About making peace through gratitude:

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (NIV)

How many people lead lives of anguish over what they do not have? How many people lead hopeless lives because they have never stopped to count up their blessings and count up their resources others would call blessings? How many people could lead an entirely new life in an instant if they would just count their blessings and say "Thank You?" We live in a world where we all depend upon one another but do we do not say "Thank You" or feel the gratitude inspiring us to say "Thank You." Remarkably and miraculously, we can make peace by being grateful. Horribly and sinfully, people make war because they are ungrateful. We live in a complex world run by thousands of others, a world in which we play only a small part, but do we appreciate how vital these unseen others are? Do we feel the gratitude going to God who makes peace? The inner war and inner battle where there is no peace within us will come to an end when we begin to count our blessings from God as we say "Thank You" to Him. When we begin to be grateful to God for what we have, we are then able to more effectively use what we have. If we only see the holes in the cheese, we never eat the cheese because we think we have no cheese. If we only see the half-emptiness of the glass we end up having an empty life. You can have a life full of peace when you count the abundance of your blessings.