Making Peace When You Can’t Find It
When the storms around us won’t still, Heavenly Father teaches us how to make peace, one moment at a time.
A week before general conference, I rode on the train home from school with my notebook in my lap, ready to write questions I hoped the Lord would answer in the upcoming talks. That’s usually how I prepare—I pray, I listen, and then I bring those questions to conference with me.
But this time, I couldn’t do it.
I was nearly through my second year of graduate school, teaching college courses, working full-time, and trying to see my husband occasionally in between. My two-hour train ride had once been a break from stress, but homework, grading, and work assignments had taken over every empty space in my life.
Pen poised over paper, I waited for my thoughts to clear. The train was quiet, but my mind wasn’t. I couldn’t even put my stress into sentences, let alone shape it into thoughtful questions.
“If I can’t even figure out what to ask, how will I ever find answers?” I thought.
When conference began, I felt scattered and unprepared, but as I listened, I felt waves of stillness moving through me. Not because my schedule emptied or my stress dissolved, but because the Spirit touched my heart.
And an answer struck me: I didn’t need tidy answers. I needed peace—and I needed to learn how to make it when I couldn’t find it.
Practicing Peace
Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained that “peacemaking still begins in the most basic place—in our hearts.” It was this personal peace that I needed and was suddenly beginning to feel. I wondered, why is peace coming so easily now when it was so unreachable before? I’d been in a quiet place, and I had tried my best to remove distractions while on the train—what had I been missing?
And I realized that peace doesn’t come from what’s around me. It comes from what’s within me. On the train, I had focused on silencing the world, but during conference, I had turned my heart toward the Lord. The difference wasn’t the absence of noise—it was the presence of the Spirit.
I had been waiting for peace to arrive like a sudden hush, as if God would pause the storm for me. But instead, He was inviting me to carry peace inside the storm. It was never about reaching a perfect calm on the outside; it was about letting Christ anchor me on the inside.
How Can I Be a Peacemaker?
Since then, I’ve been thinking a lot about how we can be literal “peacemakers.” While “making peace” with something might suggest resignation, being a “peacemaker” suggests a level of creativity and hope—that, in partnership with Heavenly Father, you will create the peace you—and the world—need.
Practically speaking, this will look different for everyone, but it universally means that we must go a step further than literal stillness; we must invite the Spirit into the space we’re preparing in our hearts and minds.
You might pause for breath during an argument or tense situation to pray, internally or externally.
When your mind is buzzing, you can sit with scripture, reading until something sinks in.
Like a Primary child, you can “hum your favorite hymn” while you walk down unfamiliar streets or into stressful situations.
These are small choices, but together they make peace, piece by piece.
The Lord rarely hands us peace like a sudden gift wrapped in silence. More often, He invites us to practice it with Him, to build it into our hearts until it becomes part of who we are—not once the chaos ends, but right here, right now.