Protecting Your Peace

Do you find yourself in chaos, whether it’s in your mind or your circumstances? If you’re like me it’s hard not to give more than you receive, and sometimes we find ourselves empty and deflated with nothing left to give. But there’s a way to protect our peace.

Proverbs 4:23 reminds us to “above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

This scripture is telling us to be careful what we let into our hearts and minds.

Think about conversations you enter into. Maybe a conversation where you know someone is going to try and tear you down. That we feel like you have to defend yourself. We can choose not to engage with that person.

Protect your peace by thinking about the people you allow in your life. Choose who you are going to have a “place at your table” or speak into your life this place has to be earned by people. They just don’t get to have it because of who they are.

There are only certain people who have earned the right to speak into my life. And it doesn’t have anything to do with the title they hold.

Think about who has shown you they don’t have the right to be at your table or speak into your life. Is there anyone you’ve been allowing into your life who hasn’t earned it? Do you need to set some boundaries to protect your peace?

Protecting your peace is also about guarding what you think about. What we think about has a lot to do with our peace.

Sometimes we can just get tired and let the negative thoughts come and it’s hard to fight them off.

Some things I put into practice are: questioning the validity of my thoughts.

• Is it true?
• Is there any evidence for that thought or is it just my emotions or me being tired?
• What does God say about this in His Word?

I am not perfect at this. But, I have found that I can usually guard my heart and mind by having boundaries around the conversations I enter into,

I am aware of who I let into my life and who has earned the right to speak into it and who has not.

I can guard my heart from negative thoughts by questioning whether there is really evidence for that thought and comparing it to what the Bible says about my situation.