In this deeply personal solo episode, I’m getting vulnerable about one of the hardest lessons I’m learning as both a therapist and a mother: how to find genuine peace not after our struggles end, but right in the middle of them. After 25 years of helping others navigate their relationships, I’m discovering that my parenting challenges are teaching me something profound about surrender, gratitude, and what it means to let peace protect us instead of trying to preserve our peace.

I’ll walk you through:

✅ Why peace isn’t something you guard like a flickering candle—it’s a shield that protects you when you surrender your bitterness

✅ The difference between fake positivity and soul-level gratitude during your darkest moments

✅ How parenting bitterness cuts deeper than marital resentment and why it’s harder to confess

✅ Why I stopped praying “please change them” and started praying “please change me”

✅ The counterintuitive truth that formation happens in kitchen arguments and silent car rides, not in glamorous breakthroughs

✅ How to hand over your burdens without giving up—and why that distinction matters

✅ Why suffering might be cracking you open just enough to let the light in

This isn’t about slapping on a smile when your world feels like it’s burning down. This is about that rare, transformative kind of gratitude that says, “I don’t understand this, but I trust you” while you’re still in the thick of it. Whether you’re struggling with a defiant teenager, a distant spouse, or any relationship that’s testing your limits, this episode offers a different way forward—one that leads to genuine peace instead of exhausting control.

🔔 Remember: Sometimes the good isn’t in the fixing—it’s in the formation. We’re not called to be moral police, but faithful witnesses who choose love over and over again, even when it’s quiet and thankless.