“The Gift of Personal Peace,” Ensign, Mar. 1971, 17
The Gift of Personal Peace
“The SpokenWord“ from Temple Square, presented over KSL and the Columbia Broadcasting System December 20, 1970. © 1970 by Richard L Evans.
There is a saying of our Savior that moves our hearts at this moment: “… Except ye … become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”1 What is it that is childlike that would entitle a person to enter the Master’s presence? There are some qualities that suggest themselves: honesty, innocence, trust, faith, frankness; an appreciation for the simple things of life. And what we feel from little children is at times a searching of our very souls, as earnestly they look at us in honest childlike innocence. “The future of the race,” said Phillips Brooks, “marches forward on the feet of little children.” And in a world of sophistication, deviousness, deception, let us seek to recapture something of the faith and honesty and innocence of children. Thank God for them, and for reminding us what we must yet again become, if we are to find the faith and peace we so much seek. “Blessed are they who never become wholly sophisticated, but who still dream and wonder and believe!”2 who have the “power of feeling things freshly … which no skepticism and world-weariness can dim.”3 And let this refreshing spirit renew itself in every heart and home, with its warmth and faith and thoughtfulness, with more kindliness, more courage; more of patience, understanding; more forgiving; more nearness to family and to friends, and concern for others also—with less cynicism, less discouragement, and more of hope, and of the blessed peace that comes within ourselves with keeping His commandments. Oh, give us once again the faith of children that we may no more “torture ourselves with disbeliefs,”4 but come at last to know and to acknowledge from the certainty of our souls that Jesus is the Christ, the divine Son of God, our Lord and Savior, the Messiah, the Prince of Peace. “God bless us, everyone” and keep within our hearts and homes that which would bring to each of us the precious gift of personal peace. “… Except ye … become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”