Blessed are the Peacemakers

It's been just over a week since I lost my cool and went on a huge rant about a variety of issues within adoption--adoptive parent responsibility, agency responsibility, corruption, etc.. I think that the last week has been one of the most stressful weeks of my life. I can honestly say that the ups and downs of the last week have been even more severe than the ups and downs of my own adoptions.

As I said in my post a week ago, I think there is a time to stand up and fight. I think there is a time to go on the offensive. I was ready for battle. But what I hadn't considered in my anger and frustration is that all too cliche question, "What would Jesus do?"

Over and over and over this week different things in my life have served as reminders to me that Jesus was a peacemaker. Especially during this Easter season, how could I forget how many times He had to swallow His words (his TRUTHFUL words) in order to obey the will of God and ultimately be crucified for our sins?

Yes, there was certainly a time when Jesus had righteous anger. He was human after all, and had all of the emotions that I do. He was angry when He went into the temple and saw bartering and selling of goods. Angry. And He showed His anger. And He took action! So last week at this time, honestly, I thought that my anger was "righteous" as well. I felt my anger was justified. And maybe it was. Probably it was. But that doesn't mean that the action I wanted to take was the will of God.

What would Jesus do? What would He do in my situation? Well, I think that He has whispered a reminder to me several times this week that I forgot to try to make peace before I declared war. Oops. Oh yeah, peace. Doesn't the Bible teach us that if we have a problem with someone we should go to that person and speak face to face about the problem before we go to others to complain? Oops. Sorry Lord.

I'm sorry if my post seems cryptic. I can't openly speak about everything going on. But I can speak about my feelings. I am NOT taking back anything I wrote last week. I'm not doing an about face. But I feel like, thanks to these reminders the Lord kept sending my way in the past week, I now have a deeper understanding of what needs to happen. I spoke of war. I spoke of battle. But anger doesn't have to lead to those things when it comes to issues between two people. Peacemaking efforts can also lead to resolution.

I've asked forgiveness to the Lord for my assumption that the step after my anger should be war-like action. He would try peace first. As will I.

Isaiah 53:7-10
Isaiah 33:15-16
Hebrews 4:13
Romans 12:14-16
1 Peter 5:6-7