Peacemaker

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God.” Matthew 5:9

My goal this summer is to be the peacemaker without needing an actual “peacemaker”.


Just kidding. Made that one up myself!


It seems that a lot of my time during the summer is spent saying things like,


“Don’t do that…”


“Do this…”


“Stop that…”


“Why did you do that??”


“What are you doing??”


I know summer is just a few days old, but I think I’ve already said the above like 200 times already.


Today I had an epiphany. I began to hear the above bible verse in my head and decided that I would be the peacemaker. I also decided that I didn’t want their summer memories to be of me hovering over them, looking crazy and yelling things, and killing all the fun.


And so today, I tried something different. I came inside to enjoy the air conditioning and let them play by themselves. Ok, I secretly watched and listened through the window, but they were mostly on their own.


I like to think that my sanity has been preserved. I like to think that they had a better time without me saying, “Don’t do that!” and “Stop screaming!” 1,000 times. I like to think that this will help build their common sense about how to get along with each other.


The truth is: They’ll come inside when someone gets hurt.


And I’ll be there to patch things up.