Advent Guide: You BelongSample

Partners in Spiritual Growth: The Peace From Family

The peace Christ came to give is not what the world – our culture – gives. It's not a superficial self-help plan; rather, the peace of Christ is internal, it's spiritual.

Peace, like the other fruits of the Spirit, doesn't grow automatically. It grows through prayer, through giving, and through confronting our sins that are often magnified in our relationships with others.

Just as we need mirrors to show us our reflections, so we need others to show us our true selves. If not for others in our lives, we wouldn't so clearly see our pride, judgment, anger, hate, and selfishness – all hurdles to humility and peace.

Saint John Chrysostom refers to the home as the "little church." This is where, if we're willing to look, our sins are exposed to us and where real spiritual growth can happen.

In her book, "The Illumined Heart," Frederica Mathewes-Green writes the people in our lives, especially our families, are our partners in spiritual growth.

She goes on to say, "families are put together in something like a three-legged race. In a giant seven- or nine- or 15-legged pack, we seem to make very poor progress indeed and fall to the ground in a bickering heap with some regularity. But God has put us together ... And so, 'little children, let us love one another ...' and keep hopping together toward the finish line."

Regina Easily-Young and her husband, Doyle Young, live in Waco, Texas, where they are members of St. Andrew Orthodox Church.