Today we are recording our podcast/journal from our studio at Home 2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is starting to feel like summer in the south, but so far it has not been too humid. (See About Wisdom-Trek.)
We are continuing to consider what tools or equipment that we need in order to ensure success and enjoy our Wisdom-Trek. Yesterday, on Day 3, we looked at the tool of joy, which is one of the 8 tools that is encased within our backpack of love. On day 2, I challenged you to visualize your life as a wheel or bicycle tire, with love being the hub of that wheel and the remaining tools or attributes making up the spokes stemming from a perfectly round hub.
The remaining spokes in our wheel (tools in our backpack) are peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These attributes are referred to in the Bible as the “Fruit of the Spirit” and should be manifested in our lives in the same manner that an apple tree produce apples.
Growing up on an apple orchard, I have first-hand experience on just how much work is involved in cultivating, pruning, fertilizing, and spraying in order to have any hope of producing a decent crop. Even after doing all we could physically, we realized that God would ultimately have to provide the increase. We had many good crops, but also, many that were not. In the same way, in order to allow these 8 attributes to flourish we must cultivate them within our lives, and make sure they are rooted in the rich soil of love.
Today we will look at the tool/spoke of peace. If you have not taken the time to review the previous episodes, I would encourage you to do so. During the first two or three weeks, the nuggets of wisdom that we digest will build on each other as we lay the foundation of living an abundant life while creating a living legacy.
As we consider peace today, it is very important that we grasp the concept that true peace is not the absence of strife or turmoil in our lives, but the ability to deal or cope with these situations with a minimal amount of stress and anxiety.
Along our trek of life we realize that we will run into obstacles and difficulties. That is the stuff of what life is made of. These difficulties may be caused by our own unwise choices, or they are beyond our control. We experience situations like a broken or troubled relationship we can’t mend or a tragedy we can’t reverse. We experience problems at home, at school, and at work.
We all desire to live peaceful lives, both individually and as nations, but few seem to obtain it. Wars rage on within
