Are You a Peacemaker or a Peacebreaker?

"It is to a man's honor to avoid strife..."

"Better a patient man than a warrior,
a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city."

"Shoot first and then ask questions."

If you took a poll and asked people which of the three quotes above would be most helpful to live by, which one do you think they would choose? One would hope it would be either of the first two quotes, but the truth is, the "Rambo Effect" has touched a lot of people in our society: Do what needs to be done to get one's way and then think about cleaning up the mess afterward.

Do you know from where the three quotes come? The first two are from the book of the Bible called Proverbs. The third is supposedly attributed to Herman Goering, the second in command of Adolph Hitler's Third Reich.

While there may be extraordinary moments, such as in military combat, that the phrase "Shoot first and then ask questions" would apply, the truth is many people are living out this kind of thinking in everyday situations. But there is no room for such an attitude in our homes, schools and neighborhoods.

We can't understand why families are breaking up at such a catastrophic rate or why parents and their children can't get along or why our politicians can't seem to come to compromises, but we ridicule as "weak" the person who avoids strife, who controls his temper and walks away from the fight in the best interest of a long term solution.

There is a tremendous amount of material in the Bible about peace. It is pretty clear that God takes peace very seriously. Join us this Sunday (July 24) at 10:00 am as we explore the role of peace in the Christian life. And as a preparation, think about the opening question of this article. Are you a peacemaker or a peacebreaker?