Every Woman's Story: PeaceSample

Do I have to make my own peace?

When life gets to be too much, we start scrambling for peace. We look for something, anything, that will stop the feeling of being overwhelmed. The problem with humanity is our long tradition of looking for peace in all the wrong places. None of it ever lasts. Most of it does harm.

A nice swing in the hammock under the sun might be a good break from reality, but the truth is that we can’t run to the hammocks of life whenever the pressure starts. We need peace in the middle of that meeting gone wrong, in the grocery store with the kids, in that hard conversation with a loved one.

That kind of peace, which moves with and through us, only comes from God. He isn’t stingy with it. He will give us that peace. He wants to give it. Like a cool sip of water on a hot day, he will refresh us amid the overwhelming and the hard.

Act

Find a picture that speaks peace—a hammock, a river, the beach. Put it somewhere you’ll see it often, and let it remind you to ask God for peace when life starts heating up.

Pray

God, help me to stop looking for peace in all the wrong places and to come to you first instead.