Taking the Sting Out of Death

Death is something that we all have to deal with.  We will be forced to deal with the death of someone we love and we will ultimately have to deal with our own death.   Many of us spend our entire lives fearing death.  It drives us to take better care of ourselves, it drives us to avoid dangerous activities, and it drives us to try to get as much done as possible.  Death is an unavoidable fact of life.  That doesn’t mean that we should not try to take care of ourselves, avoid dangers, or try to do as much with our lives as we can, but we have to make peace with the fact that we are going to be touched by death.  

For those of us who believe in God and have faith that there is more beyond this life, death is a little less frightening.  However, many of us still fear it, not only for ourselves, but also for the people we love.  We have all lost someone to death, and often we cannot understand why we had to lose the person we love.  The thing that we all need to remember even when we are facing a death is that God has a plan.  Like many of God’s plans, it is often difficult for us to understand why He chooses to do what He does.  The thing is, all of us have been allotted a certain amount of time on this earth.  Every living thing will eventually die.  Each person’s life span is different.  Some people are meant to live for many, many years and some are meant to live for only a day or even hours.  It is natural for us to question God’s judgement when we deal with the death of a loved one; however, it is very important for us to remember that God has a plan. Even if we cannot fully understand it at the time, God can give us peace even when we lose someone close to us.   

Even when we can have peace over the death of a loved one, we find ourselves mourning the person and missing him or her.  That is very natural and normal, but we have to remember that death is not final.  It is not the end of anything; it is actually just the beginning.  Heaven is a very real place.  It is full of the people we love.  They are beyond happy, and they are content and fulfilled.  All of the struggles they faced on this earth are behind them, and they have found the joy that we all seek.  Not only are they filled with joy, but they will be waiting for us when it is our turn to experience eternity.  I believe that we will know each other in Heaven, and we will spend eternity with the people we love and we will never be apart again.  

We use this knowledge to bring us comfort when people die, but many times we forget it when we experience the loss of a loved one.  I am not saying that we should not mourn someone who dies, but we have to have faith that they are truly in a better place and that we will see them again.  God has promised us an eternity of joy and peace, and we can all receive that.  God’s promise of eternal life truly does take the sting out of death.  

When dealing with death we must have faith.  It sounds simple, yet many of us struggle with it every day.  We have to put our trust in God and His promises to us.  We have to believe that God is truly an awesome God and that He can give us peace, even when we are experiencing the death of a loved one.  We have to allow Him to be in control and we have to let Him guide our path.  If we can do this, we will have a newfound peace and PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~

Patience

Patience is something that I struggle with on a daily basis.  It seems I am always anticipating the next event, and I am anxious for it to arrive.  I tend to count the days on the calendar waiting for the day I have marked in red.  I tend to live in the future more than I should.  As I have gotten older, I have realized that most of us are very similar.  We may come in different packages, but our feelings are generally the same.  With this knowledge, I am fairly confident that many of you struggle with the inability to be patient and not live in the future.  Am I correct?  I thought so.  The question becomes how do we become more patient and live in the moment?  

I read a quote recently that said, “Don’t think about what can happen in a month.  Don’t think about what can happen in a year.  Just focus on the 24 hours in front of you and do what you can to get closer to where you want to be.”  God wants all of us to be at peace.  He wants us to enjoy our lives and realize that every single day is a blessing.  We cannot come to this realization if we are constantly thinking about the future and not enjoying the day that we have been given.  We can miss out on so many blessings and miracles that we encounter during our day if we are only looking to the future.  

It basically comes down to trust.  God has a plan for all of us.  He will allow that plan to unfold in His time.  We cannot do anything to make that plan unfold any quicker than He intends.  We truly have to let God be in control of everything in our lives, even the future.  We have to be patient and trust that He will lead us to the events that we anticipate in His own time.  When we have trust and patience, we will have more peace in our lives, and peace is the ultimate goal for all of us.   

I have a prayer that I say everyday.  God has given me several prayers to say for different situations, and they have helped me tremendously.  The prayer is, “God, bless me with your perfect peace and patience as you lay the path before my feet.”  I am trying to say this prayer whenever I am focusing too much on the future and not being patient with how events are unfolding in my life.  I truly believe it will help all of us if we will say this simple prayer.   

So, you see, I know how hard it is to be patient.  We want what we want when we want it, and we do not want to wait.  We have to wait, and while we are waiting we have to be patient and have trust.  We have to surrender everything to God and let Him be in control.  When we do this we will have more peace in our lives, and PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~

The Storm Has Passed . . . Now What?

We have all experienced trials and storms in our lives.  They were terrible events that we had to walk through.  When we think of storms in our lives, it is easy to compare them to a tornado.  When a tornado is barreling down on us all we can think about is surviving it.  Imagine looking out your window and seeing a tornado coming straight for your house.  What is your first thought?  Is it “I love my house and I love my possessions” or it is “I love my family and pets and I want everyone to remain safe”?   The only thing we can think about is how to protect ourselves and the ones we love.  

When the tornado passes and we realize we have survived, we are very relieved.  We are not thinking about all of the things we lost during the storm.  We look around and see that all of the people we love survived, and we are so thankful that all we can do is get down on our knees and thank God for saving us.  A few days after the storm has passed, we start looking around and we realize just how much we have lost.  We see the mess that the tornado has left behind, and we may become discouraged.  It is not that we are not thankful that God delivered us from the terror of the tornado, but we realize that we have a lot of clean up to do, and it is at this point that we sometimes begin to question God.  

Storms of life are much like a tornado.  We see the storm barreling down on us, and all we want to do is survive it.  We pray to God for His protection.  Once the storm passes, we are so thankful that we narrowly escaped that we get down on our knees and thank God for delivering us.  Soon we realize that the storm of life has left us with a mess that we have to clean up.  The amount of clean up depends on the magnitude of the storm.  Some storms in life only take a few days to clean up.  Others may take months or even years to clean up.  

It is during this time that we need God the most.  It was easy to cry out to Him when the storm was raging, but once the storm has passed, we don’t always depend on Him as much as we should.  We acknowledge that He saved us, but now we start questioning why He allowed the storm to come in the first place.  We may even start questioning our own wisdom in how we handled the storm.  We still realize how blessed we are and how thankful we are that God protected us, but perhaps not as much as we should be.  We want the clean up to be instant.  We want God to perform a miracle to get us back on the path.   We forget that God is still working in our lives and that He is right there helping us clean up the mess that the storm left behind.  We had faith in Him when the storm was coming, but we sometimes lose our faith once the storm has passed.  

God wants our faith in Him to be just as strong after the storm has passed as it was during the storm.  God wants us to give all of our burdens to Him.  He doesn’t want our main focus to be the storm. He wants us to focus on what the storm and the ensuing clean up means for our lives.  He wants us to see His hand in the storm and in the new life that the storm will ultimately bring for us.  Look at it this way; He brought us through the storm, so surely He can bring us through the clean up.  In fact, we should be in an even better position to hear from Him and depend on Him.  

The peace after a storm is the sweetest form of peace there is, and it is during the time after the storm that we can strengthen our walk with God.  We can shed all the worries and strife of our pre-storm lives and look forward to a new life post-storm that has been blessed by God.  It is a life that will be full of a newfound hope and peace that only He can provide.  It is a life full of new possibilities that would have never been possible had the storm not occurred.  The storms in life are not meant to destroy us, but they often redefine us and draw us closer to God.    

So, the next time you are going through a storm, rely on God as you always have, but remember to rely on Him even after the initial danger of the storm has passed.  It is during this quiet and transitional time that the most valuable lessons can be learned and that a new sense of peace will emerge and PEACE MATTERS.    

