The Key

As many of you know, Jeff and I recently went on a cruise with my family.  When I think back on the cruise, my mind is filled with many good memories of spending time with our family and relaxing, but I am also filled with memories of some very important lessons that God taught me while I was on the cruise.  This is a perfect example of how God can use everyday experiences to teach us lessons that will remain with us for the rest of our days.  It is in these common, everyday experiences that we can draw strength and learn the lessons that God wants us to learn.  I have already written about some of the lessons that God taught me while I was on the cruise, and today’s writing is yet another lesson that God brought to my mind while floating in the middle of the ocean.  

As some of you may know, I am an avid runner.  I enjoy it, it helps me stay in shape, and it gives my mind a chance to rejuvenate and focus more.  There was an exercise room on the ship that I would go to almost every day.  I would run on a treadmill and then come back to our room.  Many days, I went to the exercise room by myself, and on one such day I was walking back to our room. As I entered the hall that our room was in, I was suddenly struck by how the hall looked.  It was one of the longest and straightest halls that I think I had ever seen.  I could literally see from one end to the other without having to strain my eyes.  There were hundreds of doors on either side of the hall.  All the doors looked the same.  For as far as I could see, all I saw were doors.  

As I was walking down the hall, I was reminded of how this hall was a lot like our lives.  We are all walking down a path in our lives. There are times that we can look far into the distance and see how our lives may unfold, but our lives are just like the hall on that cruise ship. There are many doors and opportunities on either side.  Often when we think about all the doors and opportunities that we encounter in this life, we can become overwhelmed and stressed.  It is difficult for us to know which door to enter, and we are often scared to open a door when we are no sure of what lies behind it.  As I was walking down the hall of that cruise ship, I began to get a little overwhelmed and nervous for a moment.  I started asking myself questions like, “What if I cannot find my room?” “Am I even on the right deck?”  “What if I get lost and no one is able to find me?”  I then remembered that in my pocket was the key to our room.  I knew that I could indeed find our room and that when I slipped the key in the door, it would open and I would enter the correct cabin.  

I then realized that we have all been given a key to unlock the correct doors that we encounter in our lives.  We do not keep this key in our pocket, but we keep it in our hearts.  This key was placed in our hearts before we were even born, and we have carried it with us for years before we ever had to use it.  Sometimes in life we do encounter the wrong door and sometimes we do open it, but we know in our hearts that it is the wrong door and the wrong direction to take.  Sometimes it takes us a long time to realize that it was the wrong door, but when we look back on our lives, we realize that we knew in our hearts all along that it was the wrong door.  We just did not listen to that quiet still voice that is within all of us.  

God knows that we will encounter many doors and opportunities in this life.  He places some of the doors in our path, and some of the doors He does not. We have to be able to discern which doors are meant for us.  This can be a very scary and overwhelming process if we are not listening to God and letting Him lead us.  However, if we listen to God, get His advice on every door we encounter, and use the key that He has placed in all of our hearts, we will open the correct doors which will lead us to many blessings and happiness like we have never known before.  

This is why it is so important for all of us to have a personal relationship with God.  This is why it is so important for all of us to listen to His voice as we travel through our lives.  We can spend many years banging on the wrong doors only realizing after we enter that it was the wrong door to take.  Entering the wrong door will cause us to lose hope, it will cause our faith to waiver, and it will cause us to become disillusioned with life.  

The good news is that God can rescue us when we enter the wrong door.  He can pull us out of the room, calm our fears, and set us back on the right path when we make the wrong choice.  When we do choose the wrong door and God does rescue us, we learn valuable lessons that will help us when we encounter doors in the future.  When we do encounter more doors, we will be more careful and we will seek out God’s wisdom and make sure that it is the right door for us before we enter it.  

So, if you are standing at a door in your life right now and are unsure if you should walk through it, talk to God.  Let Him guide your thoughts and illuminate your path.  Use the key that He has placed in your heart.  If this is the right door for you, God will tell you to open it and if it isn’t, God will help you to keep it closed.  If you have opened the wrong door and you are scared and hopeless, cry out to God.  He is right there with you.  He will take your hand and lead you back to the right path and set you on a course of peace.  Making the right choices in life can be very difficult.  Knowing which door to take can be overwhelming, but you have it within yourself to choose the correct door if you just allow God to lead the way.  

If you are knocking on a door right now that will not open, turn and walk away.  That is not the door for you.  God wants all of us to live the best lives that we can live.  He wants all of us to feel the peace and hope that only He can offer, and He can do this by helping us choose the right doors to enter and by helping us choose which doors to walk past.  Listen to God everyday.  He is the positive voice that you hear.  His voice is the one that brings you peace.  God will always lead us in the right direction if we just listen.  Following God will bring us peace and as we all know, PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~

Blessings in Disguise

Sometimes even when we are walking along the path that God has planned for our lives, bad things happen. Sometimes what we perceive to be horrible events occur, and we do not understand why they are happening. Some of these events are so difficult to understand that we feel like we must have gotten off of the path at some point and we are being punished or we have taken a wrong turn. We struggle with answers and often we begin to get angry with God and even lose faith that we were ever hearing from Him in the first place. It is sometimes only after time has gone by, in some cases years, that we realize that this event that brought us so much pain was actually part of God’s plan for our lives and it has put us in the position to do what He has always intended for us to do with our lives. Many times what appear to be derailments in our lives’ plans are actually God taking us in a new, better direction. Many times something that we perceive to be the worst thing that could possibly happen to us turns out to be what we really needed all along. 

Many of us have lost a job, which has led us to a better opportunity, or we have gone through a terrible breakup only to meet the person that God has always intended for us to be with all along. Losing the previous relationship has put us in the position to meet the person that will help us complete the things that God has called us to do. Many times these seemingly horrific experiences will become some of our biggest blessings in life. It may seem impossible, especially while we are going through the difficult time, but there very well may come a time when we will actually be thankful for the terrible event that led us to our newfound discovery. 

It is very difficult to believe that these painful events can be part of God’s plan, but that is because we cannot see what the outcome will be. God knows how everything is going to work out in the end, and He knows what we need in our lives better than we do. Sometimes He has to lead us through a difficult time to get us in the position to achieve what He has always had planned for our lives. Having peace over these painful events and keeping our faith during the struggles requires us to have constant communication with God. When we are talking to God and being obedient to His voice, we will not question when the difficult things happen as much as we would if we were not communicating with God and listening to His voice. It is very important for our faith in God to be strong, but it is especially important to have faith when we are going through a difficult time. We have to trust that He has everything under control and that He truly has a plan. We have to have faith that God has a plan for our lives and that His plan is perfect, even when we do not understand the direction that He is taking us. 

God has the uncanny ability to turn something bad into something wonderful. We have all said that from time to time in our lives, but we often forget it when we are going through a painful time. It is easy to forget that, because all we can see is how bad the situation is. If we could see things through God’s eyes, we would never worry about anything because we would understand that everything is working toward our good. 

However, we do not have God’s eyes, so we have to trust Him and surrender everything to Him. That is very difficult to do, but if we can do that we will have peace over every single situation that we experience, no matter how difficult. Even saying that seems impossible, but we need to remember that all things are possible through God. He is continually working in our lives even when we do not know it, and He is working everything out for us. What He has planned for our lives is far better than anything we could ever imagine so we have to trust Him and understand that His plan is perfect. 

So, if you are going through a painful, life changing, situation right now, do not lose your faith. Continue to cling to God and let Him continue to guide your path. It is very possible that He is taking you through this difficult time only to lead you to the best part of your life. It is very possible that you have to go through this painful situation to be able to recognize a great work that God has planned for you. Every situation that we go through, the good and the bad, will help us to grow. It will help us to become the people we need to become to do the work that God has planned for us. I know it is easy to see that and to understand that when we are not going through the valley, but it is far more important to remember that when we are in the valley. We just have to believe that God has everything under control and that He has a plan. There may be times when it feels like He does not have a plan, but trust me, He does. 

