In the final week of Over Time, we talked about how kindness over time equals peace.

Over Time – Week 3

One of the hardest things in life to navigate is conflict. It’s messy, it’s frustrating, it’s hard to get over, and, unfortunately, it’s unavoidable. If you’re in a relationship of any kind—with a best friend, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, your parents, your siblings—you’re eventually going to experience conflict in some form. Hurt feelings, tension, fighting—they’re inevitable parts of relationship.

But fortunately for us, that doesn’t have to be the end of the story. Though at times it might feel like your relationships could crumble under the weight of conflict, we have access to the key to keeping that from happen. We have the key to keeping the peace.

Check it out: Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness (James 3:18 NIV).

James is telling us that if we want peace in our relationships, we have to be the peacemakers. We have the power not only to bring peace into difficult relationship, but also to keep the peace in those relationships once the moment of conflict has passed. And what’s more than that, when we put peace into our relationship we’ll see righteousness—honesty, virtue, good things—come out of it.

That’s certainly not to say it’s always going to be easy! Sometimes we have to choose peace even when we don’t want to, knowing that the promise from God is that peace over time will grow righteousness in our lives and relationships. Is there a difficult relationship or conflict you’re in right now? Ask God to show you how you can be the peacemaker in that situation. And then pray for His courage to keep choosing peace.