One recent morning, in my quiet time, I came across the well known verse in Psalm 34:14: “Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it.” (NLT) I paused there for a while. Thinking about all of that – about good and evil and peace.

In my experience, there’s plenty of emphasis in the Christian life on the concept of turning from evil and doing good. But what about that second part: “Search for peace, and work to maintain it”?

I thought about the peace (or lack of) in my life. There were entire seasons where peace seemed like just an unattainable theory. Wracked with turmoil, addiction, performance, depression, and emotional upheaval, I’d lost almost all concept of peace.

Then I thought about my life now. I’m sitting here taking deep clear breaths in the morning air. My mind is still. My life, though, is pretty full at the moment – with parenting and working and house-maintaining and all the things that go in between those titles. Needless to say, I sleep so hard at night.

There is busyness, but there is also peace.

I think about the Psalmist and how he threw in that little tag at the end, “work to maintain it”. I’ve found peace before. I haven’t always worked to maintain it.

What does that look like?

For me, peace looks like a thousand tiny choices in a thousand tiny moments. As I’ve said before, life is rarely the giant cataclysmic moments. Instead, life is made up of the daily. What we do in those daily moments determines the whole course of our life.

We need to create space for peace to grow. Sometimes that means letting go of things in my life. Quite often, that means just creating quiet space: negative space, where there aren’t any screens or noise or deadlines – where I can just sit and read and ponder and breathe.

For so long, I let those moments slide. I toyed with the edges, I figured a little bit of murky waters wouldn’t destroy me – but they began to, over time. I’d found peace here and there, but I certainly didn’t work to maintain it. I didn’t hold onto it in the way it needed to be held onto. I didn’t cling to it with all my worth. I would let the tide roll in and roll back out, taking with it some of the best of my sand.

I’m not perfect by any means, but I’ve come so far in this. And when you come far in something, it’s okay to celebrate that.

By now, I have definite boundaries that weren’t in my life previously. Those things don’t hold me back. Instead, they keep me anchored. They keep me at peace in the midst of the roaring storm. They keep me steady even in the calm, so that I don’t drift too far.

At first it was difficult, setting those boundaries. I don’t say that lightly. I mean it was like grinding my teeth and fighting against everything inside me that had drifted. It was blood, sweat, and tears. It was crying through the nights and fighting through the days. It was headaches and swollen eyes. But eventually, it began to pay off.

I think we all need to come to a place at times where we truly believe that God’s design for our lives is what is going to bring us the most fruit – the most love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. When I look at that list, what more could I want? I haven’t been alive very long, but long enough to tell you that what the world seems to offer out there really aren’t the things that are going to make us happy and bring peace.

Peace brings us happiness. But it needs to be maintained. Like a flower, we water it. And it brings us life. And the longer we maintain it and nurture it, the stronger it will grow.

I’ve found so much value in peace – peace of mind, peace of heart, peace of emotions – to not be tormented and conflicted daily with my choices. There is work. But there is peace to be had. And so much of it.

Search for peace, and work to maintain it.