So, hold on to your faith, keep talking to God, keep listening to His voice, and keep being obedient. Everything will work out and everything will get better. Brighter, happier days are on the horizon. All you have to do is take God’s hand and let Him lead you to them. Never ever forget that God is in control and that He has a wonderful life mapped out for you. All you have to do is have faith and follow Him. He will lead you to the mountaintop, and when you get there you will be that much more thankful for all the valleys that you had to walk through. The valleys are what make us the people we are, and they cause us to be strong, have faith, and cling to God, and they often will be what we need to restore our peace, and as we all know, PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~ 

The Sea of Hopelessness

Jeff and I recently returned from a vacation with my family.  We went on a cruise with our family, and when you are on a cruise ship, you find that you have more time to think and observe your surroundings than you normally do in your everyday life.  One day, I was sitting on the balcony looking out at the water.  For as far as I could see, I was surrounded by water.  It was all I could see on either side of the ship, all I could see in front of the ship, and all I could see behind the ship.  Looking at the water and not being able to see land was a beautiful sight, but then I started really thinking about only being able to see water, and I started feeling isolated and alone.  I imagined what it must feel like to be floating in the middle of the ocean and not being able to see land anywhere.  Suddenly, I realized that that is what hopelessness feels like.   

When we feel hopeless, we feel as if we are floating in the middle of the ocean and we cannot see land anywhere in sight.  Hopelessness is one of those emotions that we all feel at one time or another in our lives.  There is not a human on this earth who has not felt hopeless.  The cause of our hopelessness is different for each of us, but the emotion is the same.  As I sat there and thought more, I realized that I was okay, because I was basically in the middle of a large city in the middle of the ocean.  Everything I needed was there, I was safe, and I knew that I was heading toward land.  I maybe could not see the land, but I had faith that I would eventually see it rising over the horizon.   

Then I thought about feeling hopeless again and realized that God is a lot like the cruise ship that I was riding on.  He can provide everything we need even when we feel hopeless.  He can keep us safe, and He can lead us to dry land if we only allow Him to take the lead.  All we really have to do is have faith and trust that He is leading us in the right direction.  Even in the middle of the ocean with water as far as my eye could see, God was sitting on that balcony with me that day.  This reminded me of my own struggle with hopelessness, and I realized that God had been with me even in my darkest hour.  I thought I was completely and utterly lost, but God was right there.  He was leading me to dry land and a new sense of security and happiness and I did not even know it.  

God never leaves us even in our most difficult struggles.  He is always there whispering words of comfort in our ears and leading us to where we need to be.  Even when we feel lost, He always finds us, and He always knows which direction to go.  None of us is truly lost if we seek out God.  None of us is completely finished or washed upped as long as God is with us, and the good news is that God is always with us.  He is sitting next to me while I write this, and He is sitting next to you as you read this.  God has the awesome ability to be everywhere at the same time.  There is no end to God’s massiveness and to God’s love for us.   

We may think that we have made it to where God no longer loves us or cares about us, but that is a lie that Satan wants us to believe.  God will never give up on us.  God will never leave us or forsake us.  He is always in control, and He will always lead us to where we need to be.  The beautiful thing is that He really doesn’t expect that much in return.  All He wants us to do is have faith in Him and trust that He has everything under control.  He wants us to be obedient to Him and to try our best to do well for our fellow man and ourselves.   

If you never hear anything else I ever say, hear this.  God loves you, and He will never give up on you.  Others may have given up on you and you may have given up on yourself, but God is still there for you.  None of us can ever do so badly that God is not there for us.  God wants the best for all of us and all we have to do is follow Him.  It is that simple, yet it is that hard.  God wants us to spend time communicating with Him, and He wants us to listen to what He has to say.  He wants us to have a positive attitude, and He wants us to love our fellow man.  When we can do that, our lives will begin to move in a different direction and all the bad will begin to fade away.  We will still encounter bad things even when we are following Him, but He will ease the stress and the pain of the bad and we will feel peace even in the midst of the storm.  God’s gift to man is peace and as we all know, PEACE MATTERS.   

~Dan~

The Cylinder

Imagine your life as a cylinder, a perfectly round deep tube with a shiny metal floor and walls.  You are stuck at the bottom and all you want to do is climb to the top.  You try to claw your way to the top, but the walls are too slick to grab onto.  You try to climb to the top, but it seems impossible.  To make matters worse, all sorts of problems and obstacles begin to be thrown at you.  It seems like a rain shower of problems.  The problems and trials take on the image of sharp metal objects.  You are afraid to touch them because you believe they will harm you.  So, you do the safe thing.  You stay at the bottom of that cylinder and let the problems and trials of life rain down on you.  

Pretty soon, the problems and trials are stacked to the top of that cylinder.  Then a thought comes to you and you realize that the walls of that cylinder are not smooth anymore.  There are plenty of things to grab onto now and you begin to climb using the problems and trials as your footing.  Sure your hands get cut and you are injured while grabbing onto those problems and trials, but pretty soon you realize that you are getting closer and closer to the top.  You continue to use the problems and trials to climb to the top and before you are know it, you are out of the cylinder, free at last from the captivity.  

In a lot of ways, life is like that cylinder.  We all want to climb to the top, but it seems impossible, especially while there are problems being thrown down on us.  It is human nature to want to avoid being hurt, so we do nothing.  We sit there and blame God for our problems.  We say things like, “How could you do this to me? I thought you were supposed to be a loving God.” or “Have you totally forsaken me?”  It is easy to think that when things are bad in our lives.  We do often think that God has forgotten us, but if we would only realize that we can use the problems being put in our path to climb our way out.  I am not saying that God purposely throws problems our way, but He has given us the ability to use those problems to climb out.  We just have to face them and accept that we may be hurt along the way, but each time we are hurt we become a little stronger and can endure the pain a little more.   

We have to learn to use our problems to become stronger and to climb our way out.  We do this by truly learning to lean on God and relying on his guidance. Every problem or trial placed in our way can strengthen us, build our faith, bring us closer to the people we love, and draw closer to God.  When we do finally climb to the top, we are filled with such peace and are better people for having gone through those experiences.  

So the next time you feel like problems and trials are being thrown at you and trust me, it will happen from time to time, use those problems and trials to build your strength and begin to climb out.  The worst thing any of us can do is take up residence at the bottom of that cylinder and become bitter and dissatisfied with life.  Peace and happiness is ours for the taking.  All we have to do is grab on and climb up to it, and God will be there to give us the strength and courage to do just that, and He will restore peace back into our lives, and as we all know, PEACE MATTERS! 

~Dan~

Second Chances

Who of us at one time or another has not wished for a second chance?  We have all made mistakes, and we have all wished that we could go back and change them.  The past is in the past and while it can, if we allow it to, affect our present and our future, there is no way to go back and change it.  It has been said that each January 1st is a new chance to start over.  We have conditioned ourselves to believe that this is the only time of the year that we can change.  We make resolutions to change.  We try to improve our lives.  We sometimes succeed in these changes, but we often fail.  I believe that it is a common human emotion to want to “wipe the slate clean” and begin anew.  

However, if you think about it, change can occur at any time.  It is just up to us to decide when that change will occur.  Our lives have so many ways to mark the passing of time.  We have a new year, a new month, a new week, and a new day.  We are in many ways obsessed with marking the passing of time.  Each of these time markers is a chance to start over.  When you stop and think about it, every new day is a chance to “wipe the slate clean” and begin again.  Actually, every hour, minute, or even second that goes by is a chance to start again.  There are 86,400 seconds in one day.  That is 86,400 chances to begin again and live the life that you are meant to live.  I don’t know about you, but that kind of makes me feel a little freer.  We don’t have to wait for a new day, or week, or month, or year to start again.  We can just decide, “Hey, the time has come for me to change” and we can do it.  

