strength
1. The state, property, or quality of being strong.
2. The power to resist attack; impregnability.
3. The power to resist strain or stress; durability.
4. The ability to maintain a moral or intellectual position firmly.
5. Capacity or potential for effective action.
6. Military capability in terms of personnel and material.
7. A source of power or force.
8. Effective or binding force.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
health
1. The overall condition of an organism at a given time.
2. Soundness, especially of body or mind; freedom from disease or abnormality.
3. A condition of optimal well-being:
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
1 : the condition of an organism or one of its parts in which it performs its vital functions normally or properly : the state of being sound in body or mind; especially : freedom from physical disease and pain.
2 : the condition of an organism with respect to the performance of its vital functions especially as evaluated subjectively or nonprofessionally.
Source: Merriam-Webster’s Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
peace
1. The absence of war or other hostilities.
2. An agreement or a treaty to end hostilities.
3. Freedom from quarrels and disagreement; harmonious relations: roommates living in peace with each other.
4. Public security and order: was arrested for disturbing the peace.
5. Inner contentment; serenity: peace of mind.
keep the peace
To maintain or observe law and order: officers sworn to keep the peace.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
power
1. The ability or capacity to perform or act effectively.
2. A specific capacity, faculty, or aptitude. Often used in the plural:
3. Strength or force exerted or capable of being exerted; might.
4. The ability or official capacity to exercise control; authority.
5. A person, group, or nation having great influence or control over others:
6. The might of a nation, political organization, or similar group.
7. Forcefulness; effectiveness:
power – Archaic. An armed force.
titan – One of prodigious size, strength, or achievement:
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
When prayers are said daily for you… these are some of the things requested for your use. Study the definitions… please.
Health and strength go hand in hand. If health is not good… there will be little strength. There will be even less power. Peace will be absent in most cases of poor health, low strength and insufficient power.
Health is the most vital of all of the list… Without good health you will not be able to function efficiently because of the absence of strength. The power to overcome and be victorious will be missing because of the lack of endurance even if you are able to begin.
All of us in the profession of peace keeping vitally need all of the items in the introduction. We cannot be successful without them… the best possible health is the foundation upon which all other attributes rest… no foundation or poor foundation and the other attributes will not function well nor for very long. We must concentrate upon health above all other things… even when we are young… and it becomes vitally more important as we progress in age and in wear and tear upon the human organism. Without good health it is difficult to function, learn and achieve in the field of peace keeping. Good health must be achieved and maintained.
Major components of health are proper eating, sufficient rest and regular exercise. Remove any one of these three elements and your health will eventually fail. Success in the field of peace keeping depends upon health… health depends upon proper actions and proper attitude because proper attitude brings the discipline to follow the other three elements just listed… proper eating, sufficient rest and regular exercise. This is one of the most important paragraphs that I will ever write to you… the best success in all of your whole life rests on these plus providing for your spiritual welfare… for if good spiritual welfare does not accompany the foundation of good health… then the other three elements will have a difficult time working well indefinitely. A strong spiritual well being will be the greatest assistance in holding all the constituents of good health together.
When good health is present and practiced well then strength will always be there for the professional Peace Keeper… and even in case of injury… when the health is good prior to the injury… (plus a good spiritual well being will also assist recovery) even when physicians have no hope for the recovery of the patient.
Health and strength go hand in hand.
Peace – Inner contentment; serenity: peace of mind. It is intriguing to me that often those whose profession is peace keeping are lacking in inner peace themselves. I was one of those for the first years of my career. Oh, I was looking for a source of that inner peace but I could not find anyone who could tell me where and how to find it. I knew it had to do with God and spiritual things but I could not find anyone who could tell me how to make connection. I spent time in my life from the age of seven to twenty seven trying to find someone who knew the answers to my questions. I finally found that man after twenty years of looking… he answered my questions with some simple instructions from the Bible. When I followed the simple instructions God found me, called me, trained me and put me to work here in Virginia Beach with the police department as a chaplain and police officer almost thirty years ago. Wow, what a journey it has been since then.
My peace came through the person who is now my Eternal Captain, Jesus Christ, as He taught me about God Almighty, whom He called Father… and whom I call my Conmmander-in-Chief as well as Father. Peace came as I learned and applied what I learned to my life. Just as I learn and applied discipline to my life to become a Peace Keeper, I learned and applied discipline to the operation of both my personal and professional life. He is a good teacher and He will not give up on you if you do not give up on Him and yourself.
The combination of learning law and discipline to live by it and apply it to others plus the discipline to apply what I learned from the Operations Manual for Life made of me a new and different man in a most useful way. Having this peace that I received madeprofession, life and love so very, very powerful and enjoyable that I am still excited about it , still enjoying it and even more so with the passing of time and looking forward to much more of life filled with all of this that I have enjoyed since I found peace and life in Him.