~Dan~

Loving Yourself

All of our lives we have all been taught that we should love one another.  We have been taught this in our homes, by our churches, and in our schools.  We have been taught that it is the key to our happiness and that it will bring peace to the world.  While this is completely true and a very valuable lesson to learn, we often leave one person out, ourselves.  Many of us have never been taught that we should love ourselves.  My grandma once told me that we can never love someone until we first love ourselves.  When she told me this, I realized that I had really never thought about loving myself.  As the years have gone by, I have realized how important this is.  God does want us to love others.  He thinks it is very important, but He wants us to love ourselves too.  After all, He created us and if we do not love ourselves, it makes Him very sad.  

Many of us have been taught that if we love ourselves too much that we will become conceited and only think about ourselves.  We obviously want to avoid that, but there is nothing wrong with loving yourself and thinking that you are a good person.  We are supposed to be an example to the rest of the world.  We are supposed to show others how to live by example.  How can we do that if we do not love ourselves?  

We are often our own worst critic. We never think what we do is good enough.  We never think we look good enough, work hard enough, or are talented enough.  God made us in His image, and He gave all of us unique and wonderful qualities that He did not give anyone else.  He wants us to use those qualities and gifts to serve Him and our fellow man.  When we go around being critical of ourselves and thinking that we do not measure up, we cannot be a service to God or others.  Often God will ask us to do things to serve Him or other people.  If we do not have the confidence that we should, we will not listen to Him or in many cases we will tell him that we are not capable of doing what He is asking us to do. When we do not obey the voice of God when He speaks to us, we are not only denying someone else a blessing, but we are missing out on a blessing ourselves.   

You see when we follow God and do what He asks He will bless us.  So, if we do not love ourselves and feel confident in our abilities, we cannot be of service to others.  Sometimes God asks us to do things that are difficult for us.  He wants to challenge us because through those challenges, we grow.  It builds our confidence, and it helps us appreciate the gifts that we have.  We realize that we do have a purpose and that God can and will use us to serve Him, help others, and in turn help ourselves.  

So, the next time you are feeling like you are not good enough or you feel your confidence failing, look yourself in the mirror and say, “God created me in His own image.  He has given me gifts and talents that no one else has, and I can be a service to God and my fellow man.”  I believe that if we can do this and really believe it, it will make us better people.  It will put us in a better position to answer God’s call, which will bring us joy and peace, and PEACE MATTERS.     

~Dan~

Having a Positive Attitude

Having a positive attitude while living in this world is essential.  While it is essential, it is often difficult to maintain a positive outlook.  We are bombarded with negative news all day long.  We cannot turn on the television, the radio, read the newspaper or a magazine without hearing or reading some bad news.  Be that as it may, we can still have a positive attitude.  A positive attitude starts with us.  It is something that in the beginning we will have to make a conscience effort to do.  

Recently, I have been trying to have a more positive outlook on life.  Some days I am more successful than others.  One thing that I am trying to do is to be more grateful.  I believe that a grateful heart will see things more positively.  Each morning when I wake, the first thing I do is to thank God for the beautiful day and for giving me another day to live my life.  This is something that I used to do all the time a few years back, but I stopped doing it due to difficult situations in my life.  I realize now just how much good it did me.  If our first thought of the day is positive and one of gratitude, then we have a better chance of maintaining that positive attitude throughout the day.  

Another thing that I am trying to do is to laugh more.  Sometimes this may mean that I am the only one laughing. Second and third graders do not seem to get my sense of humor, but it doesn’t matter. Laughing makes me feel better.  Plus, in this life, there is always something to laugh about.  My grandma often says, “Garbage in, garbage out.”  It is something that she says so often that I have gotten used to hearing it and really didn’t think much about it, but when we stop and examine those words, we will realize that there is a lot of truth in them.  If we allow the negativity of the world to cause us to have a negative attitude, it will undoubtedly show in our interactions with others.   

We all know people who are always positive or always negative.  If you take a minute and watch those people, you will soon realize that the positive person often chooses to surround himself with other positive people and the negative person often chooses to surround himself with other negative people.  Our attitude is contagious.  Something else my grandma always says is, “Love them to death.”  I believe that she means if you are positive with a negative person, her or she will have no choice but to eventually become positive too.  

I recently went to my niece’s production of Peter Pan.  While the show was very good, I was struck by one scene.  It was the scene where Peter is teaching Wendy how to fly.  He tells her that in order for her to fly, she has to think sweet thoughts.  Wendy does as she is instructed, and soon she is flying around the room.  I couldn’t help but think how true this is.  If we think positive thoughts we will fly.  Now I am not saying that we will fly around the room like Peter and Wendy did, but we will feel lighter, happier, and more at peace.  Our spirits will soar.  The negative things that happen to us everyday will not have as much power over us.  In some ways, we will fly above them.  

So, let’s make a pact today.  We will do our best to have a positive attitude everyday.  We will begin our day with a grateful heart and believe that this is going to be a wonderful day.  It really can be!  We just have to look for positive things throughout the day.  Once we start finding them, we will start seeing them everywhere.  I know if we can do this, we will soar through the day and soon we will be flying with our friends, and we will begin to see a change in the world.  Having a positive attitude will bring us peace, and PEACE MATTERS.    

~Dan~

Letting Go

As time has gone by, we have found ourselves getting busier and busier in our lives.  There are so many distractions in life.  We have our jobs, our families, the Internet, our phones, our friends, programs in which to participate, and events to attend.   We cannot go anywhere or do anything without something demanding our attention and urging us to take on another responsibility.  Just like many of us are collectors of things, we have become collectors of obligations and responsibilities.  Many of our responsibilities are unavoidable, and they are things that we should focus on and take care of, but when we become more and more overwhelmed by other commitments that are not necessary, our lives become too much to handle.  Many of us have mistakenly said, “I thrive on pressure, or the more I have to do the more I get done.”  We have convinced ourselves that these statements are true, so we keep going.  

Just as we think that the things we own define us we think that the obligations and responsibilities in our lives define us too.  We think that we are doing okay with all the obligations we have in life, but if most of us would be honest with ourselves, the weight of these obligations are pulling us down.  They are stressing us out and making it impossible to keep up.  We find ourselves not making enough time for ourselves, our families, and most of all God.  We spend so much of our lives trying to keep up that we do not realize how far we are falling behind.  As I have said before, God wants us to live the best lives possible.  Life is a precious gift, which most of us are throwing away on things that are not important or are not bringing us peace.  God wants peace for our lives, and we cannot be at peace if we are worn out at the end of the day because of all the activities we have participated in or stressed out from all the obligations we have had.  

What we are trying to do is fill a hole in our lives.  We all know that something is missing from our lives, and we try to fill it with things, people, and responsibilities.  What we all need is peace, and we cannot get peace by collecting responsibilities.  In order to have peace, we have to let go of the things in life that are weighing us down, stressing us out, and making us feel bad.  The more things and responsibilities we have in our lives, the harder it is to let go.  We have to prioritize and decide which things are not bringing peace to our lives and which things we can live without.  It is not easy to let go of obligations, and no one can really tell us which obligations to let go of first.  It is different for everyone.  

The best solution to the problem is to pray and ask God what we need to let go of.  He can and will guide us in making the right decision.  When we do finally begin to let go of the obligations in our lives that are not necessary, we will find ourselves having more time.  We need to fill that time by communicating with God and having a relationship with Him.  Even that really doesn’t take much of our time.  God is everywhere, so we can talk to Him wherever we are.  He is always there to listen to us, and we do not have to make an appointment to see Him.  He will guide us in what we need to do and help us decide which obligations to let go of to improve our lives.  

