Peace in the New Year – Sunday, January 05, 1997
What is the fascination we have with the coming of each new year? Is it not that we hope things will turn out better? There are so many improvements to wish for, but none so important and long lasting as what we can hope to accomplish in our own homes, families, and neighborhoods.
What if this year, we said a little more often the healing words, “I’m sorry.” What if during a heated discussion, we stopped long enough to say: “Let me see if I understand. Is this how you feel?” Peace at home begins by listening with compassion to another’s point of view.
Some things that cause contention truly don’t matter. A husband, a wife arguing about the best way to slice bread may want to realize that no matter how you slice it, it’s still bread. Much in life is like that. Our loved ones will probably never be exactly like us, no matter how hard we try to mold them into our image. The only person we can change is our self. And for most of us there are enough weed in that particular garden to keep us busy.
In today’s world it may seem impractical to hope for peace. Any yet we know that a reservoir can be filled by individual raindrops. Similarly, all the world needs are enough peacemakers. Lasting peace has never come to the world through edict, but it can come through all of us working together. It can begin with us, and it can begin today.
Confucius said it well: “When the heart is set right, then the personal life is cultivated; when the personal life is cultivated, then the family life is regulated; when the family life is regulated, then the national life is orderly; and when the national life is orderly, then there is peace in the world.”1
1 Liki Confucius, “Record of Rites,” chapter 42, the Wisdom of Confucius, ed. And trans. Lin Yutang, 1938, pp. 139-140.
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January 05, 1997
Broadcast Number 3,516