I do not believe that it is any coincidence that there is so much emphasis placed on time.  I think God wants us to realize that we have numerous chances in this life to start again.  We just have to decide when.  Believe me, I know how difficult changing something can be, but it is like my dad always says, “It’s all in the want to.”  We have to want to change.  We have been given 86,400 chances in just one day to make the change, so we just have to decide when to do it.  God can help us with the change.  He really does want us to live the best life that we can live.  He wants us to be at peace and to have hope.  He wants to help us begin again.  We just have to trust him.  We just have to be determined to start over and to leave the past with its regret and mistakes behind us.  Plus, look at it this way, if you mess up, you can fix it in the next second that comes.   

So, let’s try to live each day and use each second, minute, and hour that goes by to its fullest and be committed to the change.  It will make all of our lives better and bring us all more peace, and PEACE MATTERS.    

~Dan~

Acceptance

Acceptance is a very important factor in living the life that we are meant to live.  There are two types of acceptance.  Both types are very important if we wish to live our lives in a forward motion.  Not having acceptance can keep us from moving forward and ultimately keeps us from living the life that we are meant to live.  

The first type of acceptance is the easier of the two.  We have to learn to accept everyone in our lives.  Even if they believe differently or live a different life than us, we have to accept them.  We cannot truly love someone and value him or her as being part of our lives if we do not accept him or her.  Now, I am not saying that we have to agree with them all the time or even condone their behavior, but we have to accept them for who they are.  We have to be there for them and support them in anyway that we can, even if it makes us a little uncomfortable.  We should also be able to expect the same thing from them.  This is very important if the person is a part of our family, but it also important in our circle of friends.  Jesus accepted all types of people, and our goal should be to be more Christ-like, so we should try hard to accept people despite our differences.  

The second type of acceptance is a little harder to achieve.  We have to accept the things that happen to us in our lives, both the good and the bad.  The good is a no brainer.  It is easy to accept the good things that come our way, but we also have to accept the bad things too.  There are so many terrible things that happen to people in this life.  We have to deal with death, the breakup of a marriage, or the loss of a home or a job.  All of these events are terrible and can be life altering.  We struggle to understand why they happen.  We cannot believe that God would allow them to happen to us.  We question Him and want answers.  We pray about them and expect results, and when we do not get the results that we want, we think that God is not listening and we begin to lose our faith in Him.  We want to control every aspect of our lives and when we cannot do that we become frustrated and disillusioned.  

Most of us have been told all of our lives that God has a plan for us and He knows best.  That is easy to accept when things are going smoothly, but when things get rough and events happen that cause us to lose someone or something that we love, we cannot see God’s hand in it.  Sometimes, God’s hand is not in it, but He can bring us through it and use it to make us better people.  I believe that God would never lead us through something if He knew that we would not make it to the other side.  While we are struggling, He is always with us.  We may not feel Him, but He is there.  We have to get to the point that we accept the situation for what it is.  We have to accept that we cannot change it and decide to live through it.  

You may be thinking, “How can I do that?”  To tell you the truth, I am asking myself the very same question right now as I write this.  I guess it comes down to a very simple yet often difficult concept—trust.  We have to trust God.  We have to believe that He can lead us through the struggle.  We have to realize that we cannot change it on our own.  We have to pray that God will give us the strength to endure the pain that we are in, and that He will either change the situation or that He will give us the strength to accept the it.  

You see, we cannot have peace and hope if we do not have trust.  Accepting the bad in our lives is a step to having that peace and hope.  I am not saying that we should stop trying to make the situation different or that we should stop praying for a better outcome, but it cannot consume us.  We have to trust that God is in control.  He is whether we believe that or not, so I believe we would be better off if we would just believe it.  Instead of praying that the situation would change, maybe we should be praying that God grant us peace and the ability to accept the things that we do not understand.  It is a lot like the serenity prayer.  It may be just a prayer that we have heard all of our lives, but the words are very powerful.  Once we accept things for how they are, I truly believe that the peace and hope we have been promised will come to us and our lives can once again move forward with peace in our hearts, and PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~

The Lord Giveth and The Lord Taketh Away

I have been thinking a lot about loss lately.  I am not really sure why, but it has been on my mind.  We all have and will experience loss in our lives.  That is just the way life on this earth is.  Nothing can last forever while we live here.  We all experience loss, and we all deal with it differently.  Some of us get sad, while others get mad.  Many of us blame ourselves, and some of us blame others.  We even blame God for the loss in our lives.  We question Him and wonder why He would take away something that we love so much.  We question His wisdom and wonder what we have done to deserve or experience such a loss in our lives.  The thing that all of us need to remember is that loss is part of life.

Some of the losses we experience will be small, and some of them will be large.  Some of them will change our lives forever and some of them will only slightly alter our lives.  The common feeling that all of us have when we experience loss is hopelessness.  We feel out of control.  We feel like life will never be the same and that we will never be able to smile again or see the good in life anymore.  This is what I believe about loss.  God never allows us to lose something that He does not give us something in return.  I have two perfect examples of this theory.  

The first one involves my grandma.  You all know how much I love my grandma, and you all know how special she is to me.  She has experienced profound loss in her life, but I think the hardest loss she endured was losing her only son.  Before my aunt and mom were born, my grandma had a little boy named Paul Jerry.  When Paul Jerry was almost two years old, he died unexpectedly.  My grandma was very young when this happened, and I can only image the grief that she felt when she lost her little baby.  She never had a little boy to raise, and she always wished that she had been given the chance to raise a son.  It has been over seventy years since my grandma lost Paul Jerry, and I am not completely sure that she knows why she had to lose him, but my grandma did get something in return for her loss.  I remember the day that all the dots connected and she realized what God had done for her.  It was an early Christmas morning and my grandma was praying and thinking about Paul Jerry.  This would have been close to fifty years after he had died.  She was questioning God and asking Him why she had to give Paul Jerry up, and God reminded her of what He had given her.  You see my aunt and mom had had five children between them, all of them boys.  My grandma said that she felt that God spoke to her that morning and said, “I may have taken your son from you, but look at what I gave you in return.  I gave you five grandsons.”  From that moment on, my grandma seemed to make peace with the loss of her son.  Not that she did not miss him and wish things had been different, but she realized that God did give her something back, and He gave it back to her in a greater number than she had had before.  

Another example of God giving back to us is my own mother.  My mom had three sons, my older brother, Robert, me, and my younger brother, Andrew.  Almost fifteen years ago, my mother lost my older brother.  She did not lose her son to death, like my grandma did, but he is no longer in our lives.  It is a decision that he has made for his own reasons, but it has broken my mom’s heart.  Until recently, I have had trouble understanding why my mom held on to the loss like she has.  As you all know, Jeff and I had three Miniature Schnauzers, and we recently lost our little girl Parker.  Having the other two has been a real blessing to us, but we still feel as if our little family is not complete without Parker.  I finally realized that this is how my mom feels.  Now I am not trying to compare a child not being in a mother’s life to a pet passing away, but I think God has used the loss of Parker to help me understand how my mother feels.  She feels that her family is not complete without Rob.  We all hope and pray that he returns one day, and I know that my mom prays daily for his return, but she does have three sons in her life.  God gave her Jeff.  I don’t think my mom could love Jeff anymore if he were her own son, and I know that Jeff loves my mom like she were his own mother.  He told me recently, “You know, I could not love your mom anymore than if she were my own mother.”  It isn’t that Jeff has replaced Rob. No one could take Rob’s place in my mom’s heart, but God has given her a third son that can be part of her life right now.  

Loss is a terrible thing, and it is difficult to deal with.  I know that many of you are dealing with or have dealt with loss in your life.  I am sure you question why the loss had to occur, and I am sure that you question God and may even blame yourself.  It is time for all of us to stop questioning God and stop blaming ourselves for the loss in our lives.  Loss is part of life.  That is just the way it is.  We will lose and we will gain in this life.  

So, if you are struggling with a loss right now, take a moment and examine your life.  Think about what it is you lost and start looking for what you have gained in your life since the loss occurred.  I am confident that you will be able to see that God has indeed given you something in return for the loss that you have endured.  He may have given you something in return in far greater numbers than you lost, like He did for my grandma or He may have replaced your loss with one thing like He did for my mom.  God knows what we need.  He never leaves us or forsakes us, and He never removes something from our lives that He does not give us something in return.  God’s generosity and goodness will fill all of our lives if we just allow it to.  We may have to look for it sometimes, but I promise you it is there.  Enduring a loss can take away our peace, but God will fill the loss in our lives and the peace will return and PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~

Sailing the Open Seas: A Weaver Family Vacation

Jeff and I just returned from a cruise with my family.  We travelled with my parents, my brother and sister-in-law, Andrew and Amy, and their three kids, Katie, Jake, and Tessa.  We had a very nice time and it was so nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and spend some quality time with our family relaxing.  As nice of a time as we had, it was sure nice to get home and see Peyton and Paycee.  They were very excited to see us and, we were just as excited to see them.  

Our trip started out by visiting New Orleans which is where our ship took off from.  From New Orleans, we sailed down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.  We sailed for three days and arrived at our first destination which was Honduras.  We had a beach day at Mahogany Beach.  It was nice to get to enjoy the blue water and the kids enjoyed swimming and playing in the sand.  The next day we sailed to Belize.  Jeff and I decided to stay on the ship this day, and it was nice to have some time to relax and enjoy the empty spaces that are often full of people when the ship is at sea.  Our final stop was Cozumel, Mexico.  We did a little shopping in Mexico.  It was very hot that day, so we decided to head back to the ship early.  From Mexico, we sailed back to New Orleans.  

There were many beautiful sights to see and many inspirational sights that have inspired me to write on a few topics that I will be sharing with all of you at a later time.  One thing that Jeff and I were reminded of during our trip is that God is always with us.  We may travel thousands of miles from home and be in the middle of the ocean, but God is right there with us.  This is a perfect example of how God can meet us wherever we are in life.  We often think that we have to be in a certain building on a certain day of the week to feel God’s presence, but we all need to remember that He is always with us and He is always waiting to talk to us and help us see the beauty that surrounds us.  He also reminded Jeff and me how important it is to spend time with our families.  Sometimes it is difficult to make the time to see our families, but we should all make the effort to do it as often as we can.  After all, in life it is our relationships with others that can give us the most peace and Peace Matters.  

~Dan~

Our ship, The Carnival Dream, docked in Mexico.

Our niece, Tessa, enjoying the beach in Honduras.

Our nephew, Jake, in Honduras.  

Our niece, Katie, on the beach in Honduras.  

Jeff and I under the clamshell, in Honduras.  

Katie, Jake, and Tessa arriving in Mexico.

Katie in Mexico.

My parents, George and Darlene, at dinner on the ship.

My brother, Andrew, and Katie at dinner on the ship.

My sister-in-law, Amy, and Jake at dinner on the ship.

Jeff and Tessa at dinner on the ship.

Jeff and I ready for dinner.  

Katie, Jake, and Tessa.  This is a picture of a picture so the quality is a little off.  

The whole family.  Front row left to right:  Katie, my mom, Darlene, Tessa, my dad, George, and Jake.  Back row left to right:  My brother, Andrew, my sister-in-law, Amy, Jeff, and me.  This may be the only picture you see of me without a hat, so enjoy it...LOL! 

The Dining Room

Jeff and I are in New Orleans, Louisiana with my family getting ready to leave for a cruise, but I thought I would do one more blog post before we left.  Today, I am sharing pictures of our dining room.  This room was previously the room we called the sunroom.  It is a room off of the kitchen that has the stairs that lead to the basement in it.  The entire time we have lived here, I have struggled with knowing what to do with this room.  Turning it into the dining room was a thought that we had had off and on, but we never did it.  I wish I had done it sooner, because I really like it, and it gives this room more of a purpose that it has never had before.  

When I think about the dining room and how it came to be placed in the room that it is now in, I think of how it sometimes takes years for many of us to find our purpose in life.  We often spend years trying to discover what our purpose is.  We sometimes try different things only to feel like we are no closer to finding the purpose that God has for our lives than we were when we began searching.  The thing about a purpose is that we all have one.  We have all been placed on this earth for a very special purpose.  There is nothing random about life.  We all encounter situations and people throughout our lives.  Some of these situations and people will be good for us and some of them will not be good for us, but we all learn very valuable lessons from all the experiences and people that we encounter in our lives—the good and the bad.  Life is about becoming better people.  Life is about learning the lessons that God wants to teach us, and as we grow and learn the things that God wants us to learn, we get closer to discovering our real purpose in life.  

Once we discover our purpose, it will be a lot like our new dining room; it will all make sense.  It will feel like things should have always been this way, and we will wonder why we didn’t discover our purpose sooner.  One thing we all need to remember as we are trying to discover our purpose in life is that it will come to us in God’s perfect timing.  Some of us will discover it early in our lives.  Some of us will discover it somewhere in the middle of our lives, and some of us may discover it later in our lives.  It really doesn’t matter when we discover our purpose. The important thing is discovering it and using it to make the world a better place.  We all can do that, you know.  We can all be a light in this dark world, and we can all bring happiness to others.  All we have to do is use the gifts that God has given us, and He has given all of us gifts and talents that can make the world a better place and that can show people how important God is to us and how He can change the lives of everyone on this planet.  Finding our purpose in life will help us be satisfied and fulfilled.  It will bring others peace, and it will bring us peace and PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~ 

Bitterness

One of the many things that I struggle with in this life is bitterness.  I am not proud to admit that, but it is true.  I am sure if you are like me, and I have a sneaky suspicion that you are, you struggle with bitterness too.  What we are bitter about really doesn’t matter much; it is the cause of the bitterness that matters.  Not having a forgiving spirit and wanting to be in control of everything causes bitterness. 

Imagine if you had never eaten a lemon before, just looking at the lemon and knowing that it is a fruit; you think it will be sweet.  Even when you smell it, you are not completely aware of its bitterness.  You cut the lemon and take a huge bite.  When you do, your face contorts to a very unpleasant likeness of your former self and you spit it out.  Your taste buds cannot stand the bitterness, and you have to reject it.  If we begin to have a steady diet of lemons, we become accustom to the bitterness.  Our face may contort upon the first bite, but our taste buds begin to get used to the taste and we no longer want to spit the lemon out.  Our taste buds are becoming hardened to the taste of the lemon and are beginning to believe that it is an acceptable taste.  

Bitterness in our lives is very much like eating a lemon.  The bitterness in our lives can contort our faces and make us have a terrible frown. In the beginning of bitterness we may want to reject our feelings, but after a while we become used to the bitterness, and we think that it is completely acceptable to feel the way we do.  We often get to the point where we like the bitterness.  Over time, though, the acid and hate in the bitterness begins to affect every part of our lives.  We walk around with a terrible attitude and the acid from the bitterness we are feeling changes everything.  We no longer see the beauty in the world, and we have no peace in our lives.  It affects our relationships with the people we love, and it causes us to turn inward.

You may be thinking, “How do I get rid of the bitterness in my life?”  The only way to really get rid of bitterness is to forgive.  We all have had things happen to us that are unfair, and we have all been hurt very deeply by someone, but we have to forgive the wrong, even if we are not able to tell the person that we forgive them personally. Many times that is impossible or it would place us in a situation that is not safe.  We can forgive someone even without speaking to him or her.  

Another way to eliminate bitterness is to realize that we cannot control other people.  I believe that if everyone would accept this simple fact and live it, the world would be a much better place.  I cannot make you do something, and you cannot make me do something.  If we try, we will more than likely fail, which may lead to bitterness.  The only thing we can really control in this life is ourselves, and I don’t know about you, but that is a full time job for me.  If we are controlling ourselves and living the best life we can live, we will not have time or the desire to try to control someone else.  

