Last month Lisa and I celebrated our 43rd anniversary. Yes, I know that putting up with me for 43 years has been a monumental task. But I will confess that she has done an outstanding job. Forty-three years, means 43 Christmases. With all those Christmases there have been many memories of traditional Christmas celebrations and some not so traditional.

Forty-two have been with people, both family and friends. Many with special events such as Christmas Eve Services to speak at, driving to Branson for Christmas there, on the beach in Pensacola, Florida, and even in Phoenix, Arizona.

This year, the 43rd has been different. I am writing this article on Christmas night and for the past two days Lisa and I have celebrated Christmas alone and with nowhere to go. Cameron had plans that kept her in Texas, but she will be coming in tomorrow afternoon and we will celebrate with her tomorrow night.

The only place Lisa and I went was Christmas Eve we chose to attend the Christmas Eve service at a small Community Methodist Church down the road from our house. Other than that, I went deer hunting this afternoon.

I must admit that it has been very different. I kept thinking where do I need to be. Have I missed something? This just doesn’t seem right. I found myself to be restless.

Now that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day have come to an end, I find myself contemplating. This afternoon as I sat in my deer stand it began to sink in that it had not been bad. We were not rushed to do anything. There was not the frantic feeling that I had to do something. I sat and enjoyed the beauty of nature. I listened to the birds sing. I watched four male turkeys come and feed in front of my stand. It was peaceful.

Peace. That is one of the subjects that is preached, talked about during Christmas, is peace. Yet we live in a world of constant turmoil and there seems to be no peace anywhere. We have countries at war with each other. Here in America, we are divided, and no one can get along.

I came across this definition of peace the other day. It said that peace is a state of well being and wholeness that comes from being in a right relationship with… This raises the question of a right relationship with who or what. I think we all have three relationships that are vital to peace.

One, is our relationship with God. It is imperative to have a right relationship with God. That relationship only comes when we accept the grace of God and trust our lives with the work of Jesus Christ.

Two, we need to have the right relationship with others. This includes family, friends and even enemies. This is probably the hardest.

Third, we need to have a right relationship with ourselves. Personal guilt and worry are the number one robbers of peace in our lives. That is why many people are just plain miserable.

Peace, true peace, comes only from our trust in the promise of God.