Peace: Blessed are the Peacemaking Mothers
One recent Sunday after my husband’s sermon wound down, just at the moment a young man was stepping down into the baptistry, I found myself suddenly covered in my toddler son’s vomit.
I opened the door of the cry room and carried him in a limping run towards the bathroom, leaving a spectacular trail in my wake. “Lord have mercy!” I observed to bystanders in the lobby as we passed by. My hands were stupidly trying to catch the stuff as we went along.
I laughed when I got to the bathroom and saw the two of us in the mirror, both good for nothing but home and a shower. I laughed as I scrubbed the cry room carpet, with help from a few fellow church members. I laughed on the way home, opening the skylight of the car to keep my boy from falling asleep before I could get him into bed.
An unexpected line of Scripture was in my mind: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14).
Peace When There is No Peace
If you ask the internet how to get inner peace, it has much to say. Get plenty of sleep, it says. Do less each day. Practice non-judgment. Single-task; don’t multi-task. Not only is this kind of advice comically unhelpful in the face of motherhood, it fails to address the deepest problem, the real reason why we struggle to find inner peace in the first place.
The world believes that our problems are generally external. We need the rooms in our house to be clean and decluttered and to contain a large potted plant or a hanging terrarium. We need quiet. We need plenty of sleep and maybe a good detox smoothie. We need to remove toxic people from our lives. This is the recipe for peace.
But how can we get peace when there’s clutter because we’re in the middle of a morning of homeschooling? When there is so much noise? When we haven’t had a good night of sleep, and when our own children, and our own hearts, are producing much of the sin and conflict we deal with each day? How can we have peace when the world’s idea of peace is not available—the kind of peace that comes from clean, quiet, and absence of people who make life harder? How can we have peace when there is no peace?
My Peace I Give to You
When we think of peace today, we think of the absence of chaos. But, when Scripture was given, people were likely to think of the absence of war. Peace between nations was rare, and war was a major cause of suffering.
The Israelites understood conflict; they just didn’t always understand who they were in conflict with or why. They thought other nations were the problem, but they often missed the fact that by the time the other nations came to carry them away, they had already been at war with their Father for many years.
The conflict they were locked in was a war between subjects and their true King, between a son and a Father, between a mother Hen and her rebellious chicks.[1] Peace would never come, so long as they were locked in conflict with the One who made and called them.
Finally, Jesus came and brought the true kingdom of peace. In his death, he made peace between a Holy Father and his people.
When he was preparing to leave the disciples after his death and resurrection, he said “my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27). The word he’s using to bless his people is eirene in the Greek New Testament—it is the absence of conflict and disorder. It is well-being and wholeness. It is something everyone wants but few people know how to get.
And this kind of peace, not as the world gives, is what they received. When the Holy Spirit was poured out, he brought a breathtaking array of fruit, according to Galatians 5. One of those fruits was the fruit of peace.
So What Does it Look Like?
If we were asking the world of Instagram, peace would mean a potted plant by a window. If we were asking the world in the time of Jesus, peace would mean the absence of war. It would mean enough to eat and plowshares instead of swords. Peace in any time means your sister-in-law isn’t harassing you, your husband is faithful, your children are obedient. Peace is relational and environmental. Peace is the absence of chaos and confrontation.
Is this the gift of peace that Galatians 5 is promising to us, as possessors of the Holy Spirit?
Our peace in the Holy Spirit is more than just the (good and lovely) blessing of relational, environmental peace. Our peace in the Holy Spirit goes with us wherever we go. Because we are now at peace with God, rather than in rebellious war, because we are now connected to the Father, friends with him through the work of Jesus, we know true peaceful fellowship
We are now able, even in the midst of righteous war against the world, our flesh, and the devil, to be at peace throughout our days. We are able to bring peace with us into each relationship, each task, each interaction, rather than bringing only chaos. When we break peace with each other, we now have a path to restore peace, because the God of peace has made that path for us.
Blessed are the Peacemaking Mothers
Jesus specifically described the peacemakers as “blessed,” saying they would be called sons of God (Matt. 5:9). The word “peacemaker” is a compound word made from eirene, which we already saw indicates absence of chaos and conflict. So, peacemakers are makers of order from chaos, workers of resolution from conflict. They do what their Father does because they love what their Father loves.
And what better description of the work of the mother? We are makers of order, workers of conflict resolution.
This means that when our children fight, we can lead them through a well-worn path to reconciliation—a path we know very well through the power of the Holy Spirit. We can even discipline in the name of peace, upholding obedience as a key part of a household economy that honors God, who loves order over chaos.[2]
We can laugh in the face of church vomit and other environmental chaos. Where possible, we can roll up our sleeves and bring order out of chaos on a regular basis, imitating our Father. We can be peacemakers, ordering our days as much as possible but recognizing that rather than being little queens of creation, we are actually stewards, doing our duty with what we’ve been given and trusting our good Master for results.
Our peace is not defined by the peacefulness of exterior circumstances. A Christian mother carries the peace of God, which surpasses human understanding.[3] We pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.[4] We are known to be peacemakers, blessed of God, sons of God,[5] and this fruit of peace is part of our birthright as new creatures in Christ.[6] The peace we carry is not the absence of accidents and altercations; it’s the peace wrought by the Holy Spirit.
[1] Matthew 23:37
[2] 1 Corinthians 14:33
[3] Philippians 4:7
[4] Romans 14:19
[5] Matthew 5:9
[6] 2 Corinthians 5:17
R|M Apply Questions
What is the greatest obstacle to a feeling of peace in your home or day?
Consider what parts of the feeling of chaos result simply from children being children. What are the things you can learn to peacefully enjoy even when they don’t look like peace according to Instagram’s definition? What would it look like to have peace even in the midst of these realities?
What parts of the environmental chaos in your home can be lovingly addressed through training, cleaning, correction, etc.?
Just as we maintain the understanding of peace with a spouse or friend by regularly communing with them, we renew our souls in the knowledge that we’re at peace with God by contemplating Christ’s finished work on the cross and regularly speaking to God our Father in the name of Jesus. How can prayer play a role in your pursuit of peace?
