There are at least two ways to ruin a good harmony. The first would be to pay too little attention to your fellow choir member. There you are rumbling along to the beat of your own timpani. Everyone seems to know you’re off key except you. The other way to skