Count Your Blessings

Count your blessings! How many times in our lives have we heard that?  It sounds easy doesn’t it?  Try counting your blessings when you cannot think of one solitary blessing.  We have all been there. You know in your heart that you have blessings to count, but the circumstances of your life prevent you from recognizing them.  I was thinking of this this morning and realized it is a lot like teaching a child to count.  Teaching first grade special education, I encounter a lot of kids who cannot count.  So, what do I do? I have them practice. I have them start small and work their way up.  Maybe they can only count to ten, or five, or even one.  Well, that’s a start.  Once they can count to one, two will soon follow.  Before long, they are counting to five, then ten, then 20, then 40 and so on.  I think when it comes to counting our blessings during the hard times, we should start counting as if we are a first grader just learning how to count.

Surely everyone can come up with one blessing to count.  If you can’t, I’ll help you.  You can be thankful for the breath in your body.  One of the first blessings that God gave us on this earth was that of breath in our bodies.  From the second that our faces felt the warmth and light of this world, we took a breath.  We didn’t even have to think about it.  It just happened naturally.  It is one of those God-given things that just happens, and we take it for granted.  So count that as your number one blessing.  As long as we have breath in us we can continue to fight.  We can continue to try harder to be a better person.  We can continue to try not to let the negativity of this world get us down.  

So you see, breath really is a blessing.  Do me a favor; hold your breath right now.  Just humor me. Hold your breath as long as you can.  As you hold your breath imagine not ever being able to breathe again.  You become panicked.  Your chest feels heavy and you get lightheaded.  Now keep holding it. Hold it still a little longer.   Now, let it out.  Wow, that feels good doesn’t it?  That relief you feel is the feeling that God wants us to have all the time, that feeling of relief that we can finally breathe again.  We really can have that feeling most of the time if we just take a few minutes everyday and count our blessings.  It takes five seconds.  

Start at one blessing and then just work your way up from there.  Before you know it, you will be counting five blessings, then ten blessings, and so on.  And what a difference that will make in your daily life.  Feeling gratitude and thankfulness is the perfect way to help us experience peace in our lives.  In a lot of ways, not counting your blessings and being thankful for all that we have is like holding our breath.  It causes anxiety, makes your chest heavy, and makes you feel lightheaded.  But once you let it out and start counting, you will feel such a release and relief that you will never want to go through life again without counting your blessings. Counting our blessings will lead to peace, and PEACE MATTERS.    

~Dan~

There is great power in writing things down, so here is a list of my blessings.  I would love for you to list some of your blessings in the comment section of this post, but if you feel like you do not have time, at least make a list in your head.  There is always, always, always something to be thankful for.

My Blessings (in no particular order):

1. Jeff
2. Peyton & Paycee
3. My family (Grandma, Mom, Dad, Andrew, Amy, Katie, Jake, Tessa, Bob, Donna, and Aunt Pauletta just to name a few)
4. My friends (Jerrah, Diane, and Toni)
5. My home
6. My job
7. My health
8. God
9. My safety
10. My online friends who send me messages and inspire me through words of wisdom and pictures.  (Too numerous to mention each one)

Detours

Detours, we all face them.  Sometimes they are real, and sometimes they are in our minds.  Whatever form they take, we can deal with them in the same way.  Who of us has not been driving somewhere and been late and run into an annoying detour.  Our first reaction is to get mad and ask, “Why me?”  We focus on the fact that we do not have time to deal with this kind of setback.  Detours can happen in life too.  We feel like we are on the right path, and everything is going smoothly.  We have our days fine-tuned, and everything runs on schedule to the minute.  Then out of nowhere, we hit a bump in the road and everything changes.  Maybe it’s a sick child or spouse.  Or perhaps one of our parents becomes ill or we suffer an injury.  Whatever the roadblock is, the feeling for all of us is the same.  We experience anger and frustration and ask, “Why me?”  

Roadblocks and detours are sometimes placed in our path to help us see the beauty in life or to take us on a learning journey that will strengthen our faith and our walk with God.  Think about it, you are driving down the road and you hit a detour.  You have to get off the main road and try to find your destination in a new way.  What do most of us do?  Quite often we end up following the car in front of us, all the while hoping that these newly appointed Magellans know where they are going.  It sort of becomes a procession of sorts.  “If the car in front of me turns, so will I.” While following the car in front of us often gets us to the desired location, we may miss something along the way.  If we spend all of our time focusing on what’s in front of us and not on what is around us, we may miss the beauty.  

If you are like me, you live in an area of the country where there are a lot of beautiful sights to see.  Maybe it’s an old barn or farmhouse or perhaps a beautifully misshaped tree, or a baby lamb.  Whatever the beauty is, it is our job to find it.  When we do, it changes our attitude and effects our day in a positive way, and we would have never seen it had it not been for the detour.  I believe that sometimes God does put detours in our path.  He can use these detours to show us the beauty in life.  

So, the next time you experience a detour in your life, let God lead you.  Follow Him like you would the car in front of you.  If He makes a turn, make it with Him.  Trust God’s quiet, small voice.  I guess in a lot of ways, God is like a little Heavenly GPS.  One has been installed in each of us; we just have to figure out how to turn it on.  Once we do, we will seldom get off the path, but if we do, we may hear God’s quiet voice saying, “Recalculating.”  And even if God leads you through a detour, don’t forget to see the beauty that is around you.  There will be some, I promise.  You just have to have eyes that are willing to see it.  You have to fight against getting so frustrated and angry that you close your eyes and refuse to see the beauty in the problem.  Plus, think of how wonderful it feels when you are in a detour and you arrive back on the main road.  You breathe a sigh of relief, check your clock, and realize that it didn’t set you back as much as you thought, and when you get home or to work, you can bet you are going to tell someone about the beauty you saw along the way.  

That is another important part of detours, sharing what you have learned with others.  Maybe it is your job to warn them to avoid that area and to stay clear, or maybe it is your job to tell them to take the detour so they can enjoy the beauty you saw along the way. Always try to be thankful for the little bumps in the road.  They make us stronger people, restore our faith, and force us to look to God. And when we look to God, we will find peace, and PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~

This is one of my favorite handmade samplers.  This one was made by Bridgett Swindle.  

My Lifeboat: The Final Chapter

If you have been reading my previous posts, you will know about the events that led to Jeff and me renting an apartment in late July of 2014.  You will also know that we intended to keep the apartment to live in it while we were building our saltbox, but God had other plans for us, so we have been moving everything out of the apartment and setting it back up in our current home.  I am happy to report that I am completely moved out of the apartment and that it is back in the hands of the landlords who so graciously rented it to us last year.  

I cannot tell you how happy I am to be completely moved out of the apartment, not because it was a bad place to live.  It was actually quite the contrary.  It was a wonderful place to live, and I rented from a very nice couple who even allowed me to change the lights to my primitive lighting so that I would feel more comfortable.  It is a happy time because I am closing the chapter on that part of my life.  It was a chapter of my life that I never expected to open, but looking back on it now, I see that it was a chapter that I had to open to get to the road that God had planned for my life.  It was a chapter filled with many dark days, but it was through those dark days that God led me to the peace that is now making my days so much brighter.  

I was talking to my grandma this past weekend, and she was sharing with me some of the struggles that she endured during her life and she said, “You know, as difficult as the valleys of life are, they are the times when we grow the most.”  She relayed a story to me about a time that she and my grandpa drove to Colorado.  She said that they were traveling through the mountains and she felt that God told her to look to the top of the mountain.  When she did, all she saw was snow and rocks.  Then she looked down into the valley below the mountain and she said that it was one of the most beautiful sights that she had ever seen.  It was full of lush green trees and plants and a flowing river.  She then said to me that she felt that God reminded her of how important valleys in life are because that is when we grow with God and within ourselves.  She said that she never looked at a difficult time in her life the same way after that.  

After I got off the phone with my grandma, I started thinking about what she had said and realized how true her statement was.  I have seen the growth that the valley caused in my life, and I have seen how it made me a better person and how it caused me to draw closer to God and the people who are important to me.  I think about the Dan that moved into that apartment last year, and thankfully I do not resemble that person anymore.  I felt that God told me that He would make me into a new creature while I was occupying the apartment, and I am thankful to say that He kept His promise.  So, now I can say without any reservation that I am so thankful for the valley that I went through.  I never thought I would reach that point, but here it is almost one year later and I am actually thankful for the terrible trials and difficulties that I had to face last year.  

It is like my grandma said when I was talking to her: “I am so thankful for every single part of my journey—the good and the bad.”  Those are powerful words and words that I hope to repeat often during my lifetime.  If I am ever in the position to write the story of my life, the chapter on my time in this apartment will be a very important chapter and will serve as a catalyst to everything I ever achieve or do in the years ahead.  

Actually, a thought just occurred to me. The name of the town that the apartment was in is Energy.  I never realized the significance of that until this very second.  I received a lot of strength and energy while residing in that apartment, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that God led Jeff to that particular apartment.  God knew what I needed, and He supplied the need.  

So, today I am sharing the remaining pictures that I have of the apartment.  These pictures are of the master bedroom and a few miscellaneous pictures.  I hope that you enjoy the pictures, and I hope that you have seen how God’s powerful hand has moved in my life and how He can make a way where there seems to be no way. He can bring all of us peace, even when we feel there is no peace to be had.  I feel I should close with one of the very first quotes that God gave to Jeff and me. It is one of my favorites.  “Where there is peace, there is God and where there is God, there is peace.” I finally realize after all this time just how much PEACE MATTERS.   

~Dan~

Evidence of Peace

I think by now I have made the point that we are all searching for peace.  The lack of peace in our lives can cause us to feel out of control, and we can find ourselves searching for peace even when we do not realize that is what we are searching for.  When we do not have peace in our lives, every problem we encounter seems so much bigger than it really is.  When a sense of peace has eluded us, we struggle to make decisions, we become irritated with people, and we generally feel pretty miserable.  When we have peace in our lives the way that God wants us to experience peace, we will not be unreasonably troubled or irritated by the minor frustrations that are part of all of our lives.  

We all know that life is not perfect and that we all will encounter struggles and difficult times.  Some of those struggles are small and some are big; however, if we have the peace in our lives that God can provide, we will face the struggle no matter the size in a new way with the knowledge that God has everything under control and that He can work out every problem we encounter.  

When we have God’s peace in our lives, we will not only realize that life is not perfect, but we will realize that the people in our lives or the people we encounter are not perfect either.  Many of us not only expect perfection from ourselves, but we expect it from the people we love and even the people we pass on the street.  When we do not have peace in our lives, this expectation of perfection is intensified, and we find ourselves becoming irritated and even angry with the people that we encounter.

We should all work harder at considering the intentions behind other people’s behaviors.  When we have the peace that God intends for us to have, we will realize that most people we encounter mean us no harm nor do they mean to irritate us.  We should all learn to be more patient with people and not jump to conclusions and automatically think that they are out to get us or that they are trying to do us harm.  

We should especially be patient with those in our daily lives.  These people tend to be the ones we lose our patience with the most. Ironically, these are the people that we depend on the most to make our lives meaningful.  I guess the old saying that we hurt the ones we love the most is true.  We lash out at the people in our lives, especially the ones closest to us, because we think they can take it.  We feel free to get angry with them and become irritated by the little things they do, because we feel confident that they will continue to love us no matter how we behave.  We actually should be more patient with these people because of their love for us.  We should try our best not to become irritated and angry with these people as often as we do, and we should realize that our irritation has more to do with our feelings of lack of peace than it does with what they are doing to cause us to be irritated.  

When we are living our lives following God and letting Him lead us, we should aspire to find peace in our daily lives as we realize that He is always beside us.  If we really think about it that way and know that God is always with us, it will cause us to check ourselves more when we act or react to a situation, a problem, or another person. When we stop and realize that God is truly right beside us during every single part of our lives, it should cause us to be more careful when we are interacting with the people in our lives.  God truly is a witness to our every interaction that we have. 

If you are struggling with finding peace, and you see that it is causing you to become unreasonably irritated with the people in your life or the people you encounter, it is time to check yourself and realize that it is your lack of peace that is causing you to lash out.  The solution is to have more peace in your life. To do this, ask God to renew the peace in your life.  When you do, the little things in life will not unreasonably trouble you.  You are not alone in this struggle.  We all struggle with this issue from time to time.  

The thing we all need to remember is that God wants us to have peace.  He wants us to get along with others, and He wants us to remember that we are not perfect and neither are the people we love or the people we come into contact with.  God wants us all to be slow to anger and quick to forgive.  God wants us to consider the other person’s feelings and to work hard at realizing that most of the people in our lives are not trying to harm us or to irritate us.  God can help all of us in this area, and He can do it by providing us with the peace and the understanding that He has everything under control and that He will work all of our problems out for us.  

So, let’s all work harder at realizing that the people in our lives are not perfect.  Let’s be more patient with them and realize that they do not mean to irritate us.  Let’s realize that it is our lack of peace that is causing most of us to become unreasonably upset, and let’s try to show everyone the patience that God shows to us.  Patience leads to peace and PEACE MATTERS.

~Dan~

What Really Matters

Life can be very overwhelming.  It seems that our lives get busier and busier with each passing day.  We all have a multitude of things that we feel we have to accomplish each day.  We have a tendency to get bogged down with the details of life.  We all seem to have an endless list of things that we need to do, and it seems as if that list continues to grow faster than we can check things off of it.  Many times we try to simplify our lives, and sometimes we are successful, but then things start mounting up, and we once again find ourselves overwhelmed and stressed.  The thing that we need to stop and consider is how many of these things are really important.  

Often we think that that they are each very important.  God wants us to find a way to have peace when will feel overwhelmed and stressed by the things we have to do in life.  What matters to God should be what matters to us.  We all need to prioritize the things in our lives and see which things we can eliminate or do without.  When we are attempting to do this, we must allow God to help us.  We need to communicate with Him every single day and let Him guide us in what we need to accomplish on that day.  

One of the most important things we need to do is nourish our relationship with God.  We do this through daily communication and prayer.  We need to make Him our number one priority and make sure that we always set time aside to talk to Him and let Him guide our paths.  We should also spend time nourishing our relationships with others instead of being burdened by the details of life.  We should cherish the times we get to spend with the people in our lives and enjoy their company and try to let everything else go during those times.  

We also need to stop being so concerned about perfection.  Many of us have a constant desire to make everything perfect. This is one of my personal struggles.  When we do take the time to get together with the people we love, we drive ourselves crazy trying to make everything perfect.  There is nothing wrong with wanting things to be nice, but we have to stop making that our main focus.  If we let go of our need for perfection, we will be able to enjoy the time we spend with people a lot more.  It is the little details of life that can get us down, cause us to become overwhelmed, and eventually cause us to lose our peace.  

God can help us get our lives under control.  All we have to do is seek Him out and allow Him to help us.  Really, when you think about it, we all only have to take it one day at a time.  I know that is a phrase that is used very often for a variety of situations, but it really is true.  If we can make it through each day without becoming too overwhelmed or stressed, we have accomplished a great feat.  We need to stop spending so much time thinking about tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year.  God wants us to spend more time focusing on the day we are in.  He will help us figure out the details for the future, and we will tackle those when they come.  If we spend too much time focusing on what will happen next in our lives, we cannot completely enjoy the day that God has given us.  

The future is not certain for any of us.  None of us knows what lies ahead and when we try to figure that out, that is when we become overwhelmed and stressed.  If we can look at our lives as little chunks and accomplish what we need to do for that day and let everything else go, we would all be better off.  Finding peace for our lives should be accomplished in the same way.  We should work on having peace one day at a time.  With God’s help that is all we really need to do.  

So, let’s all stop living in the future.  Let’s focus more on the day ahead, stop trying to make everything perfect, and stop focusing on the little details of life.  Let’s allow God to guide us through our day and let Him help us decide what is important and what is not as important.  Let’s allow Him to show us what really matters and let’s allow Him to bring peace to our lives.  God will deliver us and give us peace.  I know how difficult it can be not to get overwhelmed in life, but we all have to strive a little harder to let God be in control of everything.  If we can truly surrender to Him, it will reduce our stress, keep us from becoming overwhelmed, and we will all find peace and PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~

Here are a few images that bring me peace when I look at them.  I hope they do the same for you.

My Lifeboat: Part 3

I have been sharing pictures of the apartment that Jeff and I rented for me almost a year ago.  We had intended to keep the apartment and live in it when our house sold and we were building our saltbox, but God had a different plan for us.  I am not sure where we will go when our house sells, but if I have learned anything over the last year, I have learned that God has a plan and that He will reveal that plan to us when the time is right.  So, right now, we are setting our house back up and getting the apartment ready to turn over to someone else.  As I have said before, the apartment was a very special place, and it gave me the security and the isolation that I needed to gain some much needed perspective on my life and the direction that my life needed to take.  I am hopeful that the apartment will continue to serve as a place of peace and security for its future occupants, and I pray that I never forget the significance that the apartment played in my journey back to peace.

Today, I am sharing pictures of the dining room and kitchen.  This was a rather small space, but I was able to use most of my favorite kitchen items.  There were times that it was a little crowded, but I spent many hours in the kitchen writing the posts for this blog.  I would sit at the dining room table and pour my heart and soul into the writings that God was inspiring me to write.  I have always loved the dining room table, but now it has even more meaning to me.  I cannot image that I will ever part with it.  I am using it as a desk in the office now, and I hope to continue to use it in that fashion for a very long time.  All of the items in this space bring me peace and make me feel happy.  In some of the pictures, you will notice that I have some photos on the refrigerator.  These are some of my favorite photos of my grandma.  If you knew me prior to this blog, you will know that my grandma is very special to me.  She is one of my most favorite people on this earth.  Having her photos on the refrigerator gave me peace and helped me remember the strength that God gave her to endure the many trials that she faced in her life.  She will be 90 years old in October, and she still has an unyielding faith in God and one of the best sense of humors of anyone I know.  There will be several posts in the future relaying stories of my grandma that I believe you will want to read.  

Jeff and I have been working for the last two weeks dismantling the apartment, and as we get closer to being completely moved out, I see this move as a very important symbol and sign that my life is once again on the right path.  Getting back to the path was a difficult process, and it was a journey that I could not have made without God and the love and support of many people.  It has often been said that we cannot go home again, but I very respectfully disagree.  I am proof that we can go home again.  We can accomplish this seemingly impossible feat through the help and guidance of God.  I am so thankful that He allowed me to go home again, and I am so thankful that God has brought me this far.  I have faith that He will continue to guide my steps.  He does this for me every single day, and He can do it for you too.  Our homes should be a place of joy, and they should reflect the people who live there.  Our homes should be a refuge from the outside world, and they should bring us peace, because as you all know PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~

Independence

There is no better day than the 4th of July to celebrate our independence.  When we think about independence, we think about different things. We think about all of the things we are free to do.  We are blessed to live in a country where we do have the freedom to worship in the way we choose, say what we want to say, and love whom we want to love.  Our freedom and independence has been fought for for centuries, and many brave men and women have made the ultimate sacrifice to insure that we have the freedom to live the life that we choose to live.  

Many of us have grown up in a world where our freedom has always existed, so we do not understand what it feels like not to be free.  However, if we would all stop and think about it for a minute, we would realize that there have been times in our lives when we have not been free to live our lives the way we choose.  We have all lost our independence at one time or another.  We have fought to regain our independence and sometimes we have won and sometimes we have lost.  

We can all have the kind of freedom and independence that will never fade away.  True independence and freedom comes from surrendering to God and letting Him lead the way.  We are all traveling down the path of life, and we all fight to stay on the path.  The path is bumpy and often takes drastic and dangerous turns.  We encounter obstacles along the way and often do not know which way to go.  God wants to lead us down the path.  He wants to be our guide, and He wants to lead us to the things that we are meant to find in this life.  When we spend our lives fighting against God’s will and His perfect timing, we will never feel free.  We will always be fighting a losing battle and we will not have peace in our lives.  

We all need to work harder to submit to God’s will and allow Him to lead our steps and illuminate our path.  He can and will do that for all of us.  All we have to do is surrender to Him and simply follow Him.  It sounds easy, doesn’t it?  However, it is one of the hardest things that any of us will do.  We often say that God is in control and that we want His will for our lives, but we spend much of our energy trying to figure out God’s plan for our lives, and we spend a lot of time trying to make things work out the way we think they should work out.  If we all could just give in and let God do the navigating, we would not have to worry about anything.  

God will never leave us or forsake us, and He will never lead us in the wrong direction.  Surrendering to God means that we have faith that He will lead us to the things that we need in His perfect timing.  He will not get us there too early, and He will not get us there too late.  He will get us there at the perfect time when we need it the most.  

Surrendering to God takes practice.  We are all so accustomed to making our own way and to always being in control of what we do that it is hard for us to surrender to God.  It is something that we will have to strive to do everyday.  It will come when we communicate with God and do our best to discern His will for our lives.  It will come when we are obedient to God, even when we do not understand why He is having us do a certain thing or leading us in a certain direction.  When we truly surrender to God, we will have peace like we have never had before, and our lives will seem so much easier.  I am not saying that our lives will be perfect, but much of the stress and worry that we carry around with us will be lessened when we truly surrender to Him.  

So, let’s all work at surrendering to God and letting Him be in control.  Let’s all communicate with God everyday and allow Him to reveal His plans for our lives in His timing.  Let’s all enjoy the independence and freedom that we will feel by allowing God to take the reins, and let’s continue to follow Him where He leads.  It will be difficult to submit to God’s will in everything in our lives, but once we do it, we will have more peace and PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~

We hope all of you have a peaceful 4th of July filled with fun, family, and good memories!

Dan, Jeff, Peyton, & Paycee

Miracles

It is sad to say, but there are many people living on this earth today who do not believe in miracles.  There are even people who believe in God and go to church every Sunday who have given up believing in miracles.  It is as if people think that the God who performed miracles in the Bible has changed or has stopped doing the miraculous things that have been written about.  The thing is, God has not changed.  He has always been the same and will continue to be the same for all eternity.  It is true that we do not hear about people being raised from the dead or water being turned into wine, but God is still performing miracles every single day.  

He is performing them in all of our lives.  Sometimes we may not see them as miracles and maybe we do not even know that they are occurring.  Everyday that we arrive safely home at night, it is a miracle.  Every time we feel better after being sick, it is a miracle.  Every time someone gets a life changing surgery it is a miracle.  Miracles are around all of us all the time; we just have to have the eyes to see them.  

Not believing in miracles is one of the saddest ways that we can live our lives.  Miracles are a sign to all of us that God is truly with us and that He has everything under control.  If we would all just stop for a minute and reflect on our lives, I am sure that we could think of several miracles that God has performed in our lives.  I come from a long line of people who believe in miracles and who have seen miracles performed in their lives, and I am very thankful for that.  

Believing in miracles and seeing miracles happen in our lives will build our faith in ways that we could never imagine.  Miracles are meant to be shared with others.  In doing so, we not only build our own faith, but we build the faith of the people we come into contact with.  

I have a miracle that I would like to share with all of you.  As you may know from reading my blog, Jeff and I recently lost one of our Miniature Schnauzer, Parker.  It was a very difficult thing to go through, and it really upset us.  God gave us the strength to go through this life changing ordeal, but to be honest, I still grapple with the question why.  I have trouble understanding why we had to lose Parker at such a young age.  I may never know the answer to that question, but I do know that God has a plan and that He has everything under control.  

Thankfully, we still have two other Miniature Schnauzers, Peyton, and Paycee.  They have been such a comfort to us since we lost Parker.  It is impossible to be sad for too long when they are around.  Peyton, our little boy, had started to develop a fatty tumor several years ago.  It is something that we have checked every year, and the doctor tells us there is nothing to worry about.  However, once we lost Parker, we did what everybody tends to do, and we started worrying about losing Peyton.  We knew that we were not supposed to worry about him, but we still did.  

One day, Jeff was petting Peyton and touching his fatty tumor, which had gotten quite large and God said, “Pray for Peyton’s tumor and watch it shrink.”  Jeff did as he was told, and he began praying for Peyton’s “bump” everyday.  Jeff did not share this with me, and one day I was playing with Peyton and I felt his tumor and noticed that it was smaller.  I mentioned it to Jeff, and he told me what he had been doing.  I cannot tell you what seeing Peyton’s tumor shrink has done for us.  First of all, it is a miracle. It has also given us hope that Peyton still has many more years to be with us.  God knew that we needed to see a miracle after we lost Parker, and He gave that to us.  We still pray for Peyton’s “bump” everyday and it continues to shrink.  It is still there, but it is probably half the size that it was.  So you see, miracles happen every day.  

Sadly, we try to explain miracles away with scientific explanations.  We say things like, “That happened because of such and such” or “I am sure things like that just happen.”  I think it is time that we stop trying to explain miracles away and just start believing that they happen.  They happen because God is powerful.  They happen because God wants us to see what He can do in our lives, and they happen so that we can have faith that God can do anything.  

God still performs miracles.  He performs them in all of our lives.  He wants us to believe in miracles.  He wants us to have faith that He can do anything and that all we have to do is ask Him.  Nothing is too big or too small for God to give His attention to.  He wants to take care of all of us, and He wants us to believe that all things are possible through Him.  You know, they really are.  God is still performing miracles everyday.  He is performing them in your life, and He is performing them in mine.  

So, let’s all start believing in miracles more.  Let’s have faith that God can perform a great work in all of our lives and that He can answer all of our prayers.  Let’s never stop believing that God is a miraculous God, and let’s never stop sharing our experiences with each other.  It will make a difference in all of our lives, and it may be exactly what someone else needs to hear.  God does perform miracles.  I know this because I am a miracle and so are you.  Seeing the miracles God does in our lives brings us peace, and PEACE MATTERS!     

~Dan~

My Lifeboat: Part 2

If you have read my post entitled My Lifeboat, you know the events that led to my renting an apartment in August of 2014.  If you have not read the post, you can scroll down to read it.  The apartment was a very special place.  There were times when I really did feel like we had made a mistake by renting the apartment.  In some ways, I felt like I was running away from my problems, but each time I would have these thoughts, God would remind me that it was not a mistake.  How could it have been a mistake when God had led me directly to it.  The apartment was there waiting for me and it was meant for me to occupy.  It was as if the apartment was my cocoon.  It kept me safe and hidden away.  It protected me from many things including myself.  I am so thankful for that apartment, and I will never forget its significance in my spiritual healing and growth.  

There was one room in the apartment that was extra special to me.  I called it the sitting room.  The apartment had two bedrooms.  The extra bedroom was small, and I really didn’t need a second bedroom, so I decided to make it a sitting room with a couch, chair, and television.  I do not watch much television, maybe an hour a day, but everyone felt it was important for me to have one.  I spent a lot of time in this room stitching and watching movies that made me feel good.  I watched a lot of Christmas movies and many Doris Day movies.  I love Doris Day!  She just makes me happy and watching her movies and listening to her music while I stitched helped me feel better and secure.  The same is true for Christmas movies and music.  It didn’t matter what time of year it was. Watching Christmas movies and listening to Christmas music, made me feel better.  I even got addicted to the Hallmark movie channel when they were showing Christmas movies 24 hours a day! 

If I was not stitching, I would lie on the couch and watch the movies that made me feel happy and I did a lot of thinking in this room.  Jeff and I talked and prayed a lot in this room.  Many decisions were made in this room and many past events were discussed.  We talked to God in this room and asked Him to reveal His plans for our lives and tried our best to be obedient to the things He was asking us to do.  A sampler hung in this room that said, “Peace be unto thee”.  When I hung the sampler, I hung it for no reason, but as the weeks and months went by, the sampler became a powerful message that Jeff and I both needed to hear.  We both spent time just looking at the words of that sampler and processing its message.  I know now that God led me to hang the sampler in that room.  It could be seen no matter where I sat and peace really did fill that room.  

The road to peace can be very bumpy and scary and doubt and fear can fill our hearts and minds if we allow it to.  However, if we cling to God and let Him lead the way, we really have nothing to fear.  I am so thankful for that little room and I am so thankful for the lessons that God taught me within that space.  He taught me that the only way to true happiness and peace was through HIm.  He taught me to seek out HIs advice, and He taught me to have faith in Him.  The great thing about God is that He can do that for all of us no matter what situation we are in.  God wants everyone to have peace and to live the life that they have always been meant to live.  God will do that for all of us if we just follow Him and always do our best to be obedient to Him.  I still have work to do in my life, we all do, but I feel as if I have the tools now to improve my life even more and I am so thankful to have been given that gift.  When we follow God and listen to His voice we have no other choice than to have peace in our lives, and PEACE MATTERS.

~Dan~

Backpacks

I see life as one great big long road.  We begin down the road the moment we are born.  Our time in the womb prepares us for our journey, and the minute we enter this world we begin traveling down the road.  When we begin our journey, we do so without any weight on our backs.  Our caretakers take care of navigating us down the road and carry the load for us.  As we begin to get older, the path is ours to take.  As we begin to mature and the stress of this world begins to weigh us down, we start picking up backpacks to carry down the road with us.  The ones full of hope, love, joy, and peace are light and easy to carry.  The ones filled with hate, discontentment, unhappiness, and worry are heavy.  The weight of the backpacks full of negativity causes our traveling to be slow and laborious.  We soon realize that in order to make our trip go more smoothly we have to get rid of some of our backpacks.

Often, we choose to lay down the wrong packs.  Because our journey is so difficult we sometimes get rid of the packs filled with hope, love, peace and joy and continue to carry the packs full of hate, discontentment, unhappiness, and worry.  We mistakenly think getting rid of the lighter backpacks will make our journey faster and smoother.  Unfortunately, getting rid of the backpacks carrying the good things in life makes the other backpacks we continue to carry even heavier.  You see we have to have the good to balance out the bad.  Sometimes the weight of the backpacks becomes so much that we stop moving down the path all together or we take a short cut through the woods thinking that will make the journey better.  Getting off the path only causes us more hardship, and we pick up new packs that we would have never encountered had we stayed on the path.  

As the years go by, the weight of the backpacks gets greater, and we become even more discontented and worried.  We begin to feel hopeless and think that moving forward is not worth the effort.  We search for answers to help us with our journey, but often we look in the wrong places.  We sometimes rely on others that we find in the woods to help us.  They seem willing, but often they are just looking for someone to carry their backpacks for them.  When we begin to carry their backpacks our load becomes even heavier.  Our journey turns into a crawl, and we feel like we cannot go on.  We wander around in the woods looking for some kind of relief. Unfortunately, we are always looking in the wrong places.  

Finally, the day comes when we stop and we get down on our knees and begin to pray.  We plead with God to help us carry our load.  He finds us, because He always does, and he gives us the strength and courage to find our way back to the path we were originally traveling.  Then He takes our hand and begins to lead us down the path.  This time we let him do the navigating.  On the side of the path we see things that may tempt us to get off the path once again, but He just continues to say, “Follow me”.  Even with God leading us, the path can be bumpy and hard, but He continues to say, “Follow me”.  As we follow Him we start to drop some of the extra backpacks filled with the negative things we have experienced along our journey. Our load gets lighter and our travels seem better.  Further down the road we find the backpacks that we had dropped years ago filled with love, joy, and peace.  We drop some of the heavier backpacks and pick those up.  These backpacks give us even more strength and make our journey even better.  Before we know it, we have dropped all the heavy backpacks filled with all the negative things of this world and we are only carrying hope, love, joy, and peace.  

Our journey continues to go smoothly.  Even when we encounter difficult situations and hardships the backpacks we are now carrying give us strength to deal with the problems and we continue on.  So in life, it is important to follow God down the path and listen to His quiet, still voice.  It is important to drop the backpacks carrying all the negative attitudes of this world and to carry only the backpacks full of hope, love, joy, and peace.  When we all finally do that, our journey will be so much more enjoyable, and the blessings and beauty of life that God wants to share with us will begin to come into view and we will begin to be filled with peace and PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~

My Lifeboat

If you have clicked on the My Story link and read about the events of the last year of my life, you will know that everything came to a head for me on an early July morning in 2014.  I cannot adequately describe the feelings of helplessness and despair that filled my heart that morning.  It was a build up that had been a year and a half in the making.  Everything seemed to collide that morning and everything within me was screaming out for help.  I knew something had to change.  I didn’t know what the solution was, but I knew I needed help that was beyond my reach.  

When I finally regained my composure and was able to think rationally, Jeff and I sat down and talked honestly about the problem for the first time.  There were lots of tears and lots of solutions thrown into the air that morning.  The most important thing on both of our minds was getting our lives back on track and finding the peace that had been lacking from our lives for a very long time.  We were sitting on the couch in the keeping room when the plan that truly saved my life was developed.  Jeff and I decided that the best thing was for me to get an apartment to get some space from the chaotic and stressful life that I had created for myself.  

I had been going full speed for over five years, and the stress and exhaustion that I had been bottling up finally became too much for me.  The house we were living in was too big for me to maintain, the collections I had acquired were too overwhelming, and the pace that I was living was impossible to maintain.  It was our hope that the apartment would serve as place for me to rejuvenate, collect my thoughts, and live a simpler life.  It was a very difficult decision for the two of us to make and coming to this conclusion had nothing to do with the love and respect that Jeff and I had for each other.  I was on a sinking ship, and it was time to find a lifeboat.  

I had always known that Jeff loved me, and I had always known that he loved me in a way that was unselfish and unconditional, but he truly proved it that morning.  The strength he showed as the storm raged around him was nothing less than a miracle.  The compassion and understanding he showed me was the kind that can only be shown by someone who truly wants the best for someone, even if it means stepping back and letting him find his own way.  Jeff immediately found the ideal apartment for me, and it was only three miles away from our home.  It was as if it had been waiting for me.  God knew what I needed to do long before I did, and He knew where I needed to go.  We made an appointment and went to see the apartment the next day.  It was in a very quiet and serene part of town bordering a golf course.  It had more than enough room for me, and I truly felt at home from the second I walked in.  

We started making plans for me to move into the apartment and Jeff told me that I should take the items that meant the most to me.  He suggested that I choose the collections and furniture that made me the happiest and to fill the apartment with those things.  He wisely said, “You will not be happy or at peace if you do not have your primitives with you.”  I knew he was right, and we had plenty of furniture to fill the apartment and to still have plenty of furniture for Jeff and the dogs to use.  

When we told our plans to our family and friends, there was an overwhelming amount of support and encouragement.  I had worried that people would not understand.  I am sure that they did grapple with the logic behind our decision, but they rallied behind us and supported our decision with love and compassion.  I will never forget these people for the unconditional love and support they showed us.  My parents pitched in and started helping.  My dad even took time off from work, which is something that he never does.  My mom helped me clean and pack and talked to me at all hours of the day and night.  Jeff’s mom and dad were by our sides the entire time and worked for days to help us make the move.  They stayed with Jeff during that first week to make sure that he had the support that he needed.  My brother and sister-in-law, Andrew and Amy, called and texted to offer their support, encouragement, and prayers.  

My friend, Jerrah, came to the apartment several times and would often keep me company until early in the morning, many times talking and showing me the kind of support and love that only a true and devoted friend could show.  She made sure I had food to eat and plenty to laugh about.  My friend, Diane, showed complete support and understanding and loved me as only she can do.  

Moving day was a very emotional day.  I know now that God was leading the way and that He was keeping me on my feet as I made the move.  There were many times that I wanted to change my mind and run back home, but God knew best, and He gave Jeff and me the courage to keep going.  It took a while to settle into my new life, but soon peace began to fill my life.  It started slowly and began to grow.  Jeff and I and the dogs kept in constant contact and we talked, texted, and visited with each other constantly.  

As the months began to go by, my little apartment became a place of quiet contemplation, thoughtful prayers, and rearranging of priorities.  I walked into that apartment for the first time with a broken spirit, and God was beginning to heal my spirit.  It took time.  There were days when I thought we had made a mistake and God continued to reassure me that we had made the right decision.  I recognized God’s voice for the first time in that apartment, and I began writing the posts for this blog within its walls.  The apartment eventually became a very special place for Jeff and me.  We spent many hours alone talking about life and what we wanted our lives together to be like in the future.  

Jeff has always been my best friend and our friendship grew stronger during those talks in the apartment.  We discussed our options for the future, we prayed together, and we talked about creating this blog.  We planned the saltbox and made the decision to begin simplifying our lives by ridding ourselves of the things that we did not need anymore.  We began selling a lot of our furniture and weeding my collections.  As each piece that I was not attached to left my possession, a weight began lifting off of me.  I soon realized that I had been trying to obtain peace through my possessions.  While our possessions do bring us happiness we can become overwhelmed by the magnitude of them.  Releasing some of those unneeded items would have never happened had we not rented the apartment.  

As my year lease draws to an end, I can look back on the past year and realize that it has been a difficult year, but it has also been one of great spiritual and personal growth.  I realize that God has placed a purpose on my life and that He is in control of everything.  I realize that He is always with me, even when I do not feel Him and that His timing and His plans for my life are always perfect.  I have a better understanding of what the most important things in life are, and I realize where my priorities and my loyalties should lie.  I have come to realize that true peace and hope come from God and that none of us can make it through this life without Him.  I realized that many of the people whom I took for granted or sold short in the past love me unconditionally and only want the best for me.  I have realized that I live a very rich and blessed life.  I realized that no problem is too big for God to solve and that He never leaves my side and that He is always with me.  

It had been our plan to keep the apartment and continue to live in it while our saltbox was being built, but we found out a couple of days ago that God has a different plan for us.  So, in the coming weeks, I will begin moving my things back into our house.  I am excited and so relieved to be coming back home.  Even as I write that word, home, I am filled with so much joy.  I am so happy that I am coming back home as a new person and I am hopeful and excited about the future for the first time in a long time, maybe ever.  

I know that the house will look different than it did when I left, and it will have some blank areas due to the weeding that we did, but I know that God has always planned for me to do that.  Since our house is for sale, I will not be decorating it as much as I normally would, but I know that it will reflect my new life and my newfound existence.  I will share pictures of the house when I get moved back in, and I am sure you will see the difference.  For now, I would like to share some pictures of the apartment with you.  As I said before, it is a very special place and I will never forget its importance in my life.  I will never forget the growth I made there, and I will never forget the lessons I learned.  I will be showing you one room at a time, and I hope you can see what a special place it truly is.  The first room that I will be sharing with you is the living room.  

God has been so good to me, and He has truly blessed me in so many amazing ways.  I am leaving the apartment with a rejuvenated and healed spirit, and I am looking to the future with a new sense of hope and peace, and as you know, PEACE MATTERS. 

~Dan~ 

Fathers

Fathers are a very important part of our lives. However, fathers often take a back seat to mothers.  Mothers are very important, and they play a very significant role in our lives, but fathers are just as important to us. God is our Heavenly father, and how He loves His children is the perfect example of what our fathers should be and are to us. God’s love for us is unconditional and never ending. Our earthly fathers possess the same kind of love for their children. Many times they show their love to their children in different ways than mothers do, but their love for us is just as strong and just as precious.  Our fathers have taught us to work hard and take care of our families.  They have taught us to always be there for each other and to always try to help each other. Our fathers do this for us, and many of them never take or get the credit that they deserve.

I have been blessed to have three very important father figures in my life. When I think about these three men, I am reminded of all the lessons that they have taught me, and I truly can see God working through them to make my life, the lives of countless others, and the world a better place. I would like to take a few minutes and honor these three men. 

The first father in my life is my dad, George Weaver.  I do not think there is a harder working man than my dad. He was worked his entire life taking care of his family.  My dad has taught me so many things, but one of the most important lessons that he has taught me is to do my best at whatever job I am doing.  My dad always says, “A job worth doing is worth doing right.” He has instilled that belief in all of his children, and he has truly led by example.  Another important lesson that my dad has taught me is that families stick together. He always says, “One for all and all for one.” He has always encouraged my brothers and me to help and support each other. He has done the same for his siblings, and it has made a difference in all of their lives. There are so many things that I admire and love about my dad, but I think the thing that speaks to me the most his how much he loves Jeff. I overheard him say to Jeff recently, “You are just like a son to me.” I cannot tell you what that did for me to hear my dad say that.  My dad never says anything he does not mean. He is one of the most honest people I think I have ever met and to know that he feels that way about Jeff fills my heart with so much joy. I know that for many men it would be hard for them to say that to their son’s partner, but that is how much my dad loves and accepts Jeff and me. His love and acceptance is a gift that I have often taken for granted in the past, but one that I fully acknowledge and appreciate today. 

The second father in my life is Jeff’s dad, Bob White. Bob is the kind of man that would do anything for anyone who needed help. He has an enormous, big heart and a real desire to help his fellowman. He is a very hard working man who has worked all his life and taken care of his family. He has instilled that work ethic in his children and he has taught them to always do their best and to have a kind heart.  I think the thing I admire the most about Bob is how much he loves Jeff. The love he feels for his son exudes out of him, and he truly wants the best for Jeff. Actually, that is what Bob wants for everyone. He just wants people to be happy, to achieve what they desire, and to live a good life. Because of his help, love, and acceptance he has helped Jeff and me have a much better life. 

The third father that I would like to honor is my grandfather, Norman Cutsinger.  My grandpa Norman was actually my step-grandfather, but to me he was my grandpa. He had time for me when my natural grandfathers did not. My grandpa was a hard working man with a huge heart. I would have never had a grandfather-grandson relationship to cherish had he not been a part of my life. He always made an effort and took the time out of his life to spend with his grandchildren and was never too busy to lend a helping hand. When I think about my grandpa Norman, I am reminded that sometimes the people who play the important roles in our lives are not related to us by blood, but are related to us by love. I lost my grandpa Norman on August 28, 1998. I still miss him and think of him everyday, but I am so thankful for the time I had with him and for the influence he has had on my life. 

So, as you can see, I have been very blessed to have three very important and special father figures in my life. All three of these men have modeled their fathering skills after God. They all have taught their children and their grandchildren to live their lives the way that God wants all of us to live. They love their children and grandchildren unconditionally, and they want the best for all of them.  They have taught them to work hard and help their fellowman. They have led by example, and I am very thankful to have benefitted from their influence in my life.

We should all honor our fathers, not just on Father’s Day, but every day. God has blessed us with a fatherly influence in all of our lives. The fathers in our lives take different forms, and some are not biologically our fathers, but we should honor them and show them the love that they have shown us. A father’s love and influence can bring peace to all of our lives, and PEACE MATTERS. 

~Dan~

Prayer for Peace

We humans seem to constantly be looking for something.  We can see it in others and we can feel it in ourselves.  That constant feeling that something is missing or that we have lost something that we have actually never found is always with us.  We describe it in a variety of ways.  Some of us call it a hole, some of us call it an untapped accomplishment, and some of us call it a longing for something better.  The name we give it does not matter; it is the searching for it that does.  

We think we can fill the hole with a variety of things.  We think we can find what we are looking for in a person, a new geographical location, a new house, car, or possession.  We think we can find it with a new style or even a new life philosophy.  We search aimlessly for what is missing from our lives, trying different things and always coming up short.  We have all heard the saying that the grass is greener on the other side, and I think we often believe that it is, so we continue to search in other people’s yards for what it missing from our own lives.  

