Back in the 1980s when I was teaching a class of ten year-olds, one lad, Simon, who always watched the news avidly came up to me and said, “Mr Humphreys, d’you think there’ll be a Nuclear War?” He was very anxious, fear in his eyes. What could I say except “No, I don’t think so, Simon.”

It was very hard to comfort him. I’ve learned since that during those uncertain times, many young people suffered anxiety, not reassured either by the well-meaning government leaflets given out about how to protect your house from the blast and any subsequent fallout.

Today, wars are never out of the news… They seem to be about trying to bomb the other side into submission. Death and destruction. Revenge is sour. We feel helpless in the face of all the suffering. How could we ever deliver a wide-ranging peace for all? Perhaps we need to look at a personal peace. How might this be achieved?

Christ assured his disciples that he would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to be with us. “Peace I leave you,” he said. “My peace I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

The Qur’ran 59:23 discloses that peace is one of the names of God himself.

Perhaps as well as praying for peace, we can pray for our own personal peace, help others to find it and pass it along.

Written by Mike Humphreys from Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

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