The bottom line is we have to reduce the stress in our lives.  We have to reduce the number of responsibilities and obligations we have taken on.  We have to give ourselves more time to talk to God and have a meaningful relationship with Him.  We have to slow down and enjoy life more.  When we do all of these things, the peace that God has for our lives will begin to find us.  We will feel so much better that we will wonder why we hadn’t done it sooner.  It will be difficult in the beginning, so we have to start slowly and take it day by day.  We have to be wise and we have to let God guide us in the things we need to let go of.  However, once we do, our lives will be so much better. We will have more energy, we will have less stress, and we will have more time for ourselves and the people we love, and we will have more time for God.  With God, all things are possible, so let’s let go and start living a new life full of hope, peace, and a relationship with God.  It will change everything, and it will lead us to a newfound peace, and PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~ 

I appreciate all of the comments that you leave.  I cannot not reply directly to you through an email, but I always try to reply to your comment in the comment section of each post.  Please feel free to come back to read my reply.  Also if you would like to follow me on Facebook you can do so by searching for me by my name, Dan Weaver.  

Don't Muddy the Waters

Jeff and I recently return from a cruise with my family.  We left from New Orleans, Louisiana and traveled down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico and then on to Honduras and back again.  Jeff and I had never been on a cruise before, so we really did not know what to expect.  As we left New Orleans, my brother, Andrew, drew the water to my attention.  He commented on how dirty the water was and showed me all the debris that had washed up on the land and had accumulated around the ships that were docked.  As we travelled down the river and reached the Gulf of Mexico, I could not help but notice the color of the water changing.  It seemed that the further we got from home, the clearer the water became.  There were places where the water was so clear that it I could literally see the bottom of the ocean.

We had a very nice trip and all that I really thought of when we were away was being on the ship and what we were going to be doing on that particular day.  As we made our return to New Orleans, we once again had to travel on the Mississippi River.  We entered the river during the night. As I lie in bed, I thought about returning home and I began to get stressed.  It was not that I did not want to go home, but I started thinking about all of the things I needed to do.  I started thinking about school starting, what I needed to accomplish at home, and I even started thinking about the past.  

I realized that I was not going to be able to sleep, so I got up and went out on one of the decks of the ship.  As I was standing there, I was still feeling a little stressed and I walked toward the edge of the ship and looked down at the water.  The water was once again muddy.  Then I felt like God asked me a question.  He said, “What was the water like when you were far away from home and did not spend time thinking about all the things you needed to do when you returned home?”  I answered, “It was clear and blue.”  Then God asked, “What is the water like now that you are getting closer to home and thinking about all of the things you need to do and remembering the past?”  I answered, “It is muddy.”  Then God said, “Well, don’t muddy the waters.”  Then it hit me.  I was muddying the waters.  I was thinking about things that really didn’t matter anymore in reference to the past, and I was worrying about things that had not even happened yet and that God had control over anyway.  So, in that moment, I decided to relax and go back to bed and sleep which I did.  

Thinking about those muddy waters has made me realize that many times we do muddy our own waters.  We fill our minds with the negative things in life.  We focus on the bad, and we dwell on the bad events of the past.  God wants us to live our lives in clear blue waters where we do not worry about anything.  He wants us to not worry about the past, the present, or even the future.  He wants us to realize that He has everything under control and that He will lead us in the right direction if only we will listen to Him.  We can all leave the muddy waters of our lives behind us, and we can all sail through clear blue waters with God’s help.  We can choose to focus on the positive instead of the negative, and we can choose to trust God and allow Him to guide our steps and illuminate our path.  He wants to do that for all of us.  It is not that the water will not be choppy sometimes, and it is not that the water may not become cloudy, but God can lead us over the choppy waters and lead us through the cloudy waters if we only trust him.  God wants all of us to live the best life possible and God wants all of us to experience the calmness of the clear blue waters in our lives.  He wants us to focus on the positive and forget the negative.  He wants us to stop worrying and start trusting Him more and more.  

We can all do this, but it will take practice.  God will help us when we spend time talking to Him and listening for all the positive things He whispers into our ears everyday.  A positive attitude and outlook on life will lead all of us to peace and PEACE MATTERS.    

~Dan~

P.S.  I appreciate all of the comments that you leave.  I cannot not reply directly to you through an email, but I always try to reply to your comment in the comment section of each post.  Please feel free to come back to read my reply.  Also if you would like to follow me on Facebook you can do so by searching for me by my name, Dan Weaver.  

Negative outlook on life.

Positive outlook on life.  

The Fire

In this life at one time or another we all face the fire.  Many times the fire we face is not an actual fire, but it is the problems and the dangers that this life often presents.  When we face the fire, we are filled with fear.  We struggle to make sense of why we are enduring such difficult times, and we worry that we will not make it out alive.  

When I think of facing the fire, I am reminded of the story in the Bible of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  These three men were thrown into a fiery furnace.  The fire in the furnace was so hot that the guards who threw them into the fire died from the heat.  There was a group of people watching these events unfold, and when they looked into the furnace, they did not see three people in the furnace—they saw four.  The fourth person in the furnace was Jesus.  He was there to protect the three men and keep them safe.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego emerged from that furnace unscathed; the fourth man in the furnace had indeed kept them safe from the flames.   

This story should serve as a reminder that God is always with us.  When we face the fires of this life, we do not face them alone.  We may feel as if we are alone, but we are not.  God is always with us, and He never leaves our side.  When I look back on my own life and I think about the fires that I have faced, I realize that God had always been with me keeping me safe.  There were many times when I did not feel His presence, but I know now that He was there.  He was by my side comforting me and leading me to safety.  

The most important thing for all of us to remember is that God is always with us.  I know that I say that a lot, but that is how important it is for us to remember.  This life can be very overwhelming and scary, and so many of us feel as if we are facing it alone.  There are many people in this world who really have no one they can depend on.  They feel like they are living their lives in complete isolation.  There are many times in our own lives that we feel we have no one to depend on.  We find ourselves alone and feel as if we have no one to reach out to and ask for help, but we are never alone.  

When everyone has seemingly given up on us, God is always with us.  He has been with us since the moment we entered this world, and He will remain by our side until the end of our time on this earth.  God is not a respecter of persons. He loves all of us.  He loves you, and He loves me.  He loves the good and He loves the bad.  There is no one on this earth who has travelled too far down the wrong path that God is not with them.  God can change all of our lives.   He can change who we think may be the worst person in the world.  He can change an evil person into a good person.  He can change a hateful person into a loving person.  He can change a bitter person into a grateful person.  There is no limit to what God can do for all of us.  That is why it is so important for us to allow God to do His job and to work in our lives and in the lives of others.  The fires of this life touch all of us.  No one is immune to the heat that life can bring.  However, we do have the perfect protector with us at all times.  We have God, and He can extinguish the fire and protect us from its flames.  

So, if you are facing a fire in your life and you feel as if you have no one you can reach out to, reach out to God.  He is right there by your side waiting for you to ask for help.  You do not have to ask for help in an elaborate or fancy way.  All you have to do is say, “Help me.”  He very well may be waiting on you to cry out to Him.  He is protecting you even when you do not know it, but He can do so much more for you if you just reach out to Him.  Please hear this—you are not alone.  You have not gone too far to come back to God.  God will never give up on you.  I know this from my own life, and once you cry out to God and ask Him for His help, He will change your life and you will once again begin to see the good that this world has to offer.  

