Did you hear about Texas’s snowmaggedon a little over a month ago? Maybe you saw us poor Texans shivering on the nightly news. Or maybe you were living it and felt like at any time the Yeti from the frozen tundra would show up to walk down your hometown streets. Truthfully, we are not made or prepared in any way for temperatures that drop below freezing.

I know that being in my house for 34 hours without heat or water was wearing on my mental health. I am not typically one that rolls with the punches very well. In fact, while other families were playing games, roasting smores and “making memories,” I was holding back tears laying under multiple layers of blankets and checking the weather app every 15 minutes. Can anyone relate? In fact, at one point my husband warmed up his truck and sent me to a time-out in the Ford. I cried. I cried big tears. I also asked God if crying was showing lack of faith and if He was disappointed in me.

Guess what? God was OK with my timeout. He was OK with my sobbing tears. He was OK that I wasn’t feeling the “it’s just like camping” vibe and embracing every moment. You know what mattered to Him? It mattered that I brought all my snotty tears to Him to wipe away. It mattered that I took a breath and let the Comforter do His job. It mattered that I was there for my family as best as I could be.

I felt peace. I stopped condemning myself for being upset. I recognized that the enemy wanted to take that opportunity to make me feel “less than” and churn up a storm in my thoughts. He’s a liar, in case you didn’t know. I climbed out of the Ford and walked back into the cold, dark house with dry eyes.

I still laid under several layers of blankets.

I still checked the weather app.

I still let out a huge “thank you Jesus” when the power returned.

However, “Peace! Be STILL” was what I breathed in.

My mind was at rest and my heart was anchored in the One that is the Prince of Peace. The one that calms the storm in our spirit, in our thoughts and in our heart is always near.

I am OK because my Prince of Peace gently whispered “be still” to my raging emotions.

Take a timeout, sisters, when the enemy is brewing waves around you and in you.

“And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea,

          “Peace! Be still!” Mark 4:39 ESV