Finding Peace

Welcome to this edition of Newsgram!

Doing this podcast I’ve learned a lot of different things thanks to the great authors I’ve been lucky enough to meet. The topics are so broad and varied from children’s books to autobiographies to fiction and spirituality — you really never know what you’re going to get so thank you for clicking on this episode.

Today we are taking a common sense approach to the question “Who am I?” and what was I put on this earth to do. Just to clarify — you are probably already living your purpose and don’t even realize it. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking that there must be more to life and in the course of doing that we tend to forget the little things that actually mean a lot. Like simple kindnesses that are so easy to do you don’t even think about them. You just do it but they mean something to the recipient.

How grateful are you that water comes out of the tap? I wasn’t until recently when I was reminded that in many parts of the world people have to go and get water from a river or a well, and it’s not clean. Billions of people don’t know the luxury we take for granted. It puts things in perspective — but this is not a show about water — or gratitude, although that is important, it’s a show about finding peace.

Rebecca Payne – We get so busy running around doing things for the kids if you are married with children or you have children. Running about. Our daily lives running to the store and getting this or that. Going to work, coming home, taking care of the shopping and all of that kind of stuff that we don’t take out time to rest and that’s one of the principle teachings in the book “Finding Peace” is to rest. That’s one of the secrets, to take that day, take that time to just slow down and be at peace and sitting on the porch is one way to do that.

That’s Dr. Rebecca Payne, author of the book she just mentioned, Finding Peace. The cover features a bistro table and a couple of chairs on the front porch of a house that serve as a reminder to take time out to rest.

Rebecca Payne – Life is a journey and you have to take time to slow down and enjoy it. We get so caught up with running around and spinning our own web that we forget that we are here to enjoy this life, to discover one another and have peace. You can’t have peace if you don’t slow down.

Stop and smell the roses. It’s just that simple but hearing it and doing it are two different things. It’s not always that easy. Our lives can be very complicated so in her book she created a fun way to teach us how to slow down and live a peaceful and rewarding life. To do that she created two characters, Jamie and Miss Mazey. Jamie is looking for answers and Miss Mazey is keen to teach them using biblical principles.

Rebecca Payne – Rebecca discusses the creation of these two characters and that they are a reflection of Rebecca and her spiritual mother.

Jamie is on a path toward enlightenment and Miss Mazey is offering up the spiritual wisdom to help her get there. Here’s an example. We already talked about the importance of taking time out to rest — like God did on the seventh day.

Rebecca Payne – You cannot go seven days a week running around all day every day and not rest. Rebecca cites scriptures like Jeremy 1:5, Matthew 6:33 to illustrate that in the scriptures you will find wisdom to find freedom and freedom will give you peace.

And there’s that word again, Peace and believe it or not peace is just the beginning.

Rebecca Payne – I discovered that with peace comes joy. With joy comes happiness. These are fruits of the Holy Spirit so the fruit of the spirit becomes evident in your life. You have joy, you have peace, you have happiness , you take on goodness, you take on kindness, you take on the ability to persevere and have patience. All of these things start transpiring in your life as you allow the Holy Spirit to work in your life. You can’t do these things, you can’t make these changes by yourself. I tried it does not work but with the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God you can have your life transformed and then literally find peace and with that peace comes the simplicity of life.

If you’re someone who is looking for answers this book will show you what a life as a Christian is like. By bringing in characters like Jamie and Miss Mazey she’s letting us see through their relationship the lessons that can apply to our life. I guess you could say it’s a practical guide to living a good life with faith and belief in something more and how that belief can shape our lives in positive ways. Here’s another example. In the book Jamie just went through a divorce. Highly stressful and very difficult.

Rebecca Payne – I too like Jamie went through a divorce and during that time my life was in total upheaval. I was going to school and getting my doctorate. I was moving around doing different jobs. I am a technology project manager by trade and my projects were coming to an end so I’m also moving around. My career. Everything was in upheaval.

And when life starts to feel like it’s spinning out of control we naturally get frustrated and confused and we start looking up and asking questions and according to Dr. Rebecca Payne, one of the big answers to those questions is, slow down, have faith and let God guide you. When your head is full of questions and they’re making you anxious…well, there’s a scripture for that.

Rebecca Payne – One of the biggest ones that I learned was in Philippians 4:6. Be anxious for nothing but in thanksgiving let your request be known to God. That was such a huge leap for me because I was anxious about everything. Where is my life going, what am I going to do now? I’m in upheaval here. I’m trying to get this doctorate at the same time and I’m trying to focus and should I stop? Should I keep going? What should I do? So with her guidance I found that I needed to settle down and have peace and continue what I started to do. Trust in God.

As human beings we all have trials and tribulations in our life. We have what she calls “afflictions and additions”. We have all kinds of pain, physical, emotional, spiritual and we have free will. We are totally capable of making all kinds of decisions that may or may not be good for us — like self medicating.

Rebecca Payne – Part of the journey is to know that it exists. Part of the journey is to know that there is a light. Some people don’t know that . So I’m trying to show them that God is there for you. God is with you. God will guide you if you seek Him.

So getting back to the question “what does it all mean?” Let’s have a look at the words of Miss Mazey; “Whatever it is that calms your soul and lifts you to a curiosity about your Creator, that is what you are meant to do to set you on the path to peace.”

The book is called Finding Peace by Dr. Rebecca I. Payne and you can get it in paperback at all the places you like to shop online for books. In fact right now you can download it from Amazon for about $6. Not a bad price to pay for the meaning of life. And that will do it for this edition of Newsgram from Webtalkradio.com.

Listen to Dr. Rebecca Payne on the Talking Books podcast, the Talking Books YouTube interview with JT Crowley or the Books on Air podcast with Suzanne Harris. 

The post Finding Peace appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.