There still is good in this world.  We are so inundated with the bad that we forget that there is still good.  We hear and focus on the bad more often than we do the good.  God wants us to see the good and focus on the joys of this life instead of the sorrows.  We can do that when we allow God to walk with us and save us from the fire.  We can do that when we allow God to help us see the good instead of the bad.  Leaning on God during the difficult times will help to make this life more bearable.  Allowing God to come to our rescue will build our faith and help us to know that we are not alone.  Emerging from the fire unscathed will give us hope and it will give those who witness our escape hope.  The hope we have and the hope we share will turn into peace and PEACE MATTERS.    

~Dan~

Lean on God

Life on this earth can be very difficult.  We all have struggles and trials to overcome.  It is impossible to find someone who has a perfect life and does not have daily struggles.  Our struggles may be different, but the feelings we have while facing them are the same.  We feel hopeless, out of control, stressed, and overwhelmed. Often we think that there is no way out, and the problems of this world begin to consume us until they are all we think about.  God does not want that for any of us.  He knows that we are going to encounter struggles, but He wants to guide us through them.  He says all we have to do is cry out to Him, and He will be there for us.  So, why don’t we do that?  

Many times, we will pray when we encounter a struggle, but often we stop there.  Prayer is a very important part of dealing with a struggle, but we need to do more.  We have to lean on God.  We have to surrender everything to Him and let Him guide us out of our struggles.  We all know people who do not depend on God.  The reason behind their independence is not that important, but they go through life not believing in anything and feeling like they are alone.  When we do not lean on God and let Him guide every aspect of our lives, it is very much like trying to drive a car that has no gasoline or paying bills from an account that has no money in it.  When we try to live our lives without God’s guidance, we are much like the car with no gas or the account with no money.  We are empty and bankrupt.  No one can live the life that they are intended to live without the guidance of God.  From an outside glance, it may look like they are doing fine.  They may have a good job, a beautiful family, a spacious house, and lots of friends, but they do not have true peace.  None of us can have true peace without God’s guidance. Once we have experienced God’s perfect peace in our lives and in our hearts, we will never again want to live without it.  

Living life when everything is good can be difficult enough, but living life when we are struggling is considerably more difficult.  We have to lean on God in all things, but particularly when we are in the valleys of life.  We often times think that God does not have time for us and that He is too busy to worry about us, but God has enough love and compassion for each of us.  God is omnipresent and omnipotent, and He can provide all of our needs.  We just have to trust Him, have faith that He can help us, and let Him guide our path.  

I cannot express to you enough how much God wants us to lean on Him.  He knows that this is the only way for us to have peace, and of course peace is the ultimate goal for everyone as we live life on earth.  We do not have to feel hopeless and overwhelmed because He is always there.  He will guide our steps, and He will hear our prayers if we just reach out to Him.  God will always give us what we need.  It may not look like what we want it to look like sometimes, but God knows what is best for us, and we have to trust Him.

So, the bottom line is this; every single one of us needs God in our lives.  Without Him we cannot adequately face the struggles of life.  We have to lean on God and let Him carry us through our trials and lead us to the place we need to be.  We have to have faith in Him and trust that He knows what He is doing.  We have to seek Him out and cry out to Him for help.  He will help us.  He wants to help us all.  He wants us to have the best life possible, and we can all have that life filled with peace if we just lean on Him.  Leaning on God will bring us peace and it will strengthen our faith.  So, let’s all start leaning on God more and more and watch what He does in our lives.  I guarantee this decision will lead you to a newfound peace and PEACE MATTERS.

~Dan~

The Key

As many of you know, Jeff and I recently went on a cruise with my family.  When I think back on the cruise, my mind is filled with many good memories of spending time with our family and relaxing, but I am also filled with memories of some very important lessons that God taught me while I was on the cruise.  This is a perfect example of how God can use everyday experiences to teach us lessons that will remain with us for the rest of our days.  It is in these common, everyday experiences that we can draw strength and learn the lessons that God wants us to learn.  I have already written about some of the lessons that God taught me while I was on the cruise, and today’s writing is yet another lesson that God brought to my mind while floating in the middle of the ocean.  

As some of you may know, I am an avid runner.  I enjoy it, it helps me stay in shape, and it gives my mind a chance to rejuvenate and focus more.  There was an exercise room on the ship that I would go to almost every day.  I would run on a treadmill and then come back to our room.  Many days, I went to the exercise room by myself, and on one such day I was walking back to our room. As I entered the hall that our room was in, I was suddenly struck by how the hall looked.  It was one of the longest and straightest halls that I think I had ever seen.  I could literally see from one end to the other without having to strain my eyes.  There were hundreds of doors on either side of the hall.  All the doors looked the same.  For as far as I could see, all I saw were doors.  

As I was walking down the hall, I was reminded of how this hall was a lot like our lives.  We are all walking down a path in our lives. There are times that we can look far into the distance and see how our lives may unfold, but our lives are just like the hall on that cruise ship. There are many doors and opportunities on either side.  Often when we think about all the doors and opportunities that we encounter in this life, we can become overwhelmed and stressed.  It is difficult for us to know which door to enter, and we are often scared to open a door when we are no sure of what lies behind it.  As I was walking down the hall of that cruise ship, I began to get a little overwhelmed and nervous for a moment.  I started asking myself questions like, “What if I cannot find my room?” “Am I even on the right deck?”  “What if I get lost and no one is able to find me?”  I then remembered that in my pocket was the key to our room.  I knew that I could indeed find our room and that when I slipped the key in the door, it would open and I would enter the correct cabin.  

I then realized that we have all been given a key to unlock the correct doors that we encounter in our lives.  We do not keep this key in our pocket, but we keep it in our hearts.  This key was placed in our hearts before we were even born, and we have carried it with us for years before we ever had to use it.  Sometimes in life we do encounter the wrong door and sometimes we do open it, but we know in our hearts that it is the wrong door and the wrong direction to take.  Sometimes it takes us a long time to realize that it was the wrong door, but when we look back on our lives, we realize that we knew in our hearts all along that it was the wrong door.  We just did not listen to that quiet still voice that is within all of us.  

God knows that we will encounter many doors and opportunities in this life.  He places some of the doors in our path, and some of the doors He does not. We have to be able to discern which doors are meant for us.  This can be a very scary and overwhelming process if we are not listening to God and letting Him lead us.  However, if we listen to God, get His advice on every door we encounter, and use the key that He has placed in all of our hearts, we will open the correct doors which will lead us to many blessings and happiness like we have never known before.  

This is why it is so important for all of us to have a personal relationship with God.  This is why it is so important for all of us to listen to His voice as we travel through our lives.  We can spend many years banging on the wrong doors only realizing after we enter that it was the wrong door to take.  Entering the wrong door will cause us to lose hope, it will cause our faith to waiver, and it will cause us to become disillusioned with life.  

The good news is that God can rescue us when we enter the wrong door.  He can pull us out of the room, calm our fears, and set us back on the right path when we make the wrong choice.  When we do choose the wrong door and God does rescue us, we learn valuable lessons that will help us when we encounter doors in the future.  When we do encounter more doors, we will be more careful and we will seek out God’s wisdom and make sure that it is the right door for us before we enter it.  

So, if you are standing at a door in your life right now and are unsure if you should walk through it, talk to God.  Let Him guide your thoughts and illuminate your path.  Use the key that He has placed in your heart.  If this is the right door for you, God will tell you to open it and if it isn’t, God will help you to keep it closed.  If you have opened the wrong door and you are scared and hopeless, cry out to God.  He is right there with you.  He will take your hand and lead you back to the right path and set you on a course of peace.  Making the right choices in life can be very difficult.  Knowing which door to take can be overwhelming, but you have it within yourself to choose the correct door if you just allow God to lead the way.  

