Prayer in times of struggle

I'm an emotional person by nature. This can be both good and bad, I've seen. I can experience happiness and gratitude deeply, but also get upset by things relatively easily. I've recently been thinking, what can I do to overcome the battles that occur within myself when I get upset? One major way: through prayer.

Recently my friends and I stayed at an Airbnb together for a few days. Initially I thought, "Wow, this is going to be great!" But although I love these people, living with them was challenging. It's not that they did anything wrong - in fact, they are amazing housemates. But all of us come from different homes with different ways of doing things, so I didn't always see eye-to-eye with all of them, or sometimes I was frustrated that I couldn't do things "my way", the way I usually do in my own home. 

After one incident on the final night, I got quite upset. It wasn't only that incident, but all the other ones started flooding back into my mind. I was on the verge of anger. 

But I knew I didn't want to end the trip like this. I knew I was just being immature, and that I had to let those negative feelings go. So I decided to pray. 

Why pray? Because God has the biggest perspective. I was upset because I was caught up in my own thoughts and feelings. I had a hard time thinking about the other people in the house. As I was contemplating how I could get over it, I remembered something another friend said to me recently: Prayer can help you get to a place of humility and gratitude. 

And although I had to muster up the willingness to be more mature about the situation, once I did, I started to pray, and it truly did bring me to a better place. It brought me the humility to try seeing from others' perspective and accept that it was my problem, not theirs. And it brought me gratitude for them and this opportunity to be with them.

God has such deep love for everyone. During moments when we have a hard time thinking of others, prayer is one of the best things we can do so we can grow to resemble His character more and more. 

-Maruko Breland