This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Afternoon Session of the April 2013 Conference.
This conference had two beautiful talks about peace. Elder Quentin L. Cook takes pains to point out that "universal peace" or world peace is not the same as the personal peace we have access to at all times through being righteous. "This [personal] peace," he says, "is a promised gift of the Savior's mission and atoning sacrifice" and it is "not just a temporary tranquility. It is an abiding deep happiness and spiritual contentment."
Elder Cook talks about how even with the "peace taken from the earth" (a prophesied condition of the last days which prophets have said is already upon us) and the world in commotion, we can still feel the Savior's peace. When he gave this talk in 2013, he referenced the September 11th attacks of 2001. When the attacks happened, I do remember feeling, probably for the first time in my life, fear and uncertainty from an outside event. Sam and I were newly married, soon to be parents, and I was realizing for the first time that "the world" could actually reach into my home, my family, and hurt us! But by 2013 those feelings had mostly faded as I was immersed in motherhood and homeschool and our soon-to-be six children (I was expecting Marigold at the time of this conference). So I may not have really needed this talk when Elder Cook gave it. But now…I don't know if it's because the state of the world really is more scary and confusing and wicked, or if it's because my children are growing up and leaving my home and it feels, again, like the world is more able to get in and affect our lives, but the need for personal peace feels so relevant, even urgent! It feels like something I can't live without.
Elder Cook quotes President Heber J. Grant talking about the Savior's peace:
"His peace will ease our suffering, bind up our broken hearts, blot out our hates, engender in our breasts a love of fellow men that will suffuse our souls with calm and happiness."
Doesn't that sound like exactly what we need right now? He also quotes words I love from Eliza R. Snow's hymn "Though Deepening Trials":
Lift up your hearts in praise to God;Let your rejoicings never cease.Though tribulations rage abroad,Christ says, “In me ye shall have peace.”
Elder Richard G. Scott's talk also focuses on personal peace, specifically on how we can make our homes places of peace. I liked this quote so much that I used it as the foundation for our school-year theme, "A place of refuge," a couple years ago:
Many voices from the world in which we live tell us we should live at a frantic pace. There is always more to do and more to accomplish. Yet deep inside each of us is a need to have a place of refuge where peace and serenity prevail, a place where we can reset, regroup, and reenergize to prepare for future pressures.
The ideal place for that peace is within the walls of our own homes, where we have done all we can to make the Lord Jesus Christ the centerpiece.
It's comforting to think that even when we start to feel that "the world is reaching in" panic, even when out-of-family (or in-family!) events make us feel helpless and vulnerable, we do have a way to keep our homes peaceful:
When we obey the commandments of the Lord and serve His children unselfishly, the natural consequence is power from God—power to do more than we can do by ourselves. Our insights, our talents, our abilities are expanded because we receive strength and power from the Lord. His power is a fundamental component to establishing a home filled with peace.
And then this is my favorite quote of the whole conference:
When you feel that there is only a thin thread of hope, it is really not a thread but a massive connecting link, like a life preserver to strengthen and lift you. It will provide comfort so you can cease to fear.
I'm so grateful for the hope and peace the Savior and His gospel allow us. I'm grateful for the "connecting link" of my covenants with Him. I want and need His gift of peace in my life!
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