It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on

Hear the words of Jimmy Carter, farmer, president, and man of faith, who declared: “It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature’s gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever.” These words, spoken with the simplicity of truth, carry the weight of a prophecy and the tenderness of a prayer. They remind us that the survival of beauty, the endurance of peace, and the inheritance of the earth’s treasures are bound together in a single, sacred thread.

At the heart of Carter’s vision lies the union of love and peace. Without love, peace is fragile, a mere truce of silence before another storm. Without peace, love is wounded, unable to grow in the soil of conflict. These two, when joined, become the foundation of all that is enduring. They are not lofty abstractions but living forces that shape how we treat one another, how we treat the world, and how we pass it on to the generations yet unborn.

And then Carter turns his eyes to the future: children. If the young are taught reverence for nature’s gifts, then rivers may continue to run clear, forests may stand tall, and the skies may remain bright with the song of birds. To fail in this teaching is to break the chain of stewardship, leaving behind not a garden, but a wasteland. The world is not ours to consume—it is a trust handed to us, so that we may pass it onward, enriched rather than diminished.

History bears witness to this wisdom. Consider the ancient Iroquois Confederacy, who taught the principle of the “Seventh Generation”: that every decision must be weighed by its impact on those who would live seven generations hence. They understood, as Carter reminds us, that the beauties of the outdoors are not simply for one lifetime, but for the endless unfolding of time. Where such wisdom is heeded, the earth flourishes. Where it is ignored, the land grows barren, and the people with it.

Carter himself, raised in the farmlands of Georgia, knew firsthand the abundance and fragility of nature’s gifts. He spoke as one who had walked the soil, planted seeds, and seen harvests rise and fall. His words come not from theory, but from lived truth: that the earth is generous, but only if honored. This echoes across centuries of human experience—wherever men and women walked gently, the land blessed them; wherever they grasped greedily, the land withered in protest.

The meaning of the saying is both gentle and urgent. The joys of the outdoors—the laughter of children beneath trees, the peace of rivers flowing, the majesty of mountains—are not guaranteed. They survive only if we honor them with gratitude, restraint, and reverence. To act in love and peace is not only to heal human hearts, but to safeguard the earth itself. For war consumes forests, hatred poisons rivers, and greed devours soil. Only peace sustains, only love replenishes.

The lesson for us is clear: live in such a way that your children and their children may know the same beauty you have known. Teach them not only to admire a flower, but to protect it; not only to walk through the forest, but to defend it; not only to delight in the world’s bounty, but to share it with all. The actions are simple yet profound: plant trees, protect rivers, cherish the land, and above all, cultivate love and peace in every home and every heart.

So let Jimmy Carter’s words endure: “If love and peace prevail, and if we teach our children to honor nature’s gifts, the joys of the outdoors will last forever.” May these words guide us as law and as prayer. For the future is not written in stars alone, but in how we choose to live today. If we sow peace, if we sow love, and if we sow reverence for the earth, then beauty will remain a companion to humankind for all the ages to come.