The Month of Love ...

Conflict is a part of life; it is a part of human history. A study reported in the Canadian Army Journal regarding the frequency of human conflicts came up with this interesting statistic – since 3600 B.C. the world has only known 292 years of peace. During this period there have been 14,531 wars, large and small, in which 3,640,000,000 people have been killed.

What does conflict have to do with Love? A whole lot if you're a Princess Warrior for Christ attempting to reign real, with love, in a world that is riddled with conflict.

Love is always a big topic during the month of February. After all, the one, the only ... Valentine's Day falls on the 14th of this month. People that don't spend a great deal of time focused on loving are forced to acknowledge its existence for at least one day. For us as daughters of the King, love is is a trait that is to flow through our lives not just one day, but every day! Unfortunately, as fallible human beings, loving doesn't always come naturally or easily. In fact, relationships are just plain hard. Don't I know!

Recently, there was a conflict between my daughter and one of her friends. Being the type that takes very seriously the "don't let the sun go down on your anger" command, I wanted to resolve this situation in the quickest most effective manner. Unfortunately, the situation between the girls deteriorated rapidly. Not good, considering the girls are both in the same classroom. Ten year old girls are at that "tween" stage and gossiping and all that "mean girl" stuff is beginning to rear its ugliness. Both girls nabbed their own "supporters" and the battle was on.

To make a long story short (forgive the cliche') I tried to intervene with the mother, who is a big fan of let's just pretend the other person doesn't exist all in the name of personal boundaries. So we've got her daughter ignoring mine and my daughter obsessively pushing for reconciliation. Somewhere in the middle there was a place of balance that we all managed to miss.

Sadly, the other mom and myself had a not-so-nice conversation. I stopped loving and started responding in anger. Granted, I felt strongly about her opinion, but as a Christian woman I am required to act differently than women in the world. For a few brief minutes, during a heated phone conversation, I didn't represent my King very well. What she said may not have been okay, but that's not the point. I'm to exhibit love and compassion. I became a defensive mama bear. Needless to say, we both had our claws out and the phone call didn't end well. At all.

Although, that sinful human side of me wants to plead my case to anyone who will listen, I have chosen to seek support solely from my mother and one close friend. Although I don't like her behavior (nor mine) it is critical that I take this situation to Christ and pray for blessings on her and her family. Not easy to do in the midst of conflict.

Conflict. No semi-sane person enjoys it. But every person at some time or another will be in the middle of it. The above statistics make that quite clear. However, our goal as Princess Warriors is the fight the right battle. Love is our best weapon. On our knees in prayer is the preferred battle stance. Sisters, let us remember to forgive, love, and pray. We can go to God with all our complaints and feelings rather than gossiping to others. We can clean up our side of the street regardless of what dirt remains on the other side.

I'm guessing you might have a current conflict, or have had one in the recent past. If so, how are you handling everything? Are you using the right weapons? If not, maybe you, like me, need to ask for God's love to diffuse the negative situation.

Right now, I'm reading a wonderful book about resolving conflict by Joyce Meyers. I highly recommend it to anyone. Based on Scripture, Joyce shares wisdom and provides a plan of action to help you release conflict and avoid strife. http://www.amazon.com/Conflict-Free-Living-Joyce-Meyer/dp/1599790629 is the link to Amazon's page about this title if you're interested.

Let us love without limits as Princess Warriors for Christ.

Watch for more posts on love in the days ahead.