A Peace at a Time — A story told with the hope of sharing with others whose lives have been a perpetual struggle and who seek peace. Peace comes one step at a time.
Pieces of “A Peace at a Time”
Where have I been all my life?
Where have I been all my life? How had life’s meandering path brought me to this place a small, dreary town of four hundred people, at the foot of a mountain range in Southern Wyoming? Not enough people here to fill a small apartment complex in the city where I had lived for fifteen years. Not the “Life in the West” of youthful vision. My heart whispered, “When you spend your life following other people’s expectations your own misguided judgment, lust, and ego, buffeted and tossed like a rudderless boat, you get lost.” In my world, people were constantly thwarting God’s plan, believing all the while that this was life, each one struggling to gain control and direction in their lives.
The “cowboy” of my dreams had cut a deep hole in my heart, and although we were still married, he was not in my life. I had placed him on an ice floe and pushed him out to sea. His departure became a stimulus for my seeking and then finding life God’s way.
I settled into my lodge pole pine chair, cuddling in the green and burgundy afghan Mother had crocheted for me. I had a pencil and legal pad in hand, intending to construct the outline of a book. A book was emerging in my head, not the great historical novel of youthful dreams, but the history of my life and rebirth into a life in Christ.
I could not write anything that night; instead, I spent time in prayer, asking God how to witness about my life in Christ. I was too new to Christianity and believing and I could not reference anything I said, felt, or experienced using scripture, in-depth interpretation, or definite knowledge of the Bible. I was just beginning to read the Bible. Yet I had this powerful urge to tell of the peace on the other side of the chasm that separates us from God.
Peace — From this day forward
My acceptance of Jesus as the Lord of my life on September 27, 2003, and the birth of my real connection to God were meteoric events. God picked me up and shook me so powerfully and taught me so rapidly who he was, and what he wanted from me that it still staggers me. At the writing of this piece of the book, it is five years since I found the only one to trust without question to be there for me.
The peace, unfailing love, and completeness are the gifts of relationship that can never be equaled in any human experience. I am writing this book because God is calling me to do so. I do not consider myself an instantaneous theologian. I write under God’s direction, believing my testimony will ignite a spark in one or more hearts to claim relationship with Jesus Christ and secure their own eternal future with God.
Peace — I want you to see…
This is the “Cliff Notes” version of a long and complicated chapter in my life. Details would only cloud the issue. I want you to see how we humans twist, turn, and justify our decisions. We override even our most basic sense of right and wrong. We want to make our lives work out the way we envision them. In our minds we deserved some happiness, after everything we had each been through. Now, you understand that what we had both been through was a direct result of our own choices. With each choice, we constructed a set of justifications for our actions. That allowed us intellectual peace in the “after all’s” of this kind of thinking.
Only because of repentance and forgiveness from God and my acceptance of salvation am I able today to honestly look at how separated from God I had become. Without Christ as my guide, I again believed what I was being told and what I was telling myself.
Teaching children about God’s sovereignty, authority, and absolute eternal promise is essential for establishing their foundation of core beliefs. They are going to base their life on something. Only one path promises life eternal in love. Children need to know to whom they really belong. Accepting Jesus Christ as the authority in their lives will give them the security, strength, peace, and freedom they crave. Then when they are hit with those stressful, sometimes instant life-altering decisions and situations, they already have a set of solid beliefs upon which to draw. They know who they are in Christ and how to respond.
In order to give children the structure that never changes, we must also believe God is sovereign and surrender our lives to him in example. Children have no respect for authority if that authority sets no boundaries for itself. Children will love us without respecting us, but I believe they would prefer to do both.
These ‘pieces’ of the book A Peace at a Time give you a peek into the focus of the book. Yes, it is MY story, but the motivation to write about this focus has been my relationship with God and His son, Jesus Christ.
