How to Stop Assuming and Practice Peace

Hope you all had a beautiful Easter celebration.🌷

I’m talking a little religion today, so if you’d rather skip this one, please go ahead!

I’m just feeling so grateful today, for my Savior Jesus Christ.

Because of Him, because of forgiveness and second chances,  a spirit of peace and love was restored to my marriage. I feel so blessed to know that even when we make mistakes, we can ask for a do over, and receive His grace.

Today I want to talk to you about one of the ways we mess up.

Let’s talk about assumptions. 

Have you ever made a wrong judgment, and then really regretted it later?

One morning when our daughter was in grade school, she woke up and got ready, and at breakfast, told me she wasn’t feeling very well.

Well, I was raised a little old school.  If you didn’t have a fever and you weren’t throwing up, “suck it up buttercup,” -you’re going to school!  

If you tripped and scraped your knee, -go find a bandaid, and don’t bleed on the carpet! 😂

We were all active kids and scraped knees were common, it wasn’t a big deal.  I kind of liked that we were tough kids.  It felt good that we weren’t “sissies.” 

Anyway, I was kind of that mom too.  So when our daughter said she wasn’t feeling very well, I took her temp, saw she didn’t have a fever and wasn’t puking, so I figured it was just a bit of an off day for her and she’d be fine. 

I sent her to school.  

When the teacher called to ask me to come get her because she had just thrown up, well, let’s just say I felt like the worst mom in the world.

I wish I could say this was the only time something like this happened in my life, but I’m sure there are many other times as well, that I made the wrong assumption.

We all do this sometimes.

We assume we know what someone else is thinking.

We guess what they must be feeling, and believe our guess is correct.

We judge how they should be acting, assuming we have all of the information.

We are excellent at assuming we are right, and mis-judging other people.

Imagine how much better our world would be, if we would all stop assuming we know.

*Our communication would improve as we asked more questions and gained more understanding.

*Our compassion would increase as we took the time to understand someone else’s pain.

*Our differences would decrease as we learned how much we actually have in common.

*Our anger and judgement would be quelled, as we discovered the truth about someone else’s experience, and really listened to understand.

*Our ability to love ourselves unconditionally would increase as we stopped fearing the judgement and disdain of others.

*That self love and respect would be infinitely easier to extend to others, as our own cups would be filled and overflowing.

This Easter weekend, our church is holding its simi-annual General Conference.  Yesterday, one of our leaders, Jeffery R Holland, urged us to “Practice peace.”

I loved that when I heard it, and took a few minutes to consider what practicing peace really means to me.

In my coach brain, of course I put peace in the F line, since it’s a feeling.  So to me, practicing peace, means practicing thinking the thoughts, that create more peace for us.

It’s directing my brain to ask the question, “How is my critical, judgemental or assuming thought about …, NOT true?”

It’s guarding my thoughts against judgment or assumption, and desiring to love others unconditionally.

How do we do that?  Well, maybe we can start here:

1. When we are tempted to assume something, let’s remind our brains to assume that we don’t know everything.

2. Let’s practice assuming that there is more to the story than we can see.

3. Let’s assume that everyone is trying to do their best, even when it appears that their best isn’t so great, and maybe even sometimes, it’s downright awful.

4.  Let’s assume that we can make the world a better place, with just a little bit of effort.

5.  Let’s assume that everything is always working out for our good.

6. Let’s assume that our worth was established at our birth, and that worth is non-negotiable, and far more precious than we can comprehend.  AND, so is the worth of everyone else.

I’d love to challenge all of us to practice more peace.  Not just in our marriages, but in our families, our communities, our jobs,  online, and everywhere else in our world.

Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace.

He is the ultimate example and demonstrated time and time again, how to create more peace.

I’m so grateful for His example and pray we’ll all have more peace in our hearts.  

I’m so grateful for your goodness, and have so much faith in all of us!

God bless you my friends, thank you for being such a beautiful part of my circle.🤗