Peace

Peace

Turn away from evil and do good. Work hard at living in peace with others.

1 Peter 3:11

Because baseball was always a love of our son Nate’s life (and still is), Jim and I anticipated that he would play all the way through twelfth grade. Somewhere in the middle of high school, though, he lost his zest to play. His coach used foul language and yelled a lot, and Nate felt demoralized by that behavior. While watching Nate’s spirits slump lower and lower, Jim and I listened to him and prayed for him. We also encouraged him to speak with his coach one-on-one. That wasn’t easy to do, but he did it. He used the AAA approach that our family has adopted for such times: affirmation, assertion, action.

Nate affirmed his coach for his good qualities, spoke assertively of how discouraged he felt by the foul language and yelling, and asked his coach to please cut out the offensive behavior. Although the coach thanked him for coming to talk and apologized for his behavior, there was no significant change. Nate finished that season well but decided not to play high school baseball after that.

Nate’s decision was a difficult one. He loved baseball, and he didn’t want to be a quitter. But sometimes making a decision to get out of something demoralizing is a strong and peace-loving thing to do. God’s help and wisdom shows us the right path to take. “Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:6).

Father,

Sometimes our life situations are confusing and full of unrest. Please give us wisdom on how to turn away from evil and how to live in peace. In Jesus’ name, amen.