I have thought a lot about what I wanted this year's word to be. Last year it really worked out well to have a word I thought about all year. So, here we go.
This year I will strive to remember and live my life by this word:
Peace. What do I mean by peace? Not world peace- although I think we'd all like that. I have no control over the world as a whole or even my city, my neighborhood, my friends or family. But I can control myself. I want to choose and strive to have Peace within myself.
Peace in those moments when life gets crazy and I want to shout or stomp my foot like a kid.
"When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others." (not sure the origin)
Peace. Peace with myself, my limitations, my faults. As I look at myself and wish I could miraculously lose the weight I gained while pregnant to be at peace with myself that I will work on it and it will come off in a normal way even if it takes longer than I want. Peace to be okay with that and to still be able to have confidence in myself. Peace in those moments when my house isn't perfect and I'm tripping over shoes and toys. Peace in those moments when I feel like a bad wife and mother because dinner isn't on the table, I haven't finished a project, or our children are throwing tantrums.
"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal."
-Martin Luther King Jr.
Peace. Peace in my home. Doug's parents told us that our home had a good spirit in it... that they felt that as they came in and while they were here. That it felt Peaceful. I want my home to feel that way every day.
I have felt since the day we brought Maddy home that she was sent to us to bring us peace. I truly believe that is part of her mission here. Many of you know that we weren't really looking to have another child yet and I kept feeling like we were supposed to but I refused to listen. Then we finally listened and got our little girl that has brought us so much happiness and peace.
"Peace is the deliberate adjustment of my life to the will of God."
(not sure the origin)
Peace. A peaceful and content feeling with where we are in life... that although we want desperately to return to our family that while we are here it will be home. To feel peace in our decisions and life choices.
"Peace is not something you wish for, it's something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away."
-Robert Fulghum
"Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances."
-Mahatma Gandhi
I wish to live a peaceful life, to be calm and patient, to be happy and content, to strive to bring peace and happiness and love to those around me as well as the knowledge of peace that our
Savior brings to us. A seminary teacher that meant a lot to me in high school (Brother MacDonald) wrote in my yearbook that if there was a mission in life for me it was to let others know that God loves them. I haven't felt like I lived up to that belief he had in me. I want to do that this year.
"If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another."
-Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama
