Return to PEACE

I had an experience last week that destroyed my peace for a short time. (might be better to say short-circuited my peace, for it was not a permanent situation thanks for the God of PEACE who loves me so much and brought me back into His PEACE.)

My hubby and I were changing a 'horse manger' position. In the process it came to the point where it seemed to me as though everything I said (or did for that matter) was 'wrong'. In the midst of that experience I lost my peace. And since I no longer had peace I couldn’t share it with others. I knew something had gone wrong but instead of ‘retracing my steps' to regain what I HAD LOST, I instead shared my experience of peacelessness with all around me.

One thing from this peaceless experience (we finally came to a resolution) was I took a deeper look at how I responded.

Previous to the above situation happening in the afternoon, I had been up til about 3:30 a.m. helping a friend so I was much more tired than usual. Even though that may have been a causative factor, similar situations have occured which have ended in the same peaceless results. Therefore I asked God to show me what was root to my ‘wrong’ responses.

Several ‘items’ have surfaced but one has to do with attitude, or what some also call ‘atmosphere’.

I have on my wall behind my computer the following quote.

"Often it is our own attitude, the atmosphere that surrounds ourselves, which determines what will be revealed to us in another."

As I looked back over my recent ‘peacelessness’, I saw my loss of peace had much to do with my own attitude. I can’t control those around me, and I don’t want to. But on the other hand I do have certain 'tools' which can greatly affect those around me.

I had recently set a goal of restoring beauty to our farm by May 15 (That was one reason we were working on the ‘horse manger’, which was quite unsightly). Perhaps the push may have added to my stress level but there were also other contributing factors.

Everyone has ‘baggage’ (emotional hang-ups, grievances or misconceptions, etc.) they carry with them. Sadly, I am not yet exempt.

In the ‘horse manger’ incident it was me that got frustrated and left PEACE. (Yes, I asked for forgiveness and received it, but I don’t want to go through a ‘repeat performance’ either.)
After things had calmed down I was again reminded that in order to experience either JOY or PEACE two minds must synchronize (harmonize). I was not harmonizing with anyone for a little while which of course meant loss of ‘peace’.

I was also reminded that when I offer to ‘synchronize’ with another mind they can respond in one of three ways. They can:
‘accept’, my offer, suggestion, etc.,
‘reject’ what I offered or
‘counter’ my offer with another offer of their choosing.
(And 'counter offers' continue until one of the involved parties either rejects or accepts.)

In the above case, I believe my husband gave me a ‘counter offer’ to something I had offered (in the beginning his counter offer was based on a personal ‘fear’). Rather than 'counter offering ' back to him I accepted his ‘fear based’ counter offer’ instead of ‘affirming’ him as a person and then offering something not based on fear. But because of my acceptance of ‘fear’ the situation quickly degenerated toward fear based ‘chaos’.

Can ‘fear’ and ‘love’ co-exist? “There is no fear in love; What casts out tormenting ‘fear’ ? but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” How do we ‘get’ that kind of love? We love him, because He first loved us. 1 John 4:18

What wonderful love of God! And from my recent experience, accepting God’s offer of love to me enabled me to receive forgiveness and return to God’s kind of PEACE in my own heart.