Manly Man Training #24: Be a peacemaker

In life there are lots of times when negative things are said about other people.  Sometimes it doesn't even have to be said, but may be just thought and then acted out subtly in a person's actions.  Even without the saying of it, it can cause discord in the family, the church as a whole or the quorum or ward council.  People sometimes get their feelings hurt, or their ire up, or they think someone has said something negative about them or implied that they weren't good enough at their job, at their calling at their anything.  It could even be that a person's children were too rambunctious in Sacrament meeting or the parents did not intervene in a timely manner and then a good Priesthood holder says something out of the way, or someone overhears him say something but didn't really hear all or even the point of what he was saying.  All this is opportunity for offense, hurt feelings, anger or feeling pushed out of the group. 

No matter how you spruce it up, a pistol is not the peacemaker being referred to here.

The way we combat this is through being a peacemaker.  Now, surely some of you who read this will have a little snicker at that word thinking about the colt peacemaker pistol.  No that is not what I'm talking about.  I am not talking about keeping peace through having a great offensive weapon.  Nor am I referring to peace keepers who are UN soldiers sent from some countries to attempt to keep peace in a dangerous place.  I'm talking about being peaceful and then influencing others to promote peace as well.

No indeed the peacemaker I'm referring to here is the one who sees and understands that people can be and occasionally are hurt and then actively working to help others overcome rather than sucumb to it.  President Eyring says it better from May Ensign 2011 (p63): "The priesthood holders who learn well together always seem to me to have great peacemakers among them.  You see peacemaking in priesthood classes and in councils.  it is the gift to help people find common ground when others are seeing differences.  It is the peacemaker's gift to help people see that what someone else said was a contribution rather than a correction.  With enough of the pure love of Christ and a desire to be peacemakers, unity is possible in priesthood councils and in classes.  It takes patience and humility, but I have seen it happen even when issues are difficult and the people in councils or classes come from vastly different backgrounds."

Unity rather than division, that is what we as manly men try to do.  Unity in our homes between husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters and in our church between members of the Elder's Quorum or any other quorum or group.  Helping different, sometimes very different people feel part of the group and blessing others with perspective rather than complaining in the background or leaving the group entirely. 

So brethren will you seek to gain, increase or use your peacemaking skills to help unify the groups that you participate in?  Will you seek the Lord's guidance to strive to be a better peacemaker and to increase the peace in our lives so that we can have the consequences of peace rather than the consequences of discord; love instead of distrust, hate or fear?