Blessed Are The Peacemakers!

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.” (Matthew 5:9 NIV)

Hello again!

This is the eighth article in an important series on unifying Americans. In the past articles in this series, I wrote that we must dig even deeper than our political differences to the bedrock that potentially unifies all of us:

1. Our love and devotion to a higher power.

2. Our love of self.

3. Our love of family.

4. Our love of friends.

5. Our love of community and the groups that we are a part of.

6. Our love of sense of accomplishment at work and in service to others.

7. Our love of city, state and country.

8. Our love of the freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights of our U.S. Constitution.

9. Our love of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

10. Our thankfulness that we live in one of the greatest countries of all time.

11. Our love of peace.

It is this last point that I will concentrate on in this article. In order to keep the United States strong, free and unified in the future, we all need to become good peacemakers.

According to Merriam Webster, a peacemaker is “one who makes peace, especially by reconciling parties at variance.”

Peacemaking is a lifestyle choice. It involves working to diffuse potential disagreements and conflicts. When there is an issue between two precious, salt-of-the-earth souls, a peacemaker will help to bring about reconciliation and then restoration in a way that is a “win/win” for both parties. A peacemaker needs to be humble, a good listener, empathetic and fair.

A peacemaker also understands the consequences of continued conflict and discord. In past articles and stories, I have honored and celebrated both sides of my great family. But I will admit that in one small tangent of my family, there were members that relished conflict and discord instead of reconciliation and peace. Sometimes these feuds lasted for years. In fact, one was for over 20 years – 1/4th of a person’s lifetime!

Previously, I mentioned that being a peacemaker was a lifestyle. Here are a few examples out of my own life:

In my first job out of college, I worked for a dental pharmaceutical company out of Gravette, Arkansas. For the first three months, my sales manager had me concentrate on the former clients that had been upset with the company and refused to purchase any more products. Generally, after multiple visits, I was able to get the former clients purchasing again.

After three months, I was transferred to the company’s Wisconsin territory when the sales representative took his client list and went to work for a competitor. Initially, well over 300 clients switched over and used the other company’s products. However, within several years, all of the former clients were back using our products except for four of them. In fact, the renegade Wisconsin sales representative was so discouraged that he asked for his old job back. It was my decision to say yes or no. I told the company to give him his job back because he performed well in the past for over 25 years. But, this is also what it means to be a peacemaker.

Everywhere that I have worked in the past, regardless of my position or responsibility, I was the last line of defense in order to save a disgruntled client and insure its continued business in the future. Most of the time, many thousands to millions of future dollars were at stake. However, this activity was never in my job description. Where I currently work, I have done this five times in the past seven months alone.

An important point that I have made in most of these articles is that experts in social media and social networking at home and abroad are using these processes to polarize We The People to the point of no return. It is because our enemies know that the only way the United States can be destroyed is from within. Throughout human history, this is the way that most great empires have crumbled and joined the sands of time.

However, a nation of peacemakers will not only keep the United States viable for generations to come, it will also guarantee that We The People will remain strong, free and unified in the areas that matter the most!

Until next time!

Anthony Cota