All of these things that I have written about give you power to live and to act. Look at the different facets of the definitions of power… the ability to act effectively, efficiently and, when necessary, with force. This is one attribute that all in peace keeping need… the ability to act with force when necessary. Peace Keepers cannot function without this facet of life being present with them wherever they are!
At times this power can and does border on super human strength and might. Many are the stories of these events in the lives of Peace Keepers and civilians alike…. one Peace Keeper defeating many enemies or perpetrators… or a small woman lifting a car off a loved one.
Health, strength, peace and power brings a Peace Keeper to the condition described by the word titan. Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier from WW2 in Europe, was a very small man physically who grew up on a farm in Texas in a very poor family. He knew how to hunt and shoot. None of the services wanted him when he went to apply. Finally the Army took him, trained him and assigned him to a Rifle Company in the Third Division. The commander there tried to send him to a rear unit because of his size and his reaction to the inoculations that he received in Boot. He requested to not be transferred. He was a most effective soldier against the German Army and quickly rose through the ranks to Lieutenantand was being given a field appointment to West Point when he was wounded and had to accept discharge. He became a very good movie star in the popular western movies of the day and is still one of my most favorite movie stars… small in stature… but a titan… a mighty giant in action.
It is not so much size that matters… what matters is possessing health, strength, peace and power… plus the attitude and spiritual well being to put them to use for the very best results that you are able to attain. Every Peace Keeper could be a person like this if we would keep it all in the proper application and practice… and use perseverance… never let down and never quit aiming to do our best with the opportunities presented to us wherever we are.
In the short history of this nation we have a very, very long list of those Peace Keepers who did the best they could with what they had where they were until they could do no more. This nation of all of us have life, liberty and peace because of all of those heroes… living and dead.
Peace Keepers are the raw material, the backbone and the glue that has established this nation and held it together for all the rest of our society. We have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as we know it in this country because individuals stepped out from the herd of humanity and said we will fight and defend so that you may live in freedom. They have come in all sizes, all colors and both sexes. We are who we because of the Peace Keepers who sacrificed to give all citizens the opportunities for life as we know it.
Peace Keepers of today and the immediate past… my Commander-in-Chief and I appreciate your lives; your service; and your dedication. You are all most precious to us as His Ministers of Rightness. We care about your whole being… and we care about what is important to you. This message has been written today because we care so very much for you and about you. We want you to not only survive… but live and be safe and successful.
To that end we have talked to you about health, strength, peace, power and your being Titans… of prodigious size, giants no matter your physical stature… of mighty strength… and of most effective achievement. We give all we can that you will allowus to give to you… our desire for your well being knows no bounds. You are most precious to us.
As you go and do… “BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!” Be alert, watchful, suspicious and wary. Take the greatest of care of and for you… for if you do not then you will not be capable of serving for very long. In taking great care of and for you, please do not neglect your spiritual welfare… for you need to be spiritually strong as well as physically strong. Life is not lived only in the physical realm… but in the spiritual realm also. To be truly mighty and successful you need spiritual strength as well as physical strength. We will see to that if you need help from us and you will allow us to help you.
As it has always been… so it still is…
“VICTORIOUS WARRIORS WIN FIRST…
AND THEN GO TO WAR,
WHILE DEFEATED WARRIORS GO TO WAR FIRST…
AND THEN SEEK TO WIN.” Sun tzu
ONLY LIVE PEACE KEEPERS SEE THE VICTORY!!!
THEY SEE IT ONLY BECAUSE OTHERS HAVE MADE THEIR ETERNAL PAYMENTS OF SWEAT, BLOOD, TEARS AND LIFE FOR THAT VICTORY!
WITH THE DEEPEST OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT…
BE BLESSED (A CONDITION TO BE ENVIED)…
BE SUCCESSFUL… BE SAFE…
[My injunction to be safe means doing all you know to do as you do your job... it means doing the best you can with what you have where you are using all your faculties to get the job done well and with good results conquering evil and keeping or restoring peace... it does not mean to avoid duty and honor... it does not mean to cower or allow anything to hinder you in the process of duty according to rules, law and ethics... it means that if the demand takes your earthly life you destroy as much evil as possible in the process. That is my definition of being safe... doing the best you can and leaving the rest to God or whomever else is responsible... being best employed for the sake and protection of all the things and people that we hold dear.]
I represent, write for… and give the credit to:
God the Father (my Commander-in-Chief),
Jesus Christ the Son (the Eternal Captain of my life) and
the Holy Spirit of God (my Eternal Teacher, Keeper and Guide).
In Christ I live… with Him and for you I serve…
Chaplain D. R. Staton (Don – C1) VBPD, VSP ALUMNI,
RETIRED VBPD Officer, Instructor, Senior Chaplain, Director of Chaplains
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
Copyright: CHAPLAIN CORNER (DRS) 2006. All rights reserved. May not be duplicated without permission, except to be forwarded with copyright and all source information for any quotation intact.
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