Pray for Peace and Live It Out

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." (Dr. Seuss)

Absolutely nothing will change until we are the ones willing to "get better", "be better", "behave better", and "live better". My sister often says behaving bad is still behaving - it might not be behaving in the "right direction", but it is still behaving! We are living in times where the unexpected happens - where tragedy strikes without warning - and where lives are turned upside-down in the blink of an eye. As Seuss reminds us, unless WE care a whole awful lot - absolutely nothing will change! These times demand peace-makers and peace-givers. We have way more of the other side of that coin than we need!

Great blessings belong to those who work to bring peace. God will call them his sons and daughters. (Matthew 5:9 ERV)

Being a peacemaker is not the easiest job in the world, but it is a role into which each of God's children are called. We are called to be bearers of God's grace and examples of his love. It is indeed "work" to bring peace at times - but the rewards of hard labor are often the most rewarding we can experience! It isn't so much if this statue is "right" to have displayed, or if that policy enacted in government offices somewhere is "fair" - it is how much we care about each other and the outcome each of us experiences because we learned to care for each other well.

A couple of thoughts for us today:

- In life there are always going to be choices - how we choose to embrace or reject those choices often determines the peace we will make or the moments of peace we will take from others. As my sis says, we can always "behave", but the choice of behavior is up to us. We own it! We live it! What we need most may be the wake up call that reveals where our "behaving" hasn't exactly been on the "best side" of the choices.

- Others can so easily be offended by our words, so guard them well. Choose those which will be spoken by thinking upon them before they escape your lips. The tiniest spark of words spoken in haste (or in hate) can set a huge forest ablaze.

- Balance opinion with fact - one without the other is not going to keep us steadily headed down the course toward truth. Opinion has a way of being swayed by the monumental amount of input we receive in a day. Truth (fact) has a way of creating balance to that which we receive - but we have to embrace it, learn to live by it, and occasionally even speak it. 

We have to learn to care "a whole awful lot" about each other and truth and less about our opinions if we are to live at peace with one another in this world. Just sayin!