I was listening to “Good Morning America” while I fed my younger children breakfast, and I heard the familiar voice of former President Jimmy Carter. Since the interview was being broadcast from Plains, Georgia, in my home state, I couldn’t help but become intrigued with what he was talking about.

I kept hearing the name Mattie, and the two people being interviewed were Mattie’s mother and Jimmy Carter. Who’s Mattie? They were talking about a new book called Just Peace, written by young author Mattie Stepanek.

Actually, I found out that Mattie Stepanek passed away two years ago, in 2004, and some of his last words were, “Did I do enough on the book?” He had a rare form of muscular dystrophy that finally took his life at the age of 13.

Maybe all of you already know this but me. Mattie Stepanek was a poet and New York Times bestselling author for his Heartsongs series of poetry books. You can read more about him and his book on his website. Here’s what I found out about his book, Just Peace, that is being released today:

“Just Peace offers a collection of essays and e-mail correspondence between Mattie and Former President Jimmy Carter, as these two peacemakers work together to realize their vision of a peaceful world. The book also contains many photographs, along with selections of Mattie’s artwork and peace poetry … A portion of the proceeds of this book go to the MDA Mattie Fund.”

Here is a brief excerpt from one of his poems. You can read the rest of the poem on his website here:

I just found out that Mattie’s mother, Jeni, will be starting an official book tour today telling the world about her son’s last book, Just Peace. Jeni also has the adult-onset form of this disease, and the website says that Mattie had a sister, Katie, and two brothers, Stevie and Jamie, who each died during early childhood from this same infant-onset disease that affected Mattie. How can one woman go through so much?

Yet today, she was on “Good Morning America” with Jimmy Carter. And here’s an example of a very busy man who took the time to correspond with a boy who had a big heart and big dreams to further a message of hope.

Now I know some of you are probably getting caught up in the Democrat/Liberal thing when I mention Carter. But I say let’s put that aside and think of the big picture of what Mattie dreamed for the world: peace. It’s the message Jesus shared when He stood on top of the Mount of Olives and proclaimed, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9 KJV).

I think the best place we can begin to start living in a world of peace is to start in our own hearts and in our own homes. Hug your kids today. Don’t yell at them when they mess up. Don’t get so down on yourself when you mess up. Just keep going. Keep making the world a better place by spreading the message of peace.