by Marilynn Chadwick
Peace is a priority in our home. A peaceful home refreshes and blesses the family.
Today’s world is busy and noisy. How can I lighten my husband’s load and his heart? Help him have fun? I’ve learned that simple habits, like taking a day off together each week, honor him by allowing him to be refreshed. We’re also intentional about family vacations. Doing so has allowed us to sustain our busy schedules. We find we can then return to the fray strengthened and with renewed enthusiasm.
But sometimes, peace doesn’t come without a fight. If I’m serious about “waging peace,” it helps to know my enemy. You know what I have found is the quickest way to rob peace in the home? Worry. Anxiety can drain my energy and quench calm faster than just about anything. What’s more, it’s contagious. When the kids were small, if I became worried, they seemed to absorb my anxiety and become fretful.
Worry is also exhausting. I agree with a friend who coined this acronym for W-O-R-R-Y: Worry Only Robs Rest from You. Worry says loud and clear that I don’t trust God. But when I refuse to be anxious, when I trust God and remain peaceful, I create a climate of peace.
I have to confess I grew up as a world-class worrier. There were times early in our marriage when fear held me in its grip. Fear of storms, fear of intruders, fear of illness, fear of flying. You name it - I probably wrestled with it.
But I’ve learned to be ruthless. Through the promises in God’s Word, lots of prayer, and putting my faith into action, I have wrestled most of my fears to the ground. I’m not completely worry-free, but I can tell you I no longer feel like a prisoner to fear.
These twin invaders, fear and anxiety, can wreak havoc on a home and a marriage. God doesn’t treat fear and worry as small things. He tells us to cast all your anxiety on him “because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).
He commands us to “have no fear.” To “be anxious for nothing” (Philippians 4:6 NKJV). As with any stubborn problem, the first step is to confront anxiety head-on and call it out for the enemy that it is. We may find that our repentance is soon followed by times of refreshing and revival. And a peace that passes all understanding!
Wage peace in the home! Don’t worry! Or as I would tell my daughter Bethany as she was growing up, “It’d be better to be dead than to live in dread.” I think this fight for peace honors our husbands, and makes life more fun in the process.