Peace is a Personal Problem – Sunday, December 22, 1946
This is the second such season that we have enjoyed since war formally ceased. And the measure of peace that has since been ours, and the progress that has been made toward prolonging peace, we count among our highest blessings. It would be pleasant to record that all differences had died, but this cannot, in truth, be done. And although it may seem to be an over-simplification to say so, peace is a personal problem. It is a personal problem, because keeping peace among families and friends and neighbors is a necessary prelude to keeping peace among strangers.
Would it not be unreasonable for us to expect statesmen to keep peace in far places if we were unable or unwilling to do it in our own homes, or in our own towns, or in our own back yards, so to speak. Would it not be unreasonable to expect them to keep peace among peoples of different outlook and background and history, if we were unwilling or unable to keep peace among people whom we have known and lived with all our lives? Would it not be unfair for us to expect anyone to keep peace for us among strangers if we were not able and willing to keep peace between neighbor and neighbor, between employee and employer, between brother and brother?
The principal problems of the world reduce themselves essentially to the problem of getting along with people. And all this we must remember before we expect too much of the men who work for peace, and too little of ourselves. They cannot wrap it up and bring it home to us as a surprise package. There is something of its making that must come from us. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”1 This was affirmed by the Prince of Peace and by prophets who preceded him. And when we go back to the problems of business, to the pressure of the office, to the labor of the shop, back to the daily realities of the working world, may we take with us the spirit of this timeless truth—for peace is a personal problem. And may we find that peace of which the angels sang when shepherds watched, and wise men worshipped.
1Matthew 22.37-39.
‘The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station K S L and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square. Salt Lake City, Sunday, December 22, 1946, 11:30 a.m. to 12.00 noon, EST. Copyright 1946.
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December 22, 1946
Broadcast Number 0,905