Messing with my Happy Place

I’d like to teach the world to sing (in perfect harmony)…

That famous song began as a phrase on a napkin.

An ad executive saw airport travelers angry and upset over a forced layover. The next morning he saw his traveling companions talking and joking while drinking Coca-Cola before their flight.

He wrote on the back of a napkin, I’d like to buy the world a Coke.

Forty-two years later, we still make the connection between the song, a world of peace, holding hands, and Coke.
We hear the first line, and we start humming the tune.

It would be wonderful if peace came that easily, wouldn’t it?

Just sitting in the café drinking Coca-Cola with my friends…singing in perfect harmony.

It doesn’t work that way. We know that.

Part of the problem?
Those I’m “standing hand in hand” with don’t always cooperate.

And sometimes, when someone messes with my happy place, I get a bit annoyed.
Know what I mean?

We can learn skills and tools to get along better.
But that learning is futile unless we know where to find our own personal peace.

If my spirit is not at peace, if I can’t find my own calm…
my tension and frustration will always come out sideways.

The hands I am holding feel the anger and I’m no longer fun to be around…

Someone will most definitely want to break this peaceful hand-holding chain thing we’ve got going.

So what to do, what to do…

Since I can’t control the happiness of the person next to me in line who is upset becuase I’m in the “10 items or fewer” line and I have 15 items in my cart and I’m making him late but he doesn’t know the store person told me to come into this line…

I can control my response and my feelings towards my very tired and worn-out store line companion.

I can protect my happy place.

What if we decided to stop asking or expecting someone else to create a more peaceful existence for us?
What if we stopped worrying about how grumpy the person is next to us?

What if we (What if I?) put a precious Peace Bubble around my happy place, and refused to let someone else’s bad day become my really miserable day?

How?
By recognizing that God is the true Peace-Giver.
He is able to give me a peace that passes all understanding.
He wants to protect me from saying and doing things I’ll regret later.
He wants to guide my emotions and guard my heart.

What if I let HIS peace decide how my day is going to go?

I think today I might just celebrate that little jingle…

By inviting – once again – that amazing Peace-Giver to find His home in my soul.

 “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 4:7)

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