Publish Peace

My word for 2015 is Peace. It is not the word I thought I would choose, but it is the word that chose me--jumping out at me everywhere from behind other words and in unexpected places. I suppose I will write a lot about it this year.

When studying peace, this scripture, which I had always liked before (because who can resist the poetry of beautiful feet) but this time something else stood out--the word publish.

"16 And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that are still publishing peace!" (Mosiah 15:16)

Here is another: 

"...and whoso shall publish peace, yea, tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the mountains shall they be." (I Ne 13:37)

There are many other verses that talk about publishing peace, and the publishers are always blessed, full of joy and, of course, have beautiful feet.  

I think the reason this interested me is because I have become aware of a lot of doomsday bloggers and doomsday type posts in the blogosphere, some of them on blogs that I once linked to or endorsed. I don't read many blogs, but I stuff gets back to me. I feel the spike in global anxiety.

I have always said we are living in prophetic times and some of those prophecies are quite dire, but I would like to emphasize that we also have more light and knowledge and peace and faster healing than ever before available to us now.  How ever, we need to be tuned into the right frequency to access it. Doomsday is not that frequency. It is okay to talk about what is coming, but let's remember to focus on the positive side of it and "publish" peace.

Publish means both books, blogs and the traditional print media, but also speech and thought.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote, 

"In a real though figurative sense, the book of life is the record of the acts of men as such record is written in their own bodies. It is the record engraven on the very bones, sinews, and flesh of the mortal body. That is, every thought, word, and deed has an effect on the human body; all these leave their marks…" (Elder Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 97.)

There are about a million other quotes on this topic from prophets and from the scriptures, and I have written and spoken a lot about the power of words, but the point of this post is peace.

The word is very tied up with peace. Elder Richard G. Scott taught, "We talk to God through prayer. He most often communicates back to us through His written word." He testifies and I also add mine, that if you study God's word, "peace will prevail in your life."

"That peace won't come from the outside wold. It will come from within your home, from within your family, from within your own heart. It will be a gift of the Spirit. It will radiate out from you to influence others in the world around you. 

[and this is my favorite part of his talk] 

"You will be doing something very significant to add to the cumulative peace in the world." ("Make the Exercise of Faith Your First Priority," Oct 2014 Gen Conf)

It's true! I can testify, that one person with true inner peace balances the scale with 100,000 people who are who in chaos and darkness. It only takes a small minority for peace to prevail on earth. 

So I encourage you to publish peace. If peace is a foreign language to you now, I encourage you to meditate and read more of God's word (which He has given liberally to His people all over the earth through all time) and enjoy that fruit of the spirit which is Peace.  It won't make all your problems go away but it will make them seem smaller, like a speck you can flick off with just one finger. 

"Therefore, renounce war and proclaim peace, and seek diligently to turn the hearts of the children to their fathers, and the hearts of the fathers to the children;" (Doctrine and Covenants 98:16)