If you are knocking on a door right now that will not open, turn and walk away.  That is not the door for you.  God wants all of us to live the best lives that we can live.  He wants all of us to feel the peace and hope that only He can offer, and He can do this by helping us choose the right doors to enter and by helping us choose which doors to walk past.  Listen to God everyday.  He is the positive voice that you hear.  His voice is the one that brings you peace.  God will always lead us in the right direction if we just listen.  Following God will bring us peace and as we all know, PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~

Blessings in Disguise

Sometimes even when we are walking along the path that God has planned for our lives, bad things happen. Sometimes what we perceive to be horrible events occur, and we do not understand why they are happening. Some of these events are so difficult to understand that we feel like we must have gotten off of the path at some point and we are being punished or we have taken a wrong turn. We struggle with answers and often we begin to get angry with God and even lose faith that we were ever hearing from Him in the first place. It is sometimes only after time has gone by, in some cases years, that we realize that this event that brought us so much pain was actually part of God’s plan for our lives and it has put us in the position to do what He has always intended for us to do with our lives. Many times what appear to be derailments in our lives’ plans are actually God taking us in a new, better direction. Many times something that we perceive to be the worst thing that could possibly happen to us turns out to be what we really needed all along. 

Many of us have lost a job, which has led us to a better opportunity, or we have gone through a terrible breakup only to meet the person that God has always intended for us to be with all along. Losing the previous relationship has put us in the position to meet the person that will help us complete the things that God has called us to do. Many times these seemingly horrific experiences will become some of our biggest blessings in life. It may seem impossible, especially while we are going through the difficult time, but there very well may come a time when we will actually be thankful for the terrible event that led us to our newfound discovery. 

It is very difficult to believe that these painful events can be part of God’s plan, but that is because we cannot see what the outcome will be. God knows how everything is going to work out in the end, and He knows what we need in our lives better than we do. Sometimes He has to lead us through a difficult time to get us in the position to achieve what He has always had planned for our lives. Having peace over these painful events and keeping our faith during the struggles requires us to have constant communication with God. When we are talking to God and being obedient to His voice, we will not question when the difficult things happen as much as we would if we were not communicating with God and listening to His voice. It is very important for our faith in God to be strong, but it is especially important to have faith when we are going through a difficult time. We have to trust that He has everything under control and that He truly has a plan. We have to have faith that God has a plan for our lives and that His plan is perfect, even when we do not understand the direction that He is taking us. 

God has the uncanny ability to turn something bad into something wonderful. We have all said that from time to time in our lives, but we often forget it when we are going through a painful time. It is easy to forget that, because all we can see is how bad the situation is. If we could see things through God’s eyes, we would never worry about anything because we would understand that everything is working toward our good. 

However, we do not have God’s eyes, so we have to trust Him and surrender everything to Him. That is very difficult to do, but if we can do that we will have peace over every single situation that we experience, no matter how difficult. Even saying that seems impossible, but we need to remember that all things are possible through God. He is continually working in our lives even when we do not know it, and He is working everything out for us. What He has planned for our lives is far better than anything we could ever imagine so we have to trust Him and understand that His plan is perfect. 

So, if you are going through a painful, life changing, situation right now, do not lose your faith. Continue to cling to God and let Him continue to guide your path. It is very possible that He is taking you through this difficult time only to lead you to the best part of your life. It is very possible that you have to go through this painful situation to be able to recognize a great work that God has planned for you. Every situation that we go through, the good and the bad, will help us to grow. It will help us to become the people we need to become to do the work that God has planned for us. I know it is easy to see that and to understand that when we are not going through the valley, but it is far more important to remember that when we are in the valley. We just have to believe that God has everything under control and that He has a plan. There may be times when it feels like He does not have a plan, but trust me, He does. 

So, hold on to your faith, keep talking to God, keep listening to His voice, and keep being obedient. Everything will work out and everything will get better. Brighter, happier days are on the horizon. All you have to do is take God’s hand and let Him lead you to them. Never ever forget that God is in control and that He has a wonderful life mapped out for you. All you have to do is have faith and follow Him. He will lead you to the mountaintop, and when you get there you will be that much more thankful for all the valleys that you had to walk through. The valleys are what make us the people we are, and they cause us to be strong, have faith, and cling to God, and they often will be what we need to restore our peace, and as we all know, PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~ 

The Sea of Hopelessness

Jeff and I recently returned from a vacation with my family.  We went on a cruise with our family, and when you are on a cruise ship, you find that you have more time to think and observe your surroundings than you normally do in your everyday life.  One day, I was sitting on the balcony looking out at the water.  For as far as I could see, I was surrounded by water.  It was all I could see on either side of the ship, all I could see in front of the ship, and all I could see behind the ship.  Looking at the water and not being able to see land was a beautiful sight, but then I started really thinking about only being able to see water, and I started feeling isolated and alone.  I imagined what it must feel like to be floating in the middle of the ocean and not being able to see land anywhere.  Suddenly, I realized that that is what hopelessness feels like.   

When we feel hopeless, we feel as if we are floating in the middle of the ocean and we cannot see land anywhere in sight.  Hopelessness is one of those emotions that we all feel at one time or another in our lives.  There is not a human on this earth who has not felt hopeless.  The cause of our hopelessness is different for each of us, but the emotion is the same.  As I sat there and thought more, I realized that I was okay, because I was basically in the middle of a large city in the middle of the ocean.  Everything I needed was there, I was safe, and I knew that I was heading toward land.  I maybe could not see the land, but I had faith that I would eventually see it rising over the horizon.   

Then I thought about feeling hopeless again and realized that God is a lot like the cruise ship that I was riding on.  He can provide everything we need even when we feel hopeless.  He can keep us safe, and He can lead us to dry land if we only allow Him to take the lead.  All we really have to do is have faith and trust that He is leading us in the right direction.  Even in the middle of the ocean with water as far as my eye could see, God was sitting on that balcony with me that day.  This reminded me of my own struggle with hopelessness, and I realized that God had been with me even in my darkest hour.  I thought I was completely and utterly lost, but God was right there.  He was leading me to dry land and a new sense of security and happiness and I did not even know it.  

God never leaves us even in our most difficult struggles.  He is always there whispering words of comfort in our ears and leading us to where we need to be.  Even when we feel lost, He always finds us, and He always knows which direction to go.  None of us is truly lost if we seek out God.  None of us is completely finished or washed upped as long as God is with us, and the good news is that God is always with us.  He is sitting next to me while I write this, and He is sitting next to you as you read this.  God has the awesome ability to be everywhere at the same time.  There is no end to God’s massiveness and to God’s love for us.   

We may think that we have made it to where God no longer loves us or cares about us, but that is a lie that Satan wants us to believe.  God will never give up on us.  God will never leave us or forsake us.  He is always in control, and He will always lead us to where we need to be.  The beautiful thing is that He really doesn’t expect that much in return.  All He wants us to do is have faith in Him and trust that He has everything under control.  He wants us to be obedient to Him and to try our best to do well for our fellow man and ourselves.   

If you never hear anything else I ever say, hear this.  God loves you, and He will never give up on you.  Others may have given up on you and you may have given up on yourself, but God is still there for you.  None of us can ever do so badly that God is not there for us.  God wants the best for all of us and all we have to do is follow Him.  It is that simple, yet it is that hard.  God wants us to spend time communicating with Him, and He wants us to listen to what He has to say.  He wants us to have a positive attitude, and He wants us to love our fellow man.  When we can do that, our lives will begin to move in a different direction and all the bad will begin to fade away.  We will still encounter bad things even when we are following Him, but He will ease the stress and the pain of the bad and we will feel peace even in the midst of the storm.  God’s gift to man is peace and as we all know, PEACE MATTERS.   

