Advent, week 2

So here we are in week 2 of advent. This week is about PEACE. Wikipedia describes peace as:


A time of no fighting, no rudeness, no cruelty, but only calmness. An absence of hostility. Is a state of tranquility or harmony.

Our world is in turmoil, as is our lives as we wonder through our days trying to get STUFF accomplished. I think that there are many places to find peace. There is the world , and it seems so overwhelming to think of how we might think to bring peace to something so big. There is our country, provinces, city's', communities, homes, bodies, and our own minds. I wonder if we just think outside ourselves and get so overwhelmed with the size of things and then we give up hope?

I wonder what happens when we start in ourselves first. Or perhaps it is better to say, when we let God do His work in us. Peace seems like such an out there thing, but as I age (hopefully growing wiser as well) I am realizing that when I change what is going on inside that the stuff outside seems to change as well. Not all at once, and maybe it is all in how I've changed my perception of what I'm seeing, but it is different than it was. When I find peace inside my heart, mind, life as I live it then I feel like I can see Peace outside where I have never seen it before.

To think about having peace in our lives every day as a conscience choice is to sometimes not have our way. It is to sometimes recognize that we do not need to be right and that peace in our hearts and in our home is more important than winning an argument.

As we live with ourselves in a peaceful state, when God gives us the insight and the wisdom to know which fight is the one to draw the line with, then we will find peace in our homes. When we can draw our strength from God to not have the need for everyone to know that we are giving in, not because we are wrong, but because we can love our families enough to not care about being right, then we will find more peace in our homes. As we find peace in our homes, we will see peace in our communities, again because God will give us the wisdom and strength to be a better neighbour, to know when to stand up and when to let it go.When we see peace in our communities we will then see more in our cities, and our provinces', and then our country, and our continent, and then our world. When we are able to let God love us, let Him show us how to love others, we will experience peace, in our hearts, lives, homes, ...... you get the picture. (I hope I've painted it well.)

Now comes the hard part, letting GOD LOVE US! He does it well, we just have to accept it. He has tried over and over again to show us how much He loves us and each time we seem to balk at Him as He expresses how He feels about us, His children. The lie is not that we don't deserve Gods love, the lie is that we can't have Gods love. We only have to accept it, that is all, it is a gift. A GIFT! It is freely given, there is no earning, winning or anything we can do to not be loved. It is there, always. Waiting. Waiting for us to say, I'll take that! As we say yes to accepting Gods love we acknowledge how He has shown us His love in sending Jesus to live and then die for us.

Having Gods love does not mean we will never face adversary or bad stuff, but it does mean we can choose our state of mind. We can approach things more peacefully, with an understanding beyond our comprehension because we have a Holy Counsellor to guide us through our decisions. Not only do we have this mighty Counsellor to guide us through our decisions we also have His Son who has shown us how to love others and how to be peaceful within ourselves so we can be peaceful outside ourselves.

I wish you all a peaceful week.

Nicole