The old saying, “Live and let live” really does apply.  We have to just accept the fact that things are going to happen in life that we do not like or agree with.  Bad things are going to happen to us and to the people we love.  We have to let go of the need to control things and forgive the wrongs that are done to us.  Unchecked bitterness will make us hard, and while we think that in order to survive this world we have to be hard, that is not what God wants for our lives.  A hard heart cannot do any good for anyone.  We should have a soft heart that is ready to forgive and move on.  Now, I am not saying that we are supposed to be wimps. What I am saying is that we have to forgive and love to move on.  We have mistakenly thought that hardness means we are strong.  Really, when you think about it, having the ability to love and forgive is far stronger, and it has the power to change the world.  Plus, I don’t know about you, but at my age the last thing I need to do is walk around with a contorted face. = ) Letting go of bitterness will bring us peace, and PEACE MATTERS.

~Dan~

The Living Room

As you know this blog is dedicated to finding peace in our lives.  Peace can be found in a variety of ways.  The most direct route to peace is through God, but He has given all of us interests and talents that will bring peace to our lives.  One interest that brings peace to my life is decorating.  I have always loved decorating.  Even when I was very young, I found myself wanting to decorate and make my space pleasing to the eye.  My mom used to call me her little interior decorator.  I would move things around when I was little and try to make them look better.  I spent a lot of time with my mom decorating, and I have always said that everything I know about decorating, I learned from my mom.  Looking back on it now, I realize that those times I spent with my mom decorating were some of the best times of my childhood.  I learned a lot, and I was able to spend quality time with my mom learning the “tricks of the trade.”  My mom taught me that our houses should be a place of refuge from the outside world.  She taught me that a home should reflect the people who live there and should be a peaceful environment filled with the things that have special meaning and bring us comfort.  I have always tried to do that everywhere I have lived, and it is a passion that I will have for the rest of my life.  

With all of that being said, I have decided to start sharing pictures of our house on my blog.  As you may know, our house is currently for sale and when it sales, we will be building a saltbox.  If I said I was not anxious for the house to sell, I would be lying.  I am ready for it to sell, but I want it to sell in God’s timing.  He wants us in this house right now, and we plan on being here until He tells us differently.  One thing I have always known and am now learning to accept is that God’s timing is perfect.  We may not understand it all the time, but He has a plan for all of our lives, and when He is ready for the next stage of the plan to begin, He will reveal that to us.  

For most of the time we have lived here, we used the living room as a dining room.  Over the years, we have talked about making it a living room, but we never did.  Honestly, I love it as a living room.  It just seems right.  It is now one of my favorite rooms of the house.  I continually ask myself, why we did not do it sooner, but we didn’t.  I guess that is another lesson that God wants us to learn.  It doesn’t matter how long it takes us to get there. It is the getting there that matters the most.  I hope you will enjoy looking at the pictures of our living room and that you will get a sense of the peace that this room brings me.  Our homes can bring us peace if we allow them to and not become too overwhelmed with the process of making them look a certain way.  It is a balancing act that God is still trying to teach me and one that I have faith that I will eventually achieve.  Our homes can being us peace and as we all know, PEACE MATTERS.

~Dan~

Count Your Blessings

Count your blessings! How many times in our lives have we heard that?  It sounds easy doesn’t it?  Try counting your blessings when you cannot think of one solitary blessing.  We have all been there. You know in your heart that you have blessings to count, but the circumstances of your life prevent you from recognizing them.  I was thinking of this this morning and realized it is a lot like teaching a child to count.  Teaching first grade special education, I encounter a lot of kids who cannot count.  So, what do I do? I have them practice. I have them start small and work their way up.  Maybe they can only count to ten, or five, or even one.  Well, that’s a start.  Once they can count to one, two will soon follow.  Before long, they are counting to five, then ten, then 20, then 40 and so on.  I think when it comes to counting our blessings during the hard times, we should start counting as if we are a first grader just learning how to count.

Surely everyone can come up with one blessing to count.  If you can’t, I’ll help you.  You can be thankful for the breath in your body.  One of the first blessings that God gave us on this earth was that of breath in our bodies.  From the second that our faces felt the warmth and light of this world, we took a breath.  We didn’t even have to think about it.  It just happened naturally.  It is one of those God-given things that just happens, and we take it for granted.  So count that as your number one blessing.  As long as we have breath in us we can continue to fight.  We can continue to try harder to be a better person.  We can continue to try not to let the negativity of this world get us down.  

So you see, breath really is a blessing.  Do me a favor; hold your breath right now.  Just humor me. Hold your breath as long as you can.  As you hold your breath imagine not ever being able to breathe again.  You become panicked.  Your chest feels heavy and you get lightheaded.  Now keep holding it. Hold it still a little longer.   Now, let it out.  Wow, that feels good doesn’t it?  That relief you feel is the feeling that God wants us to have all the time, that feeling of relief that we can finally breathe again.  We really can have that feeling most of the time if we just take a few minutes everyday and count our blessings.  It takes five seconds.  

Start at one blessing and then just work your way up from there.  Before you know it, you will be counting five blessings, then ten blessings, and so on.  And what a difference that will make in your daily life.  Feeling gratitude and thankfulness is the perfect way to help us experience peace in our lives.  In a lot of ways, not counting your blessings and being thankful for all that we have is like holding our breath.  It causes anxiety, makes your chest heavy, and makes you feel lightheaded.  But once you let it out and start counting, you will feel such a release and relief that you will never want to go through life again without counting your blessings. Counting our blessings will lead to peace, and PEACE MATTERS.    

~Dan~

There is great power in writing things down, so here is a list of my blessings.  I would love for you to list some of your blessings in the comment section of this post, but if you feel like you do not have time, at least make a list in your head.  There is always, always, always something to be thankful for.

My Blessings (in no particular order):

1. Jeff
2. Peyton & Paycee
3. My family (Grandma, Mom, Dad, Andrew, Amy, Katie, Jake, Tessa, Bob, Donna, and Aunt Pauletta just to name a few)
4. My friends (Jerrah, Diane, and Toni)
5. My home
6. My job
7. My health
8. God
9. My safety
10. My online friends who send me messages and inspire me through words of wisdom and pictures.  (Too numerous to mention each one)

Detours

Detours, we all face them.  Sometimes they are real, and sometimes they are in our minds.  Whatever form they take, we can deal with them in the same way.  Who of us has not been driving somewhere and been late and run into an annoying detour.  Our first reaction is to get mad and ask, “Why me?”  We focus on the fact that we do not have time to deal with this kind of setback.  Detours can happen in life too.  We feel like we are on the right path, and everything is going smoothly.  We have our days fine-tuned, and everything runs on schedule to the minute.  Then out of nowhere, we hit a bump in the road and everything changes.  Maybe it’s a sick child or spouse.  Or perhaps one of our parents becomes ill or we suffer an injury.  Whatever the roadblock is, the feeling for all of us is the same.  We experience anger and frustration and ask, “Why me?”  

Roadblocks and detours are sometimes placed in our path to help us see the beauty in life or to take us on a learning journey that will strengthen our faith and our walk with God.  Think about it, you are driving down the road and you hit a detour.  You have to get off the main road and try to find your destination in a new way.  What do most of us do?  Quite often we end up following the car in front of us, all the while hoping that these newly appointed Magellans know where they are going.  It sort of becomes a procession of sorts.  “If the car in front of me turns, so will I.” While following the car in front of us often gets us to the desired location, we may miss something along the way.  If we spend all of our time focusing on what’s in front of us and not on what is around us, we may miss the beauty.  

If you are like me, you live in an area of the country where there are a lot of beautiful sights to see.  Maybe it’s an old barn or farmhouse or perhaps a beautifully misshaped tree, or a baby lamb.  Whatever the beauty is, it is our job to find it.  When we do, it changes our attitude and effects our day in a positive way, and we would have never seen it had it not been for the detour.  I believe that sometimes God does put detours in our path.  He can use these detours to show us the beauty in life.  