~Dan~

The Cylinder

Imagine your life as a cylinder, a perfectly round deep tube with a shiny metal floor and walls.  You are stuck at the bottom and all you want to do is climb to the top.  You try to claw your way to the top, but the walls are too slick to grab onto.  You try to climb to the top, but it seems impossible.  To make matters worse, all sorts of problems and obstacles begin to be thrown at you.  It seems like a rain shower of problems.  The problems and trials take on the image of sharp metal objects.  You are afraid to touch them because you believe they will harm you.  So, you do the safe thing.  You stay at the bottom of that cylinder and let the problems and trials of life rain down on you.  

Pretty soon, the problems and trials are stacked to the top of that cylinder.  Then a thought comes to you and you realize that the walls of that cylinder are not smooth anymore.  There are plenty of things to grab onto now and you begin to climb using the problems and trials as your footing.  Sure your hands get cut and you are injured while grabbing onto those problems and trials, but pretty soon you realize that you are getting closer and closer to the top.  You continue to use the problems and trials to climb to the top and before you are know it, you are out of the cylinder, free at last from the captivity.  

In a lot of ways, life is like that cylinder.  We all want to climb to the top, but it seems impossible, especially while there are problems being thrown down on us.  It is human nature to want to avoid being hurt, so we do nothing.  We sit there and blame God for our problems.  We say things like, “How could you do this to me? I thought you were supposed to be a loving God.” or “Have you totally forsaken me?”  It is easy to think that when things are bad in our lives.  We do often think that God has forgotten us, but if we would only realize that we can use the problems being put in our path to climb our way out.  I am not saying that God purposely throws problems our way, but He has given us the ability to use those problems to climb out.  We just have to face them and accept that we may be hurt along the way, but each time we are hurt we become a little stronger and can endure the pain a little more.   

We have to learn to use our problems to become stronger and to climb our way out.  We do this by truly learning to lean on God and relying on his guidance. Every problem or trial placed in our way can strengthen us, build our faith, bring us closer to the people we love, and draw closer to God.  When we do finally climb to the top, we are filled with such peace and are better people for having gone through those experiences.  

So the next time you feel like problems and trials are being thrown at you and trust me, it will happen from time to time, use those problems and trials to build your strength and begin to climb out.  The worst thing any of us can do is take up residence at the bottom of that cylinder and become bitter and dissatisfied with life.  Peace and happiness is ours for the taking.  All we have to do is grab on and climb up to it, and God will be there to give us the strength and courage to do just that, and He will restore peace back into our lives, and as we all know, PEACE MATTERS! 

~Dan~

Second Chances

Who of us at one time or another has not wished for a second chance?  We have all made mistakes, and we have all wished that we could go back and change them.  The past is in the past and while it can, if we allow it to, affect our present and our future, there is no way to go back and change it.  It has been said that each January 1st is a new chance to start over.  We have conditioned ourselves to believe that this is the only time of the year that we can change.  We make resolutions to change.  We try to improve our lives.  We sometimes succeed in these changes, but we often fail.  I believe that it is a common human emotion to want to “wipe the slate clean” and begin anew.  

However, if you think about it, change can occur at any time.  It is just up to us to decide when that change will occur.  Our lives have so many ways to mark the passing of time.  We have a new year, a new month, a new week, and a new day.  We are in many ways obsessed with marking the passing of time.  Each of these time markers is a chance to start over.  When you stop and think about it, every new day is a chance to “wipe the slate clean” and begin again.  Actually, every hour, minute, or even second that goes by is a chance to start again.  There are 86,400 seconds in one day.  That is 86,400 chances to begin again and live the life that you are meant to live.  I don’t know about you, but that kind of makes me feel a little freer.  We don’t have to wait for a new day, or week, or month, or year to start again.  We can just decide, “Hey, the time has come for me to change” and we can do it.  

I do not believe that it is any coincidence that there is so much emphasis placed on time.  I think God wants us to realize that we have numerous chances in this life to start again.  We just have to decide when.  Believe me, I know how difficult changing something can be, but it is like my dad always says, “It’s all in the want to.”  We have to want to change.  We have been given 86,400 chances in just one day to make the change, so we just have to decide when to do it.  God can help us with the change.  He really does want us to live the best life that we can live.  He wants us to be at peace and to have hope.  He wants to help us begin again.  We just have to trust him.  We just have to be determined to start over and to leave the past with its regret and mistakes behind us.  Plus, look at it this way, if you mess up, you can fix it in the next second that comes.   

So, let’s try to live each day and use each second, minute, and hour that goes by to its fullest and be committed to the change.  It will make all of our lives better and bring us all more peace, and PEACE MATTERS.    

~Dan~

Acceptance

Acceptance is a very important factor in living the life that we are meant to live.  There are two types of acceptance.  Both types are very important if we wish to live our lives in a forward motion.  Not having acceptance can keep us from moving forward and ultimately keeps us from living the life that we are meant to live.  

The first type of acceptance is the easier of the two.  We have to learn to accept everyone in our lives.  Even if they believe differently or live a different life than us, we have to accept them.  We cannot truly love someone and value him or her as being part of our lives if we do not accept him or her.  Now, I am not saying that we have to agree with them all the time or even condone their behavior, but we have to accept them for who they are.  We have to be there for them and support them in anyway that we can, even if it makes us a little uncomfortable.  We should also be able to expect the same thing from them.  This is very important if the person is a part of our family, but it also important in our circle of friends.  Jesus accepted all types of people, and our goal should be to be more Christ-like, so we should try hard to accept people despite our differences.  

The second type of acceptance is a little harder to achieve.  We have to accept the things that happen to us in our lives, both the good and the bad.  The good is a no brainer.  It is easy to accept the good things that come our way, but we also have to accept the bad things too.  There are so many terrible things that happen to people in this life.  We have to deal with death, the breakup of a marriage, or the loss of a home or a job.  All of these events are terrible and can be life altering.  We struggle to understand why they happen.  We cannot believe that God would allow them to happen to us.  We question Him and want answers.  We pray about them and expect results, and when we do not get the results that we want, we think that God is not listening and we begin to lose our faith in Him.  We want to control every aspect of our lives and when we cannot do that we become frustrated and disillusioned.  

Most of us have been told all of our lives that God has a plan for us and He knows best.  That is easy to accept when things are going smoothly, but when things get rough and events happen that cause us to lose someone or something that we love, we cannot see God’s hand in it.  Sometimes, God’s hand is not in it, but He can bring us through it and use it to make us better people.  I believe that God would never lead us through something if He knew that we would not make it to the other side.  While we are struggling, He is always with us.  We may not feel Him, but He is there.  We have to get to the point that we accept the situation for what it is.  We have to accept that we cannot change it and decide to live through it.  

You may be thinking, “How can I do that?”  To tell you the truth, I am asking myself the very same question right now as I write this.  I guess it comes down to a very simple yet often difficult concept—trust.  We have to trust God.  We have to believe that He can lead us through the struggle.  We have to realize that we cannot change it on our own.  We have to pray that God will give us the strength to endure the pain that we are in, and that He will either change the situation or that He will give us the strength to accept the it.  

