With Mother’s Day coming up, and with my own sweet mom navigating a recent health scare, I’m especially reminded this year that having the love and support of a mom is a big deal – no matter how old we are.
When I was growing up, I watched how my mom dealt with difficulties and challenges (a tragic family death, founding and running a busy non-profit, a brain seizure condition that mimicked depression, and so on), and how hard she tried to cultivate a sense of peace in the storms. In fact, since everyone asks where my name comes from, my parents were Peace Corps volunteers in India before I was born and my name is the Hindi word for “peace.”
It’s a hard name to live up to. Just because I’m named “Peace” doesn’t mean it’s intuitive. None of us are born with a peace gene. But in the last few years, as I’ve been tackling my next research project on mental health, and writing my devotionals, Find Rest, Find Joy and Find Hope, I am growing more focused on how to cultivate true peace and joy regardless of the circumstances around me. As much as I’d like to steer clear of trials, they usually are the instruments God uses to do this work.
Here’s what I’m learning: when we allow trials to do a work in us instead of a number on us, that’s where hope becomes real and alive. (Read Romans 5:3-5 to see how this can be possible!)
This became reality for me recently in the strangest place – a cancer treatment center. I was wearing a flimsy hospital gown, nervous to face the pain of yet another needle biopsy. It was routine – just to check a spot that had a little question mark around it – but is such a thing ever routine?
Still, I decided to steady my mind on how grateful I was for medication to dull the pain, tests to diagnose me, and God’s plans to build character and produce hope in me even in the pain. What a blessing to live in a time when doctors can get such a clear picture of my health (which continues to be fine – the biopsy was clear).
This recent test brought to mind a short piece in my newest book release, a devotional journey called Find Hope. Maybe this idea of giving thanks in all things will meet you where you are today. In fact, maybe this 60-day journey is something you and your mom (or you and your daughter!) could get started on together, just in time for Mother’s Day. Here’s an excerpt:
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