Several times, recently, I\u2019ve been asked \u201cAre you vaccinated?\u201d It was first asked at our women’s Bible fellowship group and quickly the leader said \u201cWe don\u2019t ask that question here. It is a divisive question.\u201d It was her response also when someone asked if they were Catholic or Protestant. I loved it when she replied \u201cWe don\u2019t label ourselves here. We are all children of God.\u201d I received a text message from a friend that said: \u201cGood morning, Donna! I’m struggling as to whether to get this vaccine or not. Please help. Did you take it? And, in the same day, someone else asked if I had received the vaccine. To each one, I gave a similar response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You must go with what God is telling you. I have family members and friends who have received the vaccine and I don\u2019t shame them in anyway. I have family members and friends who are standing strong and not taking it. I don’t shame them. On a personal note, with or without the vaccine, I am living in the light of eternity that if I stay here a while longer or if I go home to be with Jesus, I\u2019m good. I daily plead the blood of Jesus over my life and my family\u2019s lives. We\u2019ve come this far by faith, and it doesn\u2019t matter what your decision is — you do you and let Holy Spirit be your guide!”
Back in the day\u2026.Jesus\u2019 days on earth, there were always those challenging what foods that should be eaten and what foods shouldn\u2019t be eaten. Divisive conversations. AND, there were those who pointed fingers at a disgraced woman and wanted to throw stones at her because of the errors of her ways. Divisive circumstances \u2013 especially when those who wanted to throw the stones were NOT without sins themselves. I still wonder what Jesus wrote in the sand when all those name-callers and stone-throwers turned and walked away.
I can\u2019t get away from that ageless quote: \u201cWhat would Jesus do?\u201d (WWJD) Jesus was about being a peacemaker. When asked by the Pharisees about paying taxes (divisive question), Jesus paid His taxes (straight from the mouth of a fish). Of course THE Creator would rein in His creation for help. When conflicts arose\u2026.He walked away or He pointed out the better way.
And somewhere in the mix \u2013 He broke the conflict mold by declaring this: \u201cA new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.\u201d (John 13:34-35
If we really desired to be like Jesus, then we would respect each other \u2013 regardless of their personal \u201cstrokes\u201d and personal \u201cbeliefs\u201d. \u201cDifferent strokes for different folks!\u201d But\u2026..love one another despite their \u201cstrokes\u201d or \u201cbeliefs\u201d. Once again, I recommend staying in our own lanes. Stop trying to go with the crowd (whichever crowd that might be) and BE YOU! Follow your own convictions and persuasions. But, most of all, follow Christ\u2019s lead. LOVE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Several times, recently, I\u2019ve been asked \u201cAre you vaccinated?\u201d It was first asked at our women’s Bible fellowship group and quickly the leader said \u201cWe don\u2019t ask that question here. It is a divisive question.\u201d It was her response also when someone asked if they were Catholic or Protestant. I loved it when she replied…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21409,21408,21406,21407],"tags":[1210,1769,1253,15749,21405,21403,40,188,450,132,965,20225,4081,1102,12877,21402,21404,1413,1414],"class_list":["post-14762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conflict","category-divisive","category-vaccination","category-vaccine","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-conflict","tag-different-strokes","tag-divisive-conversations","tag-divisive-question","tag-inspiration","tag-label","tag-light-of-eternity","tag-love","tag-love-one-another","tag-new-command","tag-peacemaker","tag-respect","tag-shame","tag-vaccinated","tag-vaccine","tag-what-would-jesus-do","tag-wwjd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14764,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14762\/revisions\/14764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}