Book Review: The Peace Project, by Kay Wills Wyma

I don't know about you, but I feel like the last 18 months have been desperately lacking in Peace. Inner peace, community peace, and world peace have been replaced by inner turmoil, community protests, and world unrest. 

When I saw the title The Peace Project, 

I knew this was a book I needed to read right now.

Before even opening the cover (which is so striking, by the way!), I noticed the forward is written by Ron Hall, co-author of Same Kind of Different as Me. I loved that book so much and still highly recommend it! You can read my review HERE.

On a busy morning, Kay Wyma backed out of her driveway, only to be met by a rude driver. Kay reacted like many of us do - cursing and swearing at the other driver from the safety of our own car. 

She texted a friend to share the encounter, but her friend's text didn't share her outrage. Instead, she shared a personal story of a time when a bad day made her the "rude driver."

That perspective started to shift something in Kay's heart. 

And that shift birthed The Peace Project.

Kay discovered that the combination of Thankfulness, Kindness, and Mercy (TKM) brought in waves of inner peace. She invited her friends and family on a 30-day practice to see if they could create more peace in their lives.

I will admit, this book went in a different direction than I expected. I thought this would be a 30-day guide with practical peace-making steps. I expected exercises and ideas for executing a peace plan.

Instead, Kay shares the stories of living out TKM in the midst of everyday life. The goal was to find a reason to practice each of the three every day. Some days, they happened naturally. Other times, they had to seek out or create opportunities. Thankfulness and Kindness seemed to be the easiest for Kay and her friends to access. Mercy became the real kicker. 

Kay's writing style is honest, personable, and really fun. Each chapter opens and closes with a quote inspired by the themes, and these alone are worth the price of admission. Most chapters close with a short paragraph written by one of Kay's friends and their own experience of living out one aspect of TKM. There's also space for you to track you own daily progress.

In the end, I'm glad this wasn't simply a "how to". I was inspired and engaged by the stories in this book. I don't think I've ever given so much thought to living out Mercy in my everyday life! And here's the thing, we all say we want Peace, but we define it as an "absence of conflict." How do we ever create an absence of anything??? Finding this TKM combination might just be the the secret formula to creating Peace in our homes, our communities, and maybe one day, in our world.

Kay is offering FREE gifts with pre-orders from her site (the pre-orders were still available as of today's blogpost date). Scroll down her Books page to also find FREE downloadable Bible studies! 

Here's the link:

https://kaywyma.com/books-stuff/

Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.