Peace

Peace… when most people think about the word peace, some picture of an impossible world where everything is absolutely perfect comes into view.

World peace, political peace, and even peace within ourselves may be impossible, but God’s word promises us that God’s peace is possible in our lives. Philippians 4:6-7 promises us that if we present our requests to God that His peace will guard our hearts and our minds. This passage does not mean that by praying God will make everything in life perfect, but it is a promise that He will protect and sustain us. Before Thursday, I don’t think I ever really understood what it meant to have the peace of God flood through my life. On Thursday, Michael and I went to a routine doctor’s appointment for our baby and within two hours we were sitting in labor and delivery getting ready to have a baby. Over the past nine months I had envisioned that moment many times and it was never in the way I found myself sitting waiting for our tiny little blessing. The day progressed and labor did not. After a full day of stress, the doctor came in and said that they were worried about how the baby was tolerating labor and they were going to review the charts to see how he had been doing all day. About ten minutes later she came back in and explained that they wanted to do a c-section. It was at that moment that I understood what the passage in Philippians really means. As the doctor explained the procedures for the c-section, I watched as my husband, mom, and mother in-law got nervous. I was waiting for those same nerves to hit me and they never did. I was so completely overwhelmed by how calm and okay I was with the doctor’s recommendation for immediate major surgery to bring my son into the world. There is nothing that could explain the feelings I had at that moment except for that peace of God that Philippians describes. Over the next hour I did not experience the birth of my first child like I thought I would, but it was the most wonderful experience God could have ever given me. Peace is not perfection, but it is being able to rest in the arms of God and know that everything is going to be okay. Today my husband and I can hold our child (our gift from God) and claim Jeremiah 29:11 over our lives. God has a plan for us and we can trust in Him and His peace to make that plan fit into His perfect story.

Sarah

Teen Leader