The Place We Hate to Start

Elder Gary E. Stevenson gave an important talk in general conference in October last year called "Blessed Are the Peacemakers." (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2025/10/12stevenson?lang=eng) In it, he stressed a pattern which defines direction. It's terribly important to recognizing the Lord's way of doing things, particularly in contrast to the world's way of doing things.

Elder Stevenson doesn't suggest a vast, overarching program to promote worldwide peace. Rather, the place where worldwide peace begins is where too many humans loathe starting a project: in our own heart and mind. The tendency is so great to look outside ourselves for the solutions to the biggest problems that vex our planet.

Remember that old song from the mid-20th century, "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me..." ? Well. As over-sung as at was in my early life, that's pretty much the sum of it. Elder Stevenson beautifully describes that inner peace begins with individuals and radiates up - and out - not down and in.

This is why peace must be freely chosen. Anything remotely involving force, enforcement, mandate or fiat will never achieve authentic peace. Especially if it leaves out the Prince of Peace - Jesus Christ.

Allow me to make a parable, please.

When I was a little girl, I was fascinated with a picture book called The Loudest Noise in the World. It tells the story of Prince Hulla-Baloo who lives in the land of Hub-Bub. For his 6th birthday, the prince asks his father to make a decree that at a set time, everyone will shout as loud as they can, making it so he, Prince Hulla-Baloo, can hear the loudest noise in the world.

One of the common people receiving the decree feels sad that in participating, he will miss out on hearing the loudest noise in the world himself. And then he thinks an extremely human thought: "It won't make a difference if it's only me who doesn't shout. That's still a pretty loud sound. I'll just open my mouth and pretend to shout, so I can hear the loudest sound in the world, too!"

Since this is SUCH an incredibly human thing to think, you might be able to imagine what happens at the appointed hour. Every single citizen of Hulla-Baloo had had the exact same idea:

I won't make a difference, so if I don't participate, I can rely on the efforts of everybody else to experience this extraordinary moment.

The unexpected outcome ends up being quite expected, indeed, as only a really fine children's book can do. At the appointed hour, there is absolute... silence.

Of course, the aha moment in the book is that a little boy who lived in a very noisy world experiences the beauty of silence - the songs of birds! - for the very first time in his young life. But the point worth focusing on is this: there is a predictable human chain reaction of wanting everyone else to do something, excepting yourself. That's where the parable lies.

Elder Stevenson describes the inevitability of God's direction touching individual hearts first, and those hearts impacting individual homes and families next. Peace in homes then moves outward to communities, countries, and eventually the entire world. The message is clear: there can never be lasting peace in the world if every individual isn't willing to do his/her own part in creating the inner peace that only comes from the Prince of Peace.

Just as peace radiates outward, so does unrest. Alexis de Tocqueville came to the United States from France in the 1830's to study its judicial and prison systems. He was fascinated that the U.S. revolution had achieved an outcome pretty much polar opposite of the French revolution. In his two-volume treatise, Democracy in America, he wrote:

"In Europe almost all the disturbances of society arise from the irregularities of domestic life. To despise the natural bonds and legitimate pleasure of home is to contract a taste for excesses, a restlessness of heart, and fluctuating desires.

"Agitated by the tumultuous passions that frequently disturb his dwelling, the European is galled by the obedience which the legislative powers of the state exact.

"But when the American retires from the turmoil of public life to the bosom of his family, he finds in it the image of order and of peace. There his pleasures are simple and natural, his joys are innocent and calm; and he finds that an orderly life is the surest path to happiness, he accustoms himself easily to moderate his opinions as well as his tastes.

"While the European endeavors to forget his domestic troubles by agitating society, the American derives from his own home that love of order which he afterwards carries with him into public affairs." (Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America)

Now before someone starts chirping that this doesn't describe ALL European or American homes, let me assure you, we all know. This man came to America to observe differences in society, and these are his overall observances in general. De Tocqueville speaks to a pattern he saw enough times - on both continents - to include it in a work that took him 5 years to write.

De Tocqueville's point validates the truth of Elder Stevenson's talk. He asserts that an individual takes his/her personal contentment - or unrest - into his/her community.

Our ability to find our own peace affects the entire world. Just like every citizen of Hulla-Baloo deciding to be silent, rather than contribute to a collective moment, has a bigger ripple effect than we realize.

Elder Stevenson's teaching underscores the danger of focusing on the collective rather than the individual. If you start with the collective, the energy of movement must naturally flow downward, and inward. When peace begins organically with individuals, it organically flows upward, and outward - into homes and families, and into neighborhoods and communities.

And as inefficient as it is, the only way to achieve peace within nations and around the world is to start with each individual heart, and work inside out. After all, what is a collective anyway, but a group comprised of... individuals?

Ezra Taft Benson taught it as succinctly as it can be stated:

"The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ would take the slums out of people, and then they would take themselves out of the slums."

"The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature." (Ezra Taft Benson, Born of God, General Conference, October 1985)

Even if the temptation is great to be still and wait for everyone around us to make the loudest 'noise' of peace - and still enjoy it for ourselves - everyone really does need to contribute if we really want to rejoin the city of Enoch.

Peace really does begin with me.