This constant searching for this elusive, unidentifiable thing has caused the breakdown of countless relationships and families.  We actually find ourselves thinking. “I do not feel what I am looking for from my spouse or my children, so I need to look for someone else.”  Even doing this will not lead us to the thing that is missing from our lives.  Many people search for what they feel is missing for their entire lives and never find it.  They live their lives never being satisfied and always feeling like they are missing out or falling short.  If you have not figured it out by now, this thing we are looking for is peace.  Sounds so simple and insignificant, doesn’t it? However, we can never live a complete and satisfying life without it.  

True peace changes everything.  Once we find that true sense of peace, all of our problems and desires seem to fade away.  Once peace enters our lives, the hole we have felt all our lives is filled.  So, how do we find this valuable life-changing thing?  The answer is quite simple.  Peace comes from within.  Peace comes from trusting, knowing, and believing that God is in control.  It is not enough to walk around saying that God is in control. We have to actually believe it and literally let Him be in control of everything, and we have to have the faith and trust to go where He leads us.  

The answer is simple, but the process can be very difficult.  We are so accustom to being in control.  We are so used to having our way and doing things in our time.  We are so used to never being satisfied that it is hard to lay that burden down, but we have learn to surrender to God’s plan for our lives.  We have to submit to God and let Him be in control.  We have to communicate with Him on a daily basis and let Him tell us what to do.  

Basically, it comes down to this; the manner in which you live your life will determine your level of peace.  You may be saying, “That sounds great, Dan, but what does that mean?”  I am glad you asked.  It means that if we listen for God’s voice and do what He asks us to do, we will have peace.  We will not find peace in any other way.  It is absolutely impossible to find it without God and without letting Him be in control and without doing what He asks us to do.  

God has given me several prayers to say in different situations.  I have one prayer that I use to pray for peace.  I say this prayer several times during the day, but particularly when I have to do something that makes me nervous or apprehensive.  The prayer is:  “Wrap me in your perfect peace, guide me through my day, and comfort me.”  It is such a simple prayer, but it has really changed my life.  It brings me so much comfort when I pray it, and it allows me to focus on God and the peace that He can provide instead of worrying about what I will encounter in the day ahead. 

So, we have to truly examine our lives and see just how much peace we have. If we find that we are searching for something constantly and feel that we do not have peace in our lives, it is because we are not submitting to God and letting Him be in control.  The solution to that problem is to just do it.  It is something that we will have to think about every single day, but eventually it will become such an important part us that we will not even think about it anymore, and God’s perfect peace will fill our lives, and we will stop searching, because we will finally have found what we need to feel satisfied, and that is peace and PEACE MATTERS.

~Dan~

Welcome

Welcome to Peace Matters.  My name is Dan Weaver.  Some of you may know me from my old blog, Yesterday Once More, some of you may know me from my work for A Primitive Place & Country Journal magazine, and some of you may get to know me through my new blog.  For those of you who knew me previously, you know that I seemed to disappear from the face of the earth about one year ago.  To read more about that time in my life, you can click on My Story above.  I have always enjoyed blogging and sharing my thoughts with people, and I have missed it, so I am very excited about my new blog.  This blog will be quite different from Yesterday Once More, and I am sure you will notice very quickly that Peace Matters has a different look and feel than my previous blog.  

I know that it is important to know a little bit more about the author of a blog, so this is me in a nutshell.  I am an elementary special education teacher, a job that I have performed for 21 years.  I am 42 years old and my partner, Jeff, and I have been together for almost 13 years.  Jeff and I are huge dog lovers, and we have two of the most precious miniature schnauzers that God ever placed on this earth.  They are truly a blessing from God.  Their names are Peyton and Paycee.  Peyton is a boy and Paycee is a girl.  For those of you who knew me before, you will remember that we had a third miniature schnauzer named Parker.  Sadly, we lost Parker in March 2015 at the age of 8.  I will fill you in more on the story of Parker’s life in a later post.  I am a huge collector of antiques, and it has always been my dream to live in a saltbox house.  I am thrilled to say that our current house is for sale and when we sell our house, we will begin building a saltbox.  I still have trouble believing that my life-long dream is finally coming true and I will most definitely keep you updated on the progress that we continue to make in this area of our lives.  

I have always felt as if I am supposed to help others see the beauty in life.  That is the thing about life that we often forget. It really is beautiful when we stop and look at it through the eyes of God.  I began writing the posts for this blog in January 2015.  The entries were more for me than anyone else.  The writings helped me heal from a very traumatic time in my life, and it is a healing that continues with each passing day.  While writing everyday, I realized that others may be able to benefit from my writings and this led me to starting this new blog.  Peace is what was lacking from my life during the dark days that I faced, and peace is what allowed the brighter days to return.  The peace I feel now is the peace that only God can provide, and He has done a great work in my life and has allowed me the chance to begin again.  God can and will give all of us that chance, and I hope that you will realize that as you begin to read my posts.  

Peace is not something that comes to us over night.  It is a process for all of us and something that we have to strive for every single day that we are alive, but peace can be found by us all.  I have not found complete peace, and I do not believe that any of us can find total peace in this life, but we can get much closer to it through God’s help.  I do not have all the answers.  I am flawed, and I have made many bad decisions in my life.  It is not my place to force my beliefs on anyone.  It is not my place to tell people that they are doing the wrong things with their lives.  All I want to do is share with you what God has so graciously shared with me in hopes that all of our lives can be better.  No one is perfect, and we all fall short every single day, but we have to get up and keep moving forward and we have to have the proper tools to make that possible.  

With all that being said, I hope you will visit my new blog and that it will help you achieve a little more peace in your life and that it will bring you hope.  There still is hope to be found, and there is enough peace for all of us.  God’s peace is abundant and He wants to bestow it on each of us.  I am still working on the writings that God would like for me to share with you, so I will not begin posting regularly until June 18, 2015.  In the beginning, I will be posting once a week, but plan on increasing the frequency of posts as time goes by.  In the meantime, I invite you to click on the links above and read my story and enjoy some of the quotes that God has given me along my journey.  I will be adding quotes frequently, so be sure and check back as often as you can.  If you like what you see, please feel free to share my blog information with those you know.  The more people who hear the message of peace, the better off we will all be.  For now, just keep moving forward and check back in with me from time to time.  I look forward to getting to know all of you a little better and I am truly very excited about taking this journey with you.  Never forget how important you are to God and to so many other people.  Never stop trying to find the peace that God has in store for you.  After all, PEACE MATTERS!

~Dan~