So, the next time you experience a detour in your life, let God lead you.  Follow Him like you would the car in front of you.  If He makes a turn, make it with Him.  Trust God’s quiet, small voice.  I guess in a lot of ways, God is like a little Heavenly GPS.  One has been installed in each of us; we just have to figure out how to turn it on.  Once we do, we will seldom get off the path, but if we do, we may hear God’s quiet voice saying, “Recalculating.”  And even if God leads you through a detour, don’t forget to see the beauty that is around you.  There will be some, I promise.  You just have to have eyes that are willing to see it.  You have to fight against getting so frustrated and angry that you close your eyes and refuse to see the beauty in the problem.  Plus, think of how wonderful it feels when you are in a detour and you arrive back on the main road.  You breathe a sigh of relief, check your clock, and realize that it didn’t set you back as much as you thought, and when you get home or to work, you can bet you are going to tell someone about the beauty you saw along the way.  

That is another important part of detours, sharing what you have learned with others.  Maybe it is your job to warn them to avoid that area and to stay clear, or maybe it is your job to tell them to take the detour so they can enjoy the beauty you saw along the way. Always try to be thankful for the little bumps in the road.  They make us stronger people, restore our faith, and force us to look to God. And when we look to God, we will find peace, and PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~

This is one of my favorite handmade samplers.  This one was made by Bridgett Swindle.  

My Lifeboat: The Final Chapter

If you have been reading my previous posts, you will know about the events that led to Jeff and me renting an apartment in late July of 2014.  You will also know that we intended to keep the apartment to live in it while we were building our saltbox, but God had other plans for us, so we have been moving everything out of the apartment and setting it back up in our current home.  I am happy to report that I am completely moved out of the apartment and that it is back in the hands of the landlords who so graciously rented it to us last year.  

I cannot tell you how happy I am to be completely moved out of the apartment, not because it was a bad place to live.  It was actually quite the contrary.  It was a wonderful place to live, and I rented from a very nice couple who even allowed me to change the lights to my primitive lighting so that I would feel more comfortable.  It is a happy time because I am closing the chapter on that part of my life.  It was a chapter of my life that I never expected to open, but looking back on it now, I see that it was a chapter that I had to open to get to the road that God had planned for my life.  It was a chapter filled with many dark days, but it was through those dark days that God led me to the peace that is now making my days so much brighter.  

I was talking to my grandma this past weekend, and she was sharing with me some of the struggles that she endured during her life and she said, “You know, as difficult as the valleys of life are, they are the times when we grow the most.”  She relayed a story to me about a time that she and my grandpa drove to Colorado.  She said that they were traveling through the mountains and she felt that God told her to look to the top of the mountain.  When she did, all she saw was snow and rocks.  Then she looked down into the valley below the mountain and she said that it was one of the most beautiful sights that she had ever seen.  It was full of lush green trees and plants and a flowing river.  She then said to me that she felt that God reminded her of how important valleys in life are because that is when we grow with God and within ourselves.  She said that she never looked at a difficult time in her life the same way after that.  

After I got off the phone with my grandma, I started thinking about what she had said and realized how true her statement was.  I have seen the growth that the valley caused in my life, and I have seen how it made me a better person and how it caused me to draw closer to God and the people who are important to me.  I think about the Dan that moved into that apartment last year, and thankfully I do not resemble that person anymore.  I felt that God told me that He would make me into a new creature while I was occupying the apartment, and I am thankful to say that He kept His promise.  So, now I can say without any reservation that I am so thankful for the valley that I went through.  I never thought I would reach that point, but here it is almost one year later and I am actually thankful for the terrible trials and difficulties that I had to face last year.  

It is like my grandma said when I was talking to her: “I am so thankful for every single part of my journey—the good and the bad.”  Those are powerful words and words that I hope to repeat often during my lifetime.  If I am ever in the position to write the story of my life, the chapter on my time in this apartment will be a very important chapter and will serve as a catalyst to everything I ever achieve or do in the years ahead.  

Actually, a thought just occurred to me. The name of the town that the apartment was in is Energy.  I never realized the significance of that until this very second.  I received a lot of strength and energy while residing in that apartment, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that God led Jeff to that particular apartment.  God knew what I needed, and He supplied the need.  

So, today I am sharing the remaining pictures that I have of the apartment.  These pictures are of the master bedroom and a few miscellaneous pictures.  I hope that you enjoy the pictures, and I hope that you have seen how God’s powerful hand has moved in my life and how He can make a way where there seems to be no way. He can bring all of us peace, even when we feel there is no peace to be had.  I feel I should close with one of the very first quotes that God gave to Jeff and me. It is one of my favorites.  “Where there is peace, there is God and where there is God, there is peace.” I finally realize after all this time just how much PEACE MATTERS.   

~Dan~

Evidence of Peace

I think by now I have made the point that we are all searching for peace.  The lack of peace in our lives can cause us to feel out of control, and we can find ourselves searching for peace even when we do not realize that is what we are searching for.  When we do not have peace in our lives, every problem we encounter seems so much bigger than it really is.  When a sense of peace has eluded us, we struggle to make decisions, we become irritated with people, and we generally feel pretty miserable.  When we have peace in our lives the way that God wants us to experience peace, we will not be unreasonably troubled or irritated by the minor frustrations that are part of all of our lives.  

We all know that life is not perfect and that we all will encounter struggles and difficult times.  Some of those struggles are small and some are big; however, if we have the peace in our lives that God can provide, we will face the struggle no matter the size in a new way with the knowledge that God has everything under control and that He can work out every problem we encounter.  

When we have God’s peace in our lives, we will not only realize that life is not perfect, but we will realize that the people in our lives or the people we encounter are not perfect either.  Many of us not only expect perfection from ourselves, but we expect it from the people we love and even the people we pass on the street.  When we do not have peace in our lives, this expectation of perfection is intensified, and we find ourselves becoming irritated and even angry with the people that we encounter.

We should all work harder at considering the intentions behind other people’s behaviors.  When we have the peace that God intends for us to have, we will realize that most people we encounter mean us no harm nor do they mean to irritate us.  We should all learn to be more patient with people and not jump to conclusions and automatically think that they are out to get us or that they are trying to do us harm.  

We should especially be patient with those in our daily lives.  These people tend to be the ones we lose our patience with the most. Ironically, these are the people that we depend on the most to make our lives meaningful.  I guess the old saying that we hurt the ones we love the most is true.  We lash out at the people in our lives, especially the ones closest to us, because we think they can take it.  We feel free to get angry with them and become irritated by the little things they do, because we feel confident that they will continue to love us no matter how we behave.  We actually should be more patient with these people because of their love for us.  We should try our best not to become irritated and angry with these people as often as we do, and we should realize that our irritation has more to do with our feelings of lack of peace than it does with what they are doing to cause us to be irritated.  

When we are living our lives following God and letting Him lead us, we should aspire to find peace in our daily lives as we realize that He is always beside us.  If we really think about it that way and know that God is always with us, it will cause us to check ourselves more when we act or react to a situation, a problem, or another person. When we stop and realize that God is truly right beside us during every single part of our lives, it should cause us to be more careful when we are interacting with the people in our lives.  God truly is a witness to our every interaction that we have. 

If you are struggling with finding peace, and you see that it is causing you to become unreasonably irritated with the people in your life or the people you encounter, it is time to check yourself and realize that it is your lack of peace that is causing you to lash out.  The solution is to have more peace in your life. To do this, ask God to renew the peace in your life.  When you do, the little things in life will not unreasonably trouble you.  You are not alone in this struggle.  We all struggle with this issue from time to time.  

The thing we all need to remember is that God wants us to have peace.  He wants us to get along with others, and He wants us to remember that we are not perfect and neither are the people we love or the people we come into contact with.  God wants us all to be slow to anger and quick to forgive.  God wants us to consider the other person’s feelings and to work hard at realizing that most of the people in our lives are not trying to harm us or to irritate us.  God can help all of us in this area, and He can do it by providing us with the peace and the understanding that He has everything under control and that He will work all of our problems out for us.  

So, let’s all work harder at realizing that the people in our lives are not perfect.  Let’s be more patient with them and realize that they do not mean to irritate us.  Let’s realize that it is our lack of peace that is causing most of us to become unreasonably upset, and let’s try to show everyone the patience that God shows to us.  Patience leads to peace and PEACE MATTERS.

