“Hey, Mom,
did you know that we are in another war?”
That’s what my eleven year old Stephanie asked me a little over a week
ago and it has been sitting in my mind rolling over and over.
“Yes,
sweetie, we probably always will be.”
How nice was that for a mom to say to a child. I could have left it at that, but I tried to
make it okay.
“You are
safe and sound here, in our house, in our little town. The scriptures say that it will always be
that way until Jesus comes back. This
just means we are getting closer to earth becoming better.”
There has
always been war, from the very beginning of man, even in the Garden of Eden,
even with Adam and Eve’s children. Heck,
it got so bad that Heavenly Father had to wipe the slate clean and start over
with the flood, so what is so different about now?
I remember
the first Gulf War and thinking how horrible it was that in my lifetime, people
that I actually knew, young men that I had grown up with, would go off to
war. So surprising and shocking as was
so many other wars like, the World Wars and Korean War and Vietnam etc. The difference for our younger children is
that most likely they will never know the world with the breaks of peace
inbetween. It possibly cannot be with
Satan working overtime.
So how do
you make your children feel safe, how do I make myself feel safe? After all I have a married boy in the
military that could be called up and shipped off any moment. I haven’t completely figured that one out
yet, but when it comes to mind all I feel is peace and I know it will be okay.
Timothy 3
1 This know
also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men
shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
St. Matthew 24
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
The scriptures have warned
and we have watched but no other time in the world has it felt so close. But the scriptures have also praised and sent
good tidings of good, published peace and said that God reigneth. That is how I can have peace. When at times that my mind sprints violently
and my heart beats uncontrollably the Holy Ghost whispers peace so softly and
sweetly that it drowns out all the jumbled noise streaming in of fear and doubt
from the world.
Will my little girl ever
know the life that seemed so much simpler from my days of youth, probably not,
but does she need to live life afraid?
Absolutely not, and that is the great thing about her, she doesn’t. She walks on, her very quiet, very tender
little self, the one who sits back and sweetly watches it all, innocent and
young but so wise and she radiates peace.
Maybe that is why the spirit can speak such peace to my soul, because my
very gentle little girl publishes it from the mountains in every quiet act of gentleness
she bestows every day.
Will the world one day
come to an end? Absolutely. Do I look with longing for that day? Every moment of every day. But does that mean that there isn’t peace and
joy for now, for today, and even for tomorrow.
Heaven’s no. There is peace in
everything even amongst the wars and rumors of wars and the beginning of
sorrows. I read it in the scriptures, I
feel it as I look at my food storage, I hear it in the kind words that my
friends and family and even strangers send my way, and most definitely I see it
in the quiet peace that shines from my Little Stephanie in her tender silent faith.
