Create peace by loving others into good will

What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me — practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:9. ESV)

 When Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, one of the most quoted orations of all time, He said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.”
 So what is a peacemaker? A peacemaker is someone who comes into a situation that is stressful, angry, or disturbed and creates peace. This is hard and requires courage.
 I used to think of “peacemaker” as a negotiator, with the objective being to convince both sides to compromise and come to an agreement. It’s a situation where one is only giving to get, and good will isn’t part of the equation. It’s the kind of peace that’s held together by rules and enforcers and disintegrates as soon as it appears one side has failed to comply.
 As peacemakers, our most important job isn’t to change someone’s mind. Jesus didn’t say “Blessed are the mind-changers or argument-winners.
 Gregory Boyle, a Catholic priest who has dedicated his life to the gang community in Los Angeles, said “Moral outrage doesn’t lead us to solutions—it keeps us from them. It keeps us from moving forward toward a fuller more compassionate response to members of our community who belong to us, no matter what they’ve done.”
Spoken like a true peacemaker, one who has stepped out of the boundaries of merely keeping peace and into the hard work of crafting peace, and has inspired me to see, within my own world, opportunities to create peace by loving others into good will.  —Marie Alvero [1]

 It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it. —Eleanor Roosevelt

[1] Activated The Peacemaker