Practicing Peace with All Your Strength
Making Peace with Ourselves
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.
-Psalm 46:10
The Strength point on the Living Compass focuses on Care for the Body and Resilience. Today we will pause and reflect on what practicing peace looks like in these two dimensions of our well-being.
Not only can this time of year magnify whatever losses and stressors we are experiencing, it can also bring with it unique challenges and temptations to neglect caring for our physical health. Physical well-being depends on proactive habits and disciplines that energize and strengthen our ability to care for the God-given gifts of our bodies. If the only time we pay attention to caring for our bodies is when they are sick and hurting, then we are falling short of caring for these “temples of the Holy Spirit,” as they are described in 1 Corinthians 6:19.
We all experience stress. Sometimes it is of our own making, and other times it is because life is hard, or has handed us a setback. This is especially true this time of year when many of us feel additional pressure from too many competing demands on our time and energy. To be resilient in the face of stress is to be able to accept that hardship is a part of the fabric of life, and to then choose to work, with God’s help, to persevere and grow through the challenging times.
No matter what we are facing, we can fill our reservoirs of peace by taking small steps every day to care for our bodies and accepting that challenges are a part of life. While these steps will be different for everyone, when practiced regularly, they can make a big difference in our overall well-being, now and throughout the year.
Making it Personal: What is one conscious, small step you can take right now to gain a sense of peace regarding your physical well-being? Identify one particular stressor you are currently experiencing and identify one concrete step you can take to practice resilience in the midst of the stress.