I Choose Peace!

Not too long ago, I was in a group meeting and it seemed no matter what I said, there was a gal that continued to contradict something I said. I was starting to tally the number of times she interrupted my train of thought to disprove something I said. My emotions were starting to go south and I felt a wave of anxiety go through me. In a split second, I took a deep breath and I decided to choose peace instead. I have come to know that peace is best chosen before there’s a need for it. I think I’m becoming an expert at choosing peace.

I had plenty of practice at choosing peace over the years. I learned that trying to prove my “rightness” was actually proving how wrong I could be. I was my husband’s navigator and co-pilot when we were flying. He depended on me. But, when we were driving around town and I kept insisting he was going the wrong way or he needed to turn here or there or speed up or slow down, it only led to a disruption of peace. Though it was hard, I learned to let him go the speed and the direction he believed was the right way, and be silent. Getting there 5 or 10 minutes late going his way, was far better than losing our peace trying to prove my way was the right way. I chose peace.
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Today, more than ever, I want to be enveloped by peace. I want to radiate peace and I want to be an agent and a conduit of peace. I decide this while in the grocery check-out line, or sitting in traffic, or waiting on these Frisco 5-minute traffic lights (ugh!) I know when I’ve decided peace as my option. Whether any of us know it or not, we can become practitioners of peace.

What I know for sure, is that the more I plant peace, water peace, fertilize it with prayer and practice, peace takes root. I have learned to shun people, places and situations where there is hostility, anger, and conflict. I avoid conversations that are going nowhere except for a battle zone up ahead. Of course, the wonder of it all is the way peace makes itself at home in us, even when the storms are raging.

As I was writing this post, I retrieved my 2010 November journal to see how I was handling the week of my husband's graduation to heaven on November 16th. I remember so much peace in my heart -- an undeniable, overwhelming, unexplainable peace. I was attending to and watching my sweetheart and best friend for over 44 years grow weaker, sleep more and moan in pain while trying to carry on my other responsibilities. My journal read “I can't explain it, but I have peace that passes understanding.” I remember choosing peace, or, maybe peace chose me.

What I know for sure in that meeting where it seemed the enemy was taunting me, to the times of my life when chaos was all around me and to the 11 months of my Sweetheart’s illness to his final week of life, I felt the sweet assurance of One who always promises, “I’m right here with you. You are not alone.”
So I pray and pay this peace forward to you today, dear friends. I know this for sure: You are not alone. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not in all the days to come. He is right here with you, and He extends the invitation to let peace take root in your soul.

John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."