A Prayer for a Difficult Boss

Father, I dread the sound of their footsteps in the hallway. My shoulders tighten before they even reach my desk, bracing for the criticism, the shifting demands, the way nothing I do seems to be enough. I carry this tension home in my jaw.

I confess that resentment has been growing quietly in me, that I have rehearsed sharp replies in the shower and wished failure on someone made in Your image. The bitterness is eating at me more than they are.

So I bring this knotted relationship to You. Guard my heart from becoming hard. Give me words that are honest but not cruel, and the courage to set a boundary where I have only swallowed my voice.

You taught that I should bless those who are hard to bless and overcome evil not with more evil but with good. That feels impossible today, so I ask You to do in me what I cannot do alone.

Help me to work as if for You and not for them, free from needing their approval to feel whole. Be my steady ground when their moods shake the floor beneath me. Amen.