You see, we cannot have peace and hope if we do not have trust.  Accepting the bad in our lives is a step to having that peace and hope.  I am not saying that we should stop trying to make the situation different or that we should stop praying for a better outcome, but it cannot consume us.  We have to trust that God is in control.  He is whether we believe that or not, so I believe we would be better off if we would just believe it.  Instead of praying that the situation would change, maybe we should be praying that God grant us peace and the ability to accept the things that we do not understand.  It is a lot like the serenity prayer.  It may be just a prayer that we have heard all of our lives, but the words are very powerful.  Once we accept things for how they are, I truly believe that the peace and hope we have been promised will come to us and our lives can once again move forward with peace in our hearts, and PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~

The Lord Giveth and The Lord Taketh Away

I have been thinking a lot about loss lately.  I am not really sure why, but it has been on my mind.  We all have and will experience loss in our lives.  That is just the way life on this earth is.  Nothing can last forever while we live here.  We all experience loss, and we all deal with it differently.  Some of us get sad, while others get mad.  Many of us blame ourselves, and some of us blame others.  We even blame God for the loss in our lives.  We question Him and wonder why He would take away something that we love so much.  We question His wisdom and wonder what we have done to deserve or experience such a loss in our lives.  The thing that all of us need to remember is that loss is part of life.

Some of the losses we experience will be small, and some of them will be large.  Some of them will change our lives forever and some of them will only slightly alter our lives.  The common feeling that all of us have when we experience loss is hopelessness.  We feel out of control.  We feel like life will never be the same and that we will never be able to smile again or see the good in life anymore.  This is what I believe about loss.  God never allows us to lose something that He does not give us something in return.  I have two perfect examples of this theory.  

The first one involves my grandma.  You all know how much I love my grandma, and you all know how special she is to me.  She has experienced profound loss in her life, but I think the hardest loss she endured was losing her only son.  Before my aunt and mom were born, my grandma had a little boy named Paul Jerry.  When Paul Jerry was almost two years old, he died unexpectedly.  My grandma was very young when this happened, and I can only image the grief that she felt when she lost her little baby.  She never had a little boy to raise, and she always wished that she had been given the chance to raise a son.  It has been over seventy years since my grandma lost Paul Jerry, and I am not completely sure that she knows why she had to lose him, but my grandma did get something in return for her loss.  I remember the day that all the dots connected and she realized what God had done for her.  It was an early Christmas morning and my grandma was praying and thinking about Paul Jerry.  This would have been close to fifty years after he had died.  She was questioning God and asking Him why she had to give Paul Jerry up, and God reminded her of what He had given her.  You see my aunt and mom had had five children between them, all of them boys.  My grandma said that she felt that God spoke to her that morning and said, “I may have taken your son from you, but look at what I gave you in return.  I gave you five grandsons.”  From that moment on, my grandma seemed to make peace with the loss of her son.  Not that she did not miss him and wish things had been different, but she realized that God did give her something back, and He gave it back to her in a greater number than she had had before.  

Another example of God giving back to us is my own mother.  My mom had three sons, my older brother, Robert, me, and my younger brother, Andrew.  Almost fifteen years ago, my mother lost my older brother.  She did not lose her son to death, like my grandma did, but he is no longer in our lives.  It is a decision that he has made for his own reasons, but it has broken my mom’s heart.  Until recently, I have had trouble understanding why my mom held on to the loss like she has.  As you all know, Jeff and I had three Miniature Schnauzers, and we recently lost our little girl Parker.  Having the other two has been a real blessing to us, but we still feel as if our little family is not complete without Parker.  I finally realized that this is how my mom feels.  Now I am not trying to compare a child not being in a mother’s life to a pet passing away, but I think God has used the loss of Parker to help me understand how my mother feels.  She feels that her family is not complete without Rob.  We all hope and pray that he returns one day, and I know that my mom prays daily for his return, but she does have three sons in her life.  God gave her Jeff.  I don’t think my mom could love Jeff anymore if he were her own son, and I know that Jeff loves my mom like she were his own mother.  He told me recently, “You know, I could not love your mom anymore than if she were my own mother.”  It isn’t that Jeff has replaced Rob. No one could take Rob’s place in my mom’s heart, but God has given her a third son that can be part of her life right now.  

Loss is a terrible thing, and it is difficult to deal with.  I know that many of you are dealing with or have dealt with loss in your life.  I am sure you question why the loss had to occur, and I am sure that you question God and may even blame yourself.  It is time for all of us to stop questioning God and stop blaming ourselves for the loss in our lives.  Loss is part of life.  That is just the way it is.  We will lose and we will gain in this life.  

So, if you are struggling with a loss right now, take a moment and examine your life.  Think about what it is you lost and start looking for what you have gained in your life since the loss occurred.  I am confident that you will be able to see that God has indeed given you something in return for the loss that you have endured.  He may have given you something in return in far greater numbers than you lost, like He did for my grandma or He may have replaced your loss with one thing like He did for my mom.  God knows what we need.  He never leaves us or forsakes us, and He never removes something from our lives that He does not give us something in return.  God’s generosity and goodness will fill all of our lives if we just allow it to.  We may have to look for it sometimes, but I promise you it is there.  Enduring a loss can take away our peace, but God will fill the loss in our lives and the peace will return and PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~

Sailing the Open Seas: A Weaver Family Vacation

Jeff and I just returned from a cruise with my family.  We travelled with my parents, my brother and sister-in-law, Andrew and Amy, and their three kids, Katie, Jake, and Tessa.  We had a very nice time and it was so nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and spend some quality time with our family relaxing.  As nice of a time as we had, it was sure nice to get home and see Peyton and Paycee.  They were very excited to see us and, we were just as excited to see them.  

Our trip started out by visiting New Orleans which is where our ship took off from.  From New Orleans, we sailed down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.  We sailed for three days and arrived at our first destination which was Honduras.  We had a beach day at Mahogany Beach.  It was nice to get to enjoy the blue water and the kids enjoyed swimming and playing in the sand.  The next day we sailed to Belize.  Jeff and I decided to stay on the ship this day, and it was nice to have some time to relax and enjoy the empty spaces that are often full of people when the ship is at sea.  Our final stop was Cozumel, Mexico.  We did a little shopping in Mexico.  It was very hot that day, so we decided to head back to the ship early.  From Mexico, we sailed back to New Orleans.  

There were many beautiful sights to see and many inspirational sights that have inspired me to write on a few topics that I will be sharing with all of you at a later time.  One thing that Jeff and I were reminded of during our trip is that God is always with us.  We may travel thousands of miles from home and be in the middle of the ocean, but God is right there with us.  This is a perfect example of how God can meet us wherever we are in life.  We often think that we have to be in a certain building on a certain day of the week to feel God’s presence, but we all need to remember that He is always with us and He is always waiting to talk to us and help us see the beauty that surrounds us.  He also reminded Jeff and me how important it is to spend time with our families.  Sometimes it is difficult to make the time to see our families, but we should all make the effort to do it as often as we can.  After all, in life it is our relationships with others that can give us the most peace and Peace Matters.  

~Dan~

Our ship, The Carnival Dream, docked in Mexico.

Our niece, Tessa, enjoying the beach in Honduras.

Our nephew, Jake, in Honduras.  

Our niece, Katie, on the beach in Honduras.  

Jeff and I under the clamshell, in Honduras.  

Katie, Jake, and Tessa arriving in Mexico.

Katie in Mexico.

My parents, George and Darlene, at dinner on the ship.

My brother, Andrew, and Katie at dinner on the ship.

My sister-in-law, Amy, and Jake at dinner on the ship.

Jeff and Tessa at dinner on the ship.

Jeff and I ready for dinner.  

Katie, Jake, and Tessa.  This is a picture of a picture so the quality is a little off.  

The whole family.  Front row left to right:  Katie, my mom, Darlene, Tessa, my dad, George, and Jake.  Back row left to right:  My brother, Andrew, my sister-in-law, Amy, Jeff, and me.  This may be the only picture you see of me without a hat, so enjoy it...LOL! 

