When Life is Too Noisy

After a busy weekend at church, I was looking forward to a quiet afternoon yesterday. Unfortunately for me, my young upstairs tenants, who are usually so quiet I forget they live there, had friends over and they were obviously playing games because there was much laughter and bouncing around. I have no sound insulation in my ceiling and am sensitive to noise, so I spent several hours sighing and resisting the temptation to text, asking them to quiet down. At the same time, I tried to do some work.

Wearing earphones to listen to Christmas music blocked out the sounds from upstairs but not the noise in my head. I was distracted and frustrated.

I finally took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and asked God for peace and humility. I asked Him to keep me from becoming a grumpy person who couldn’t be happy when other people are happy, especially nice people like my tenants. I don’t want to become that person. Then I took another deep breath, and now I’m writing this while I listen to a beautiful Christmas album.

Sometimes, the noise around us isn’t the real problem. It could be our own tiredness. Our worries. Our loneliness. Our unmet needs. Our lack of balance. We may be working too much, spending too much, eating too much. Especially around Christmas, emotions can run high and get us into trouble.

Stop. Close your eyes for much-needed prayer time. Ask God to help you get out of your own head so that you can step back and remember how blessed you are, how beautiful life is, and how precious other people are.

Ann-Margret Hovsepian has written professionally for over 25 years and has illustrated coloring books since 2015. She has written hundreds of articles and is a bestselling author, co-author, or illustrator of multiple books.

Books, articles, and products by Ann-Margret Hovsepian.

Photo: Pixabay.

© 2023 XMegapolis. Used by permission.

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