"Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God." Matthew 5:9
Our home is often loud. Especially when my grand babies (both toddlers) stay at the house, someone is almost always singing, trying to tell a story, and often crying. The volume consistently seems to be going up. Sometimes I wish there was a magic mute button to bring the chaos down just a little.
Something I have learned over the years is that peace for me and peace for toddlers looks very different. I want us to use inside voices and move from one place to another calmly. Instead, they want to shout with excitement and run around the living room with their strollers while singing the baby shark song song for the twentieth time that day.
I often get fixated on this vision of peace and quiet, but the reality is, that is not how God defines it. His peace looks like a stability not dependent on circumstances but centered on a deep dependence on Him. Peace can look like quiet and calm moments, but it can also look like loud, crazy fun. We are naturally wired to desire things to go our way, and so instead of bringing peace and stability to situations, we often bring control and power to make things go our way.
If I'm honest, just thinking about within my family, I usually use my authority to reach my desire and miss the opportunity to elevate God. Being a peacemaker is not about making everyone be quiet and forcing people to comply with my vision of how things should go. Instead, a peacemaker brings stability and gratitude to whatever circumstance they face. They work for unity and point people towards God's foundation of love. A peacemaker highlights God's work and helps others submit to His authority.
I think that bringing gratitude and stability to the world around us is how we take a step in becoming a peacemaker. It isn't forcing everyone to do things your way but instead bringing people together to follow God's way. Even with the world's chaos, whether that be the chaos of kids running around or the chaos that we see on the news and social media, God is working and with us. He does not leave us and wish us luck amid turmoil, but instead, He is here and working for the redemption of the relationship He desires with every one of us. How would you define peace? What does it look like to bring peace to those around you?
Prayer: Father God, thank you for being with me and working in and through me. I pray that as I go through my days, I wouldn't look for ways to make people or my circumstances comply with what I want, but that instead, I would submit to Your authority and invite others into the stability that brings. I pray that You would use me to bring peace to those I interact with and that they would see more of You through me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