The Dining Room

Jeff and I are in New Orleans, Louisiana with my family getting ready to leave for a cruise, but I thought I would do one more blog post before we left.  Today, I am sharing pictures of our dining room.  This room was previously the room we called the sunroom.  It is a room off of the kitchen that has the stairs that lead to the basement in it.  The entire time we have lived here, I have struggled with knowing what to do with this room.  Turning it into the dining room was a thought that we had had off and on, but we never did it.  I wish I had done it sooner, because I really like it, and it gives this room more of a purpose that it has never had before.  

When I think about the dining room and how it came to be placed in the room that it is now in, I think of how it sometimes takes years for many of us to find our purpose in life.  We often spend years trying to discover what our purpose is.  We sometimes try different things only to feel like we are no closer to finding the purpose that God has for our lives than we were when we began searching.  The thing about a purpose is that we all have one.  We have all been placed on this earth for a very special purpose.  There is nothing random about life.  We all encounter situations and people throughout our lives.  Some of these situations and people will be good for us and some of them will not be good for us, but we all learn very valuable lessons from all the experiences and people that we encounter in our lives—the good and the bad.  Life is about becoming better people.  Life is about learning the lessons that God wants to teach us, and as we grow and learn the things that God wants us to learn, we get closer to discovering our real purpose in life.  

Once we discover our purpose, it will be a lot like our new dining room; it will all make sense.  It will feel like things should have always been this way, and we will wonder why we didn’t discover our purpose sooner.  One thing we all need to remember as we are trying to discover our purpose in life is that it will come to us in God’s perfect timing.  Some of us will discover it early in our lives.  Some of us will discover it somewhere in the middle of our lives, and some of us may discover it later in our lives.  It really doesn’t matter when we discover our purpose. The important thing is discovering it and using it to make the world a better place.  We all can do that, you know.  We can all be a light in this dark world, and we can all bring happiness to others.  All we have to do is use the gifts that God has given us, and He has given all of us gifts and talents that can make the world a better place and that can show people how important God is to us and how He can change the lives of everyone on this planet.  Finding our purpose in life will help us be satisfied and fulfilled.  It will bring others peace, and it will bring us peace and PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~ 

Bitterness

One of the many things that I struggle with in this life is bitterness.  I am not proud to admit that, but it is true.  I am sure if you are like me, and I have a sneaky suspicion that you are, you struggle with bitterness too.  What we are bitter about really doesn’t matter much; it is the cause of the bitterness that matters.  Not having a forgiving spirit and wanting to be in control of everything causes bitterness. 

Imagine if you had never eaten a lemon before, just looking at the lemon and knowing that it is a fruit; you think it will be sweet.  Even when you smell it, you are not completely aware of its bitterness.  You cut the lemon and take a huge bite.  When you do, your face contorts to a very unpleasant likeness of your former self and you spit it out.  Your taste buds cannot stand the bitterness, and you have to reject it.  If we begin to have a steady diet of lemons, we become accustom to the bitterness.  Our face may contort upon the first bite, but our taste buds begin to get used to the taste and we no longer want to spit the lemon out.  Our taste buds are becoming hardened to the taste of the lemon and are beginning to believe that it is an acceptable taste.  

Bitterness in our lives is very much like eating a lemon.  The bitterness in our lives can contort our faces and make us have a terrible frown. In the beginning of bitterness we may want to reject our feelings, but after a while we become used to the bitterness, and we think that it is completely acceptable to feel the way we do.  We often get to the point where we like the bitterness.  Over time, though, the acid and hate in the bitterness begins to affect every part of our lives.  We walk around with a terrible attitude and the acid from the bitterness we are feeling changes everything.  We no longer see the beauty in the world, and we have no peace in our lives.  It affects our relationships with the people we love, and it causes us to turn inward.

You may be thinking, “How do I get rid of the bitterness in my life?”  The only way to really get rid of bitterness is to forgive.  We all have had things happen to us that are unfair, and we have all been hurt very deeply by someone, but we have to forgive the wrong, even if we are not able to tell the person that we forgive them personally. Many times that is impossible or it would place us in a situation that is not safe.  We can forgive someone even without speaking to him or her.  

Another way to eliminate bitterness is to realize that we cannot control other people.  I believe that if everyone would accept this simple fact and live it, the world would be a much better place.  I cannot make you do something, and you cannot make me do something.  If we try, we will more than likely fail, which may lead to bitterness.  The only thing we can really control in this life is ourselves, and I don’t know about you, but that is a full time job for me.  If we are controlling ourselves and living the best life we can live, we will not have time or the desire to try to control someone else.  

The old saying, “Live and let live” really does apply.  We have to just accept the fact that things are going to happen in life that we do not like or agree with.  Bad things are going to happen to us and to the people we love.  We have to let go of the need to control things and forgive the wrongs that are done to us.  Unchecked bitterness will make us hard, and while we think that in order to survive this world we have to be hard, that is not what God wants for our lives.  A hard heart cannot do any good for anyone.  We should have a soft heart that is ready to forgive and move on.  Now, I am not saying that we are supposed to be wimps. What I am saying is that we have to forgive and love to move on.  We have mistakenly thought that hardness means we are strong.  Really, when you think about it, having the ability to love and forgive is far stronger, and it has the power to change the world.  Plus, I don’t know about you, but at my age the last thing I need to do is walk around with a contorted face. = ) Letting go of bitterness will bring us peace, and PEACE MATTERS.

~Dan~

The Living Room

As you know this blog is dedicated to finding peace in our lives.  Peace can be found in a variety of ways.  The most direct route to peace is through God, but He has given all of us interests and talents that will bring peace to our lives.  One interest that brings peace to my life is decorating.  I have always loved decorating.  Even when I was very young, I found myself wanting to decorate and make my space pleasing to the eye.  My mom used to call me her little interior decorator.  I would move things around when I was little and try to make them look better.  I spent a lot of time with my mom decorating, and I have always said that everything I know about decorating, I learned from my mom.  Looking back on it now, I realize that those times I spent with my mom decorating were some of the best times of my childhood.  I learned a lot, and I was able to spend quality time with my mom learning the “tricks of the trade.”  My mom taught me that our houses should be a place of refuge from the outside world.  She taught me that a home should reflect the people who live there and should be a peaceful environment filled with the things that have special meaning and bring us comfort.  I have always tried to do that everywhere I have lived, and it is a passion that I will have for the rest of my life.  

With all of that being said, I have decided to start sharing pictures of our house on my blog.  As you may know, our house is currently for sale and when it sales, we will be building a saltbox.  If I said I was not anxious for the house to sell, I would be lying.  I am ready for it to sell, but I want it to sell in God’s timing.  He wants us in this house right now, and we plan on being here until He tells us differently.  One thing I have always known and am now learning to accept is that God’s timing is perfect.  We may not understand it all the time, but He has a plan for all of our lives, and when He is ready for the next stage of the plan to begin, He will reveal that to us.  

For most of the time we have lived here, we used the living room as a dining room.  Over the years, we have talked about making it a living room, but we never did.  Honestly, I love it as a living room.  It just seems right.  It is now one of my favorite rooms of the house.  I continually ask myself, why we did not do it sooner, but we didn’t.  I guess that is another lesson that God wants us to learn.  It doesn’t matter how long it takes us to get there. It is the getting there that matters the most.  I hope you will enjoy looking at the pictures of our living room and that you will get a sense of the peace that this room brings me.  Our homes can bring us peace if we allow them to and not become too overwhelmed with the process of making them look a certain way.  It is a balancing act that God is still trying to teach me and one that I have faith that I will eventually achieve.  Our homes can being us peace and as we all know, PEACE MATTERS.

~Dan~