from Lenae, GEMS Training Manager
INSTRUMENT OF PEACE
Better a meal of vegetables where there is love
than a fattened calf with hatred.
Proverbs 15:17
When all our daughters were still in the nest, anytime Mother’s Day, my birthday, or Christmas rolled around they would ask what I wanted for a present. Their question always included a disclaimer, “And you can’t say, ‘No more fighting!’”
What I considered a great gift didn’t count as a real gift to those little girls. Most mammas would agree that peace and love within the family is better than diamond earrings, roses, and even fine chocolates. It’s something Solomon understood as well:
· Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife (17:1).
· Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred (15:17).
· Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife (25:24).
· As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife (26:21).
· A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day (27:15).
Chapter 15 of Proverbs commends peace in our relationships – peace with God – the fear of the LORD (v 16), peace with others – love (v 17), and peace with self – a cheerful heart (v 15). It’s God’s desire for our relationships and Jesus’ prayer: I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me (John 17:20-21).
Our love for each around the dinner table and the communion table powerfully points the world to God’s love. Strife within families and division within the church is destructive to the individuals involved and negates our witness in this world.
The way of the wise is marked with peace. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace (3:17). Wise people seek to restore broken relationships. When they promote peace they experience joy (12:20) and physically feel better (14:30). When we pursue God’s wisdom in relationships instead of following the foolishness of the world that holds grudges and seeks revenge, even our enemies will live at peace with us (16:7).
The God of peace commands us to be instruments of peace. If it is possible as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:18). Make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification (Romans 14:19).
Wisdom Step: Is there a friend or family member that you need to make peace with today? If so, be wise. Make the effort instead of making excuses.
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
when there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Oh Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying [to ourselves] that we are born to eternal life.
-St. Francis
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
when there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Oh Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying [to ourselves] that we are born to eternal life.
-St. Francis
No comments:
Post a Comment