Seeking Peace

SEEKING PEACE

Caustic words are flowing here.

They’re tearing the fabric we once held dear.

They’re in our homes and streets and schools;

And screaming from our electronic tools.

“I’m a democrat through and through.

I’ll be a democrat until I bleed blue.”

“I’m a republican red as red,

I’ll be a republican until I’m dead.”

One is trumpeting a very loud call.

“Keep everyone out; let’s build a wall!”

While the stranger is doing our hard menial labor

Which seems too low for me or my neighbor.

One seems to attract a lot of dirt

And doesn’t seem to care who it hurts;

For this one carries a very large broom

That carefully sweeps the dirt from the room.

We cry like a child, “I want it all!”

Not caring at all who it will cause to fall.

We chant about our right for individual liberty

Without accepting our community responsibility. 

We used to strive to be united.

Now Satan is laughing as we become divided.

Dark and fearsome are the gathering clouds,

And thunderous words are becoming overwhelmingly loud.

I flung my sword into the fight,

But wounding a sister didn’t feel quite right.

And so I ran from place to place

Trying hard my guilt to erase.

Then while pondering in a beautiful room,

In my mind’s eye I saw my Savior’s wounds.

I saw Him kneeling by an olive tree

And all of the drops of blood He shed for me.

At that moment my heart did break.

Upon His sinless soul my pains and sins He did take.

I could repent and be raised from my fall

Because for me, my Redeemer suffered all.

So now while living in this world of anger and strife

To Jesus Christ I pledge my life.

From death and Hell my soul He can release,

For He is the only true source of light and peace.

A Land of Milk and Honey

A Land of Milk and Honey

I’ve lived in a land of milk and honey;

Where it rains, it mists, and is rarely completely sunny.

It’s never too hot.  It hardly ever freezes;

And children play in ocean breezes.

The deer and elk roamed through our yard,

And finding green was never hard.

The trees grow big; the grass gets long,

And birds in the trees sing beautiful songs.

In this land where water is abundant;

Sometimes green seems a bit redundant.

I have seen ivy strangle a giant tree;

And berries cover a home when allowed to grow free.

I’ve lived in a wilderness, hot and dry;

And clouds hang sparsely in the sky.

In winter the air gets cold and freezes

And people are prone to a number of diseases.

Seeds are planted with loving care,

And irrigation ditches take water there.

The work is hard, one toils long…

But the air is filled with a moving song.

Once in a while an oasis is found,

And it becomes a sacred ground;

Where family and friends often gather around,

And together join in a heavenly sound.

On earth there’s a spiritual land of milk and honey,

And one can gain treasures without any money.

Living prophets grace this place,

And they are as familiar to me as my very own face.

Because there is goodness all around,

Ingratitude is often found.

In this land of so much truth,

We must carefully teach our youth

How to be obedient to God’s laws,

So they won’t be strangled by Satan’s claws.

Sometimes our spirits are called to live

In a desert wilderness where we feel we have nothing to give;

And burdens are hard, and we feel alone,

And it is difficult to see the path that leads towards home.

We must sink our roots of faith deep;

And all of our covenants we must keep.

In a desert of challenges, pain, and despair,

There is often a hidden oasis there.

It is usually as close as a fervent prayer,

and meeting with family and friends in a chapel somewhere.

If at the time we can’t attend,

Our thoughts toward the temple we can send.

And if for Living water we will seek,

Our trust in the Lord will bring us peace.

So home to the Land of milk and honey will I go? ---Yes!

But I will miss my wilderness.

For that is where I came to stretch and grow

And of my Savior I came to know.

I have been blessed to endure the pain;

And I have come to love the rain.

A family tree is grown with love.

ON ROOTS AND BRANCHES

I have been pondering on roots and branches

For I have a son who takes his chances,

And asks the neighbors for wood of all kinds

Then brings home the treasures he happens to find.

There have been branches I’ve found in our yard

Which do not belong to any tree of ours.

As I have wondered where these branches come from,

I realize they were carried home by my son.

 My son turns wood into bowls, benches, and pens.

Some day he may use it to cover the floor on our den.

He shapes it and sands it to display the beautiful grain,

And finds joy in each piece no matter how plain.

As I thought of my son’s love of trees,

I discovered these trees related to me.

My spouse and I have become the trunk;

And without our strength both root and branch are sunk.

We must draw nourishment and faith from our fathers’,

And share it with each of our sons and our daughters.

In return we must take joy in the young

And feed the root from the light of the sun.

Through this process our family becomes one.

Sometimes we might find a wild limb

But we must be careful how we prune and trim.

We must love the sinner, not the sin.

If we are too hasty in pruning our tree to enhance it,

We may cut off some of the most precious branches.

Some of us need more sanding and shaping

To bring out the beautiful grain that is waiting.

If you feel like you’ve been cut off from your home,

Come be grafted to ours; you are not alone.

The care of our tree cannot be left to chance

if we want to survive with each root and branch.