Peace be with you!

My family had the craziest month of March. The hubs had an insane school schedule attending every Monday and Tuesday evening, after working all day. Two weekends out of the month he'd take Friday off work to attend school for eight hours on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. He always had assignments that needed to be completed when he arrived at class on Friday, assignments due on Saturday and Sunday, followed by a final project due one week after the weekend class in addition to his regular studies for his Monday and Tuesday classes. All five kids danced in their polish dance recital on April 4th which was a three hour program. The kids had dance for four hours on Thursday and Friday evening to prepare. I had the bright idea of being costume mom this year which I truly enjoyed but it was a lot more time consuming that I thought it would have been. Tyler and Karli performed in five dances which means five different costumes for each of them, Faith in six, and the twins in four each. In addition to ensuring the costumes pieces for all my own children were perfect, I was busy sewing and hemming for lots of other families as well. Truth be told, I let the crazy schedule take over and haven't spent much time reading the word. I swear, my soul was so dry, my bones ached!

So, I set aside some time for me this morning, for the Lord actually. I watched Joyce Meyer whose message was about our path to living in peace. The first thing she said was "Are you confident? Do you like yourself?" I am and I do. But, had you asked me yesterday, my answer may have been different.

You see, if your mind and heart are not filled with the spirit of God and His word, it will be filled with something else. What's circling in your thoughts today? What lies are you listening to? Are you consumed about how you'll pay your bills, if you'll keep your job, how you rate and compare to wonder woman who lives next door, or how your tomatoes rate compared to hers? One of my all time favorite scriptures! Philippians 4:6-7 Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

I've made mistakes and there are times when I face them daily and ponder on them. I think about my failures. I found the more time I spent away from the word the more preoccupied my thoughts became with my mistakes. I was feeling like a lousy person and a lousy mom and a lousy wife because I have failed them in some ways. But, today! Today I can say that I am confident and I do like who I am. I'm aware of those mistakes and I'm not proud of them, but I refuse to let myself be held in the bondage of shame and guilt.

We need to get in agreement with what the Lord says and thinks about us and quit agreeing with the devil! We are the righteous of God on Christ and he loves us! 2 Corinthians 5:21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. Not because of anything I did or you did, not because we have earned it or that it's even possible to be earned, but because of what Jesus did.

So how do we get that peace? To start, we need to quit spending our time trying to control our circumstances and learn to control ourselves! Then, we chase peace, it doesn't just fall upon us, we have to seek it out and determine to put it on! John 14:27 "I am leaving you with a gift - peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be troubled or afraid.

We become patient when we learn to exercise patience, we grow wisdom when we learn to exercise wisdom, we gain peace when we learn to exercise peace. When we determine to not throw a fit over every little thing, to not get upset, to not disagree all the time with every decision another person makes or does that we don't agree with. But when we decide it's time that we cannot control what other do, what others think, we can't control the milk that has already spilled and command it back into the cup. When we decide to choose peace, to not act outwardly, breathe deeply and say I'm trusting Jesus. Easier said than done, I know. I'm like the queen of let's get upset about everything and control and change our circumstances but I'm committed to this journey to peace for me and for my family.