~Dan~

What Really Matters

Life can be very overwhelming.  It seems that our lives get busier and busier with each passing day.  We all have a multitude of things that we feel we have to accomplish each day.  We have a tendency to get bogged down with the details of life.  We all seem to have an endless list of things that we need to do, and it seems as if that list continues to grow faster than we can check things off of it.  Many times we try to simplify our lives, and sometimes we are successful, but then things start mounting up, and we once again find ourselves overwhelmed and stressed.  The thing that we need to stop and consider is how many of these things are really important.  

Often we think that that they are each very important.  God wants us to find a way to have peace when will feel overwhelmed and stressed by the things we have to do in life.  What matters to God should be what matters to us.  We all need to prioritize the things in our lives and see which things we can eliminate or do without.  When we are attempting to do this, we must allow God to help us.  We need to communicate with Him every single day and let Him guide us in what we need to accomplish on that day.  

One of the most important things we need to do is nourish our relationship with God.  We do this through daily communication and prayer.  We need to make Him our number one priority and make sure that we always set time aside to talk to Him and let Him guide our paths.  We should also spend time nourishing our relationships with others instead of being burdened by the details of life.  We should cherish the times we get to spend with the people in our lives and enjoy their company and try to let everything else go during those times.  

We also need to stop being so concerned about perfection.  Many of us have a constant desire to make everything perfect. This is one of my personal struggles.  When we do take the time to get together with the people we love, we drive ourselves crazy trying to make everything perfect.  There is nothing wrong with wanting things to be nice, but we have to stop making that our main focus.  If we let go of our need for perfection, we will be able to enjoy the time we spend with people a lot more.  It is the little details of life that can get us down, cause us to become overwhelmed, and eventually cause us to lose our peace.  

God can help us get our lives under control.  All we have to do is seek Him out and allow Him to help us.  Really, when you think about it, we all only have to take it one day at a time.  I know that is a phrase that is used very often for a variety of situations, but it really is true.  If we can make it through each day without becoming too overwhelmed or stressed, we have accomplished a great feat.  We need to stop spending so much time thinking about tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year.  God wants us to spend more time focusing on the day we are in.  He will help us figure out the details for the future, and we will tackle those when they come.  If we spend too much time focusing on what will happen next in our lives, we cannot completely enjoy the day that God has given us.  

The future is not certain for any of us.  None of us knows what lies ahead and when we try to figure that out, that is when we become overwhelmed and stressed.  If we can look at our lives as little chunks and accomplish what we need to do for that day and let everything else go, we would all be better off.  Finding peace for our lives should be accomplished in the same way.  We should work on having peace one day at a time.  With God’s help that is all we really need to do.  

So, let’s all stop living in the future.  Let’s focus more on the day ahead, stop trying to make everything perfect, and stop focusing on the little details of life.  Let’s allow God to guide us through our day and let Him help us decide what is important and what is not as important.  Let’s allow Him to show us what really matters and let’s allow Him to bring peace to our lives.  God will deliver us and give us peace.  I know how difficult it can be not to get overwhelmed in life, but we all have to strive a little harder to let God be in control of everything.  If we can truly surrender to Him, it will reduce our stress, keep us from becoming overwhelmed, and we will all find peace and PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~

Here are a few images that bring me peace when I look at them.  I hope they do the same for you.

My Lifeboat: Part 3

I have been sharing pictures of the apartment that Jeff and I rented for me almost a year ago.  We had intended to keep the apartment and live in it when our house sold and we were building our saltbox, but God had a different plan for us.  I am not sure where we will go when our house sells, but if I have learned anything over the last year, I have learned that God has a plan and that He will reveal that plan to us when the time is right.  So, right now, we are setting our house back up and getting the apartment ready to turn over to someone else.  As I have said before, the apartment was a very special place, and it gave me the security and the isolation that I needed to gain some much needed perspective on my life and the direction that my life needed to take.  I am hopeful that the apartment will continue to serve as a place of peace and security for its future occupants, and I pray that I never forget the significance that the apartment played in my journey back to peace.

Today, I am sharing pictures of the dining room and kitchen.  This was a rather small space, but I was able to use most of my favorite kitchen items.  There were times that it was a little crowded, but I spent many hours in the kitchen writing the posts for this blog.  I would sit at the dining room table and pour my heart and soul into the writings that God was inspiring me to write.  I have always loved the dining room table, but now it has even more meaning to me.  I cannot image that I will ever part with it.  I am using it as a desk in the office now, and I hope to continue to use it in that fashion for a very long time.  All of the items in this space bring me peace and make me feel happy.  In some of the pictures, you will notice that I have some photos on the refrigerator.  These are some of my favorite photos of my grandma.  If you knew me prior to this blog, you will know that my grandma is very special to me.  She is one of my most favorite people on this earth.  Having her photos on the refrigerator gave me peace and helped me remember the strength that God gave her to endure the many trials that she faced in her life.  She will be 90 years old in October, and she still has an unyielding faith in God and one of the best sense of humors of anyone I know.  There will be several posts in the future relaying stories of my grandma that I believe you will want to read.  

Jeff and I have been working for the last two weeks dismantling the apartment, and as we get closer to being completely moved out, I see this move as a very important symbol and sign that my life is once again on the right path.  Getting back to the path was a difficult process, and it was a journey that I could not have made without God and the love and support of many people.  It has often been said that we cannot go home again, but I very respectfully disagree.  I am proof that we can go home again.  We can accomplish this seemingly impossible feat through the help and guidance of God.  I am so thankful that He allowed me to go home again, and I am so thankful that God has brought me this far.  I have faith that He will continue to guide my steps.  He does this for me every single day, and He can do it for you too.  Our homes should be a place of joy, and they should reflect the people who live there.  Our homes should be a refuge from the outside world, and they should bring us peace, because as you all know PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~

Independence

There is no better day than the 4th of July to celebrate our independence.  When we think about independence, we think about different things. We think about all of the things we are free to do.  We are blessed to live in a country where we do have the freedom to worship in the way we choose, say what we want to say, and love whom we want to love.  Our freedom and independence has been fought for for centuries, and many brave men and women have made the ultimate sacrifice to insure that we have the freedom to live the life that we choose to live.  

Many of us have grown up in a world where our freedom has always existed, so we do not understand what it feels like not to be free.  However, if we would all stop and think about it for a minute, we would realize that there have been times in our lives when we have not been free to live our lives the way we choose.  We have all lost our independence at one time or another.  We have fought to regain our independence and sometimes we have won and sometimes we have lost.  

We can all have the kind of freedom and independence that will never fade away.  True independence and freedom comes from surrendering to God and letting Him lead the way.  We are all traveling down the path of life, and we all fight to stay on the path.  The path is bumpy and often takes drastic and dangerous turns.  We encounter obstacles along the way and often do not know which way to go.  God wants to lead us down the path.  He wants to be our guide, and He wants to lead us to the things that we are meant to find in this life.  When we spend our lives fighting against God’s will and His perfect timing, we will never feel free.  We will always be fighting a losing battle and we will not have peace in our lives.  

We all need to work harder to submit to God’s will and allow Him to lead our steps and illuminate our path.  He can and will do that for all of us.  All we have to do is surrender to Him and simply follow Him.  It sounds easy, doesn’t it?  However, it is one of the hardest things that any of us will do.  We often say that God is in control and that we want His will for our lives, but we spend much of our energy trying to figure out God’s plan for our lives, and we spend a lot of time trying to make things work out the way we think they should work out.  If we all could just give in and let God do the navigating, we would not have to worry about anything.  

God will never leave us or forsake us, and He will never lead us in the wrong direction.  Surrendering to God means that we have faith that He will lead us to the things that we need in His perfect timing.  He will not get us there too early, and He will not get us there too late.  He will get us there at the perfect time when we need it the most.  

Surrendering to God takes practice.  We are all so accustomed to making our own way and to always being in control of what we do that it is hard for us to surrender to God.  It is something that we will have to strive to do everyday.  It will come when we communicate with God and do our best to discern His will for our lives.  It will come when we are obedient to God, even when we do not understand why He is having us do a certain thing or leading us in a certain direction.  When we truly surrender to God, we will have peace like we have never had before, and our lives will seem so much easier.  I am not saying that our lives will be perfect, but much of the stress and worry that we carry around with us will be lessened when we truly surrender to Him.  

So, let’s all work at surrendering to God and letting Him be in control.  Let’s all communicate with God everyday and allow Him to reveal His plans for our lives in His timing.  Let’s all enjoy the independence and freedom that we will feel by allowing God to take the reins, and let’s continue to follow Him where He leads.  It will be difficult to submit to God’s will in everything in our lives, but once we do it, we will have more peace and PEACE MATTERS.  

~Dan~

We hope all of you have a peaceful 4th of July filled with fun, family, and good memories!

Dan, Jeff, Peyton, & Paycee

Miracles

It is sad to say, but there are many people living on this earth today who do not believe in miracles.  There are even people who believe in God and go to church every Sunday who have given up believing in miracles.  It is as if people think that the God who performed miracles in the Bible has changed or has stopped doing the miraculous things that have been written about.  The thing is, God has not changed.  He has always been the same and will continue to be the same for all eternity.  It is true that we do not hear about people being raised from the dead or water being turned into wine, but God is still performing miracles every single day.  

He is performing them in all of our lives.  Sometimes we may not see them as miracles and maybe we do not even know that they are occurring.  Everyday that we arrive safely home at night, it is a miracle.  Every time we feel better after being sick, it is a miracle.  Every time someone gets a life changing surgery it is a miracle.  Miracles are around all of us all the time; we just have to have the eyes to see them.  

Not believing in miracles is one of the saddest ways that we can live our lives.  Miracles are a sign to all of us that God is truly with us and that He has everything under control.  If we would all just stop for a minute and reflect on our lives, I am sure that we could think of several miracles that God has performed in our lives.  I come from a long line of people who believe in miracles and who have seen miracles performed in their lives, and I am very thankful for that.  

Believing in miracles and seeing miracles happen in our lives will build our faith in ways that we could never imagine.  Miracles are meant to be shared with others.  In doing so, we not only build our own faith, but we build the faith of the people we come into contact with.  

I have a miracle that I would like to share with all of you.  As you may know from reading my blog, Jeff and I recently lost one of our Miniature Schnauzer, Parker.  It was a very difficult thing to go through, and it really upset us.  God gave us the strength to go through this life changing ordeal, but to be honest, I still grapple with the question why.  I have trouble understanding why we had to lose Parker at such a young age.  I may never know the answer to that question, but I do know that God has a plan and that He has everything under control.  

Thankfully, we still have two other Miniature Schnauzers, Peyton, and Paycee.  They have been such a comfort to us since we lost Parker.  It is impossible to be sad for too long when they are around.  Peyton, our little boy, had started to develop a fatty tumor several years ago.  It is something that we have checked every year, and the doctor tells us there is nothing to worry about.  However, once we lost Parker, we did what everybody tends to do, and we started worrying about losing Peyton.  We knew that we were not supposed to worry about him, but we still did.  

One day, Jeff was petting Peyton and touching his fatty tumor, which had gotten quite large and God said, “Pray for Peyton’s tumor and watch it shrink.”  Jeff did as he was told, and he began praying for Peyton’s “bump” everyday.  Jeff did not share this with me, and one day I was playing with Peyton and I felt his tumor and noticed that it was smaller.  I mentioned it to Jeff, and he told me what he had been doing.  I cannot tell you what seeing Peyton’s tumor shrink has done for us.  First of all, it is a miracle. It has also given us hope that Peyton still has many more years to be with us.  God knew that we needed to see a miracle after we lost Parker, and He gave that to us.  We still pray for Peyton’s “bump” everyday and it continues to shrink.  It is still there, but it is probably half the size that it was.  So you see, miracles happen every day.  

Sadly, we try to explain miracles away with scientific explanations.  We say things like, “That happened because of such and such” or “I am sure things like that just happen.”  I think it is time that we stop trying to explain miracles away and just start believing that they happen.  They happen because God is powerful.  They happen because God wants us to see what He can do in our lives, and they happen so that we can have faith that God can do anything.  

God still performs miracles.  He performs them in all of our lives.  He wants us to believe in miracles.  He wants us to have faith that He can do anything and that all we have to do is ask Him.  Nothing is too big or too small for God to give His attention to.  He wants to take care of all of us, and He wants us to believe that all things are possible through Him.  You know, they really are.  God is still performing miracles everyday.  He is performing them in your life, and He is performing them in mine.  

So, let’s all start believing in miracles more.  Let’s have faith that God can perform a great work in all of our lives and that He can answer all of our prayers.  Let’s never stop believing that God is a miraculous God, and let’s never stop sharing our experiences with each other.  It will make a difference in all of our lives, and it may be exactly what someone else needs to hear.  God does perform miracles.  I know this because I am a miracle and so are you.  Seeing the miracles God does in our lives brings us peace, and PEACE MATTERS!     

~Dan~

My Lifeboat: Part 2

If you have read my post entitled My Lifeboat, you know the events that led to my renting an apartment in August of 2014.  If you have not read the post, you can scroll down to read it.  The apartment was a very special place.  There were times when I really did feel like we had made a mistake by renting the apartment.  In some ways, I felt like I was running away from my problems, but each time I would have these thoughts, God would remind me that it was not a mistake.  How could it have been a mistake when God had led me directly to it.  The apartment was there waiting for me and it was meant for me to occupy.  It was as if the apartment was my cocoon.  It kept me safe and hidden away.  It protected me from many things including myself.  I am so thankful for that apartment, and I will never forget its significance in my spiritual healing and growth.  

There was one room in the apartment that was extra special to me.  I called it the sitting room.  The apartment had two bedrooms.  The extra bedroom was small, and I really didn’t need a second bedroom, so I decided to make it a sitting room with a couch, chair, and television.  I do not watch much television, maybe an hour a day, but everyone felt it was important for me to have one.  I spent a lot of time in this room stitching and watching movies that made me feel good.  I watched a lot of Christmas movies and many Doris Day movies.  I love Doris Day!  She just makes me happy and watching her movies and listening to her music while I stitched helped me feel better and secure.  The same is true for Christmas movies and music.  It didn’t matter what time of year it was. Watching Christmas movies and listening to Christmas music, made me feel better.  I even got addicted to the Hallmark movie channel when they were showing Christmas movies 24 hours a day! 

If I was not stitching, I would lie on the couch and watch the movies that made me feel happy and I did a lot of thinking in this room.  Jeff and I talked and prayed a lot in this room.  Many decisions were made in this room and many past events were discussed.  We talked to God in this room and asked Him to reveal His plans for our lives and tried our best to be obedient to the things He was asking us to do.  A sampler hung in this room that said, “Peace be unto thee”.  When I hung the sampler, I hung it for no reason, but as the weeks and months went by, the sampler became a powerful message that Jeff and I both needed to hear.  We both spent time just looking at the words of that sampler and processing its message.  I know now that God led me to hang the sampler in that room.  It could be seen no matter where I sat and peace really did fill that room.  

The road to peace can be very bumpy and scary and doubt and fear can fill our hearts and minds if we allow it to.  However, if we cling to God and let Him lead the way, we really have nothing to fear.  I am so thankful for that little room and I am so thankful for the lessons that God taught me within that space.  He taught me that the only way to true happiness and peace was through HIm.  He taught me to seek out HIs advice, and He taught me to have faith in Him.  The great thing about God is that He can do that for all of us no matter what situation we are in.  God wants everyone to have peace and to live the life that they have always been meant to live.  God will do that for all of us if we just follow Him and always do our best to be obedient to Him.  I still have work to do in my life, we all do, but I feel as if I have the tools now to improve my life even more and I am so thankful to have been given that gift.  When we follow God and listen to His voice we have no other choice than to have peace in our lives, and PEACE MATTERS.

~Dan~