The Quest For Peace
In the wake of several horrific attacks last weekend, let’s look at peace and how we can find it in our life, relationships, business and world today.
Throughout the social media, TV, Radio and private conversations since last weekend, one word stood out and that word is “Peace”.
How did we get here? How can we stay safe? And how can have peace in our world today and live together without fear?
Most people are still in shock because of these atrocities which has again renewed the lack of trust in humanity.
All of the above are reactions to the events and none really offer solution to this problem.
Unfortunately, we are all naturally inclined to continue in these lines of thought without considering any possible solutions.
The truth is that people do not become bad in one day. No!
It’s a culmination of all the words and thoughts that people allow to stay in their minds that make them good or bad.
I believe that the family lies at the heart of this problem and we must all re-take the responsibility of raising children of peace!
I have not said this to blame the parents but to highlight where the core responsibility lies.
As parents, from childhood what type of message do you expose your children to? What type of environments do you take the children to and what stories do you tell them? Empowering OR Depressing stories?
At that stage, it very important to teach the children love and the importance of co-existence rather than stories of how a person or people deprived them of rightful possessions.
The society has a key part to play as well. An African proverb says that “one person cannot bring up a child; it is a community’s responsibility”
Unfortunately as old as the world is, so many things have gone wrong in the past and the best way to go now is to invest time and energy in spreading the gospel of peace to our children and even grandchildren.
The easiest option is to go back in our individual shells and go into protection mode. But how far can we go with this?
However the best option is to face this problem by actively going out there and taking this problem head on. Go out there make friends, find hurting people and offer words of encouragement and be a true neighbour, brother or sister.
Finally, it critical to recognise that whatever actions we carry out as individuals, good or bad, is an indication of how we perceive life and how we think it should be lived based on our upbringing.
However way we may have been raised, we all have the opportunity to go in the right direction.
This brings me to the most important point of continuous self-improvement; learning and equipping ourselves on how best to approach problems and differences we may find in our lives and out there in the world.
In this journey of self-improvement, you will realise that we are the sole authors of our lives and can turn it the way we wish but it starts with the realisation that it is also our sole responsibility.
Today we are faced with a 2 choices: to join the army of light OR the army of darkness. My hope is that we will all choose wisely, for the sake of ourselves, our children and grandchildren.
We must resist the temptation to hate at this time, realising that if the world will change and become a peaceful place, then it must start from one person at a time! And that person is you and I.
In the words of Martin Luther king, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
Love conquers everything!
Peace to France, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Nigeria! Peace to the whole world.
To your success!
As usual, please leave your comments below and share with your friends if you believe they will benefit. Have a great week and speak soon.