Violet Voices

Blessed are the Peacemakers

by Meredith Efken

Happy New Year! I was pondering what to write about for my first post of 2007. Goals are SO passe, everyone does them at this time of year. And anyway, that’s not what I discovered is on my heart.

We live in such a violent world. A world where you push first before the other person can shove you. Where “preemptive strikes” (euphemism for starting wars) and picking fights has become common wisdom. This is a world that glorifies the bloody, romanticizes fighting, where being tough and uncompromising is considered virtuous.

It’s a culture where listening and negotiating is considered a sign of weakness. Where humility is scorned and soulful reflection and deliberation is mocked. Act now, hit hard, don’t retreat, and never apologize–those are the messages being hurled at us from every direction.

Even in our Christian communities, this lifestyle of aggression and violence is being accepted as normal, and even embraced and admired by some. As a novelist, I see this trend in our Christian fiction–sex and bad language are still taboo, but there is almost a no-holds-barred attitude about violence. You can stack the bodies to the ceiling, and even place decapitated human heads on your kitchen counter, but we are incensed by overt sensuality or cussing. Many of our leaders send us the message that violence is necessary, that working for peace is a liberal, unChristian thing to do. Some even believe that wars and death and violence are good and to be celebrated because this is a sign of the “end times” and should be encouraged.

How far we have wandered from the teachings of Jesus! The one who talked about turning one’s cheek, who taught that ones who make peace are blessed in the earth. The one whose birth was announced by angels proclaiming peace on earth! This Jesus, that we strive to follow, was a person of peace, of love. When we follow the way of violence, we are combining ungodly elements of our culture into our faith, and this corrupts our faith.

So this year, I want our family to become better peacemakers. I’ve been reading about how to teach kids to manage conflicts and anger, and how to make peace. I’ll post on what I’m learning and what resources I’m finding in the coming days.

To me, this IS living out my faith in Jesus. This is following Christ. What I hope is that when people come in contact with me or my children, they will come away feeling a deeper sense of peace and calm, an oasis amid the desert of violence that has become our world.

The Blessed are the Peacemakers by Violet Voices, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Written By: Meredith Efken
Posted under: On Being a Parent .  Email This Post