Peace

Peace be with you.

Its a common greeting that Jesus used when he was greeting his friends and acquaintances. He desires us to be at peace, in peace, pursuing peace and distributing peace.

Peace. Its defined as freedom from disturbance; quiet and tranquility. There is so much to be said for peace - its both a powerful tool and a destination all at the same time.

We have a goal for our house - that it is a house of peace. It is our desire that when anyone walks through our door that they instantly feel the peace in our home. The same peace Jesus thrust upon those whom He greeted. In fact, one of the biggest compliments we can receive about our home is that there is a sense of peace. Not the beauty of our half-mud, half-grass front yard or the half-gravel, half-tiled patio (trying to be funny here), but the peace of God. A peace that surpasses all understanding.

As we are nearing the grand arrival of “baby brother” we know that we want to bring him into a home where he can feel the peace of God. Yes, he will be born into a world that is chaotic, noisy, sometimes scary and loud, but when he comes home, we want him to feel at peace. We want the same for Nicole and the same for each one of us. 

Let’s be honest, sometimes its not always easy to pursue peace. Its not just sitting in a gallon jug on the door of the refrigerator waiting to be poured out. Sometimes we actually have to create it - or at least an environment where its easily restored.  To this we have some tactics: sometimes we try to bring peace with our voices. Think calm, peaceful voices. Not always easy to do when “someone” isn’t listening. Sometimes we simply need to pray for it. 

Another way we pursue peace in our home is that we keep it organized. When I say “we” I really mean Erica. She is the master at organizing things. I can be super quick at picking up a mess, but its only because Erica has organized things so well that I know where things go and can get them back to their “home base” pretty quickly. This allows us to go from messy to dressy in short order. I can’t tell you how much peace you can bring with just cleaning up the chaos. 

You’ve seen Erica’s guest room closet re-do. We’ve added a couple more organization projects to our home and things are really looking great around here. Its like we’ve added on without adding on. Suddenly we have room to store things. Or, should I say, more room to put things away when its time to clean up. 

Scripture says “seek peace and pursue it” (Psalm 34:14b). We absolutely seek and desire peace in our home. Desire means to want it. Seeking and desiring are the first step. The next step is pursuing it. We talk gently, walk lightly and keep the chaos in check. Its not an exhaustive list of things we do to pursue peace but its a couple of things. It also gives a different motivation for organizing and cleaning up. Peace. Are you seeking it? Are you pursuing it?

Peace be with you.