"Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.  Where there is hatred, let me sow love.  Where there is injury ~ pardon.  Where there is doubt ~ faith.  Where there is despair ~ hope.  Where there is darkness ~ light.  And where there is sadness, let me sow joy. "
- St. Francis of Assisi

I had this quote from Francis of Assisi hanging in my counseling office for many years.  It now sits, framed in gold, on my desk at home.  I want to be an instrument of God's peace.  Kahlil Gibran once wrote: "I am a lute strung with strings, but I am not the lute player."  That is how I feel.  Although I have training and skills, if I ever bring peace to a troubled soul, it is not my training or skills - or anything else about me personally - that brings it to pass.  It is God's love working through me.  He gives me the words when I need them.  He gives me the quiet.  He gives me the patience.  He gives me the compassion.  Through Him, I am blessed on occasion to bring those gifts to someone else.

Great men and women have always recognized that we can never have peace in this world unless we have peace within ourselves:

"We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without."
- The Buddha

"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek,
but a means by which we arrive at that goal."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Each one has to find his peace from within.
And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances."
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."
- Mother Teresa

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.  Today.  Tomorrow.  Every day.  Amen