One of the verses I quote most frequently to my children is:
Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.
Romans 12:18
I use it at least three times a day, when my children come to me to settle their sibling wars.
But here's the thing, sometimes you cannot live at peace with everyone. Sometimes you have to agree to disagree and walk away. That is a very hard thing for a peace-loving person like me to do. I get so stuck in thinking if I just try harder I can find peace. But sometimes you just can't. Even in the body of Christ sometimes peace cannot be found.
I've really been struggling with that lately. I've been trying hard to channel my inner Elsa and just "Let it go." But my type A personality keeps me up at night wondering if there's something I can do or something I can say to bring about peace.
Recently God gave me an answer: love. When you can't understand why someone is behaving a certain way, when you can't find common ground, when you can't get them to lay down their weapons and just choose peace, choose love.
It's not my job to heal relationships. It's not my job to enforce peace. My job is to love people the way Christ loves people and let God take care of all the rest.
Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.
Ephesians 4:2
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