what gives you PEACE in your life?.....

Good morning my friends, it is a bitter cold day here in Utah, 12 degrees and an ice sheet everywhere I look. I am so blessed to be awake and in the comfort of my little warm apartment and am thanking God this morning for another day to "get it right" I pray your day is off to a good start and that you have taken time to thank God for the little comforts in your life this morning! I asked God to direct me this new year in my writing, I have always asked him to direct me and to date he has never let me down, but I want to do something more to touch those who are in need of friendship and love! 

When I pray I always ask God to bless you with peace in your heart, calm in your mind, and comfort in your body....these three things are pretty much self explanatory, but I wanted to dig a little deeper this morning as to the definition of "peace in your heart" 

Peace is defined as freedom from disturbance; quiet and tranquility. I think many of us have very few moments of "peace"

Peace is different to all of us, for me it is when I sit to write my blog, I ask God to help to keep me from distraction, my dogs and my cat always seem to know when I am writing, they lay and sleep and my feet, my little apartment is quiet except for my fingers plunking on the keyboard of this computer and my mind is fresh and clear having just asked God to make it that way! Peace for me is when my husband gets home from work, as there are no more worries about him being out on the roadways. Peace is knowing that my daughter and her sweet little family are okay each morning and that they have such love and joy in their lives. Peace is reading stories of goodness, of seeing answered prayers and of knowing that God is with each of us every step that we take. Peace is knowing that when I pray there is someone who loves me more than I love myself, someone who is standing at the ready to answer my prayers.  Peace is when I get in bed at night and say my prayers, and then when Wayde reaches over and pulls me in close to him and holds me as we sleep. No matter what your "peace" is I pray that this day you have it in your life. I pray that you are filled with God's love and that you are smiling thinking about the things that bring "peace" to your heart!

The "Prayer of St. Francis"

The English version of the prayer reads as follows:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.