Which Kind Are You? - Daughters of Promise - May 17

WHICH KIND ARE YOU?
Christine Wyrtzen

I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. Psalm 16:7

Truth tellers aren't afraid to confront others if necessary.  In fact, they can even enjoy it and see it as a sport.  They just don't understand those who love peace and who struggle before entering a conflict.

It’s always a shock when a peacemaker is willing to fight.  It’s equally shocking when a fighter lays down his sword and pulls a chair up to the table to seek peace.  Both have earned a reputation for responding to life in a certain way but out of the blue, they might make a different choice and shock everyone around them.

Each of us is bent, because of our personality, more toward one or the other.  Gentle spirits love peace and hate conflict.  Feisty spirits love a good fight and see those who seek peace as being weak.

We build a track record for only responding one way and those around us count on us reacting as we have always done.  I am a peacemaker, by nature, and not easily inflamed.  It takes a lot to anger me and while that can appear admirable, I can tell you that it can be a fault.  A friend once told me, after hearing a few stories where I was badly harassed by others, that I was patient to a fault.  She was right.

A balanced child of God, one who is like Jesus, does not act solely out of his personality type.  He listens to Jesus and follows Him even when he is asked to do something difficult.  A fighter needs to learn to be still.  A peacemaker needs to learn how to fight.  There is a time to take the hill and there is a time to flee conflict.

Many of us can live our lives thinking that the bents of our personality are righteous.  Peacemakers applaud all peacemaking and throw stones at those who always want to lead a charge.  Fighters ridicule peacemakers and believe them to be weak.  May we meet in the middle?  Both are needed and both, acting under the direction of the Spirit, play pivotal roles in the purposes of God.

Teach me when to fight and when to retreat.  Give me the boldness to step outside of my peacemaker box and reassurance when I am am called to do what comes natural - be an agent of reconciliation. In Jesus name,  Amen

For more from Christine Wyrtzen and Jaime Wyrtzen Lauze, please visit www.daughtersofpromise.org