This world has been trying to find peace for centuries. In fact, every human on this planet has spent most of his or her life searching for peace. We have fought for it, we have protested for it, we have written about it, we have sung about it, and we have prayed for it. It seems that we strive for peace, but we never quite get it. I believe that peace has to start within each person. Once a person achieves peace, it can spread to another person and another person and so on. The problem with achieving peace is that there are many outside forces working against us. There is so much negativity in our world that it is difficult to find peace. We find ourselves being dragged down by the bad news in the world and in our lives. However, true peace means that we can see or experience the bad and still be at peace. I look at peace like a security blanket that we can wrap ourselves in.

Another way to look at peace is to use the egg drop challenge from science class that many of us have done as an example. For those of you who do not know what I am referring to, it is the assignment in which an egg is dropped from a high elevation with the goal of not breaking it. The egg is wrapped in all sorts of soft materials. It is sometimes even given a parachute to ease its landing. Once the egg has been protected, it is dropped, and if it does not break, the experiment is considered a success. The peace that we can get from God is very much like the soft material that we wrap the egg in. God wants to wrap us in his peace and even though bad things may happen, his peace will insulate us and keep us from breaking. It sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?

You may be wondering how you can achieve the type of peace where the bad and negative things of this world do not break you. The first and most logical answer is to lean on God and to trust Him and let Him be in control. So many times we think that we are in control and that we can achieve peace on our own. We have to work at achieving peace. We first have to surrender our problems to God. That is what He wants, and that is why He is there. We have to trust that He is with us and that He is in control. We have to stop trying to control everything in our lives. We have to stop fighting to get our way and find the peace that comes from giving the control to God. We also have to thank God for all of our blessings. A grateful heart is a peaceful heart. If we begin to be grateful for all the things that bring us happiness, we will start to feel the peace that God wants for our lives.

To achieve peace we have to trust God. We have to stop trying to control everything and everybody, and we have to have a grateful heart and thank God for all the blessings that we have in our lives. Sounds simple doesn’t it? It is harder than it appears to be, but we can do it. We will have to start small and we will have to train our brains to think in a different way, but it can be done. All God really wants is for us to have hope and peace. He wants us to trust Him and to let him be in control. He wants us to thank Him for the good and the bad in our lives. When we do this, the blanket of peace that He wants to give us will be ours and the security of that peace will make our lives so much better. If we can achieve peace within ourselves, it will spread and it will keep spreading and soon maybe peace will dominate our lives instead of being a goal that we never achieve. I know that I am going to try a little harder to have this type of peace in my life and I hope you will do the same because PEACE MATTERS.

~Dan~