earlier in the day, and I was still carrying it around later that night. Because I didn’t recognize it for what it was, I allowed my emotions over a completely different issue to interfere with my relationship with my son. Sometimes, our emotions hijack us completely and threaten to rob our peace. In fact, I would venture to guess that a high percentage of stress in our relationships and experiences throughout our days has little to do with the actual stressful events and more to do with the way our past experiences, or unhealed feelings related to those experiences, make us interpret them. As believers, we can do something about this. The best way to start is to simply ask God to show us when we’re functioning from a place of hurt or frustration and not get mad at our teenagers when they point it out. Realizing it is half the battle. Father, You are my peace. You are the Lord of peace, and you’ve given me access to Your peace any time I need it. I need it, Lord. Give me the ability to choose peace over anything else because it glorifies You. In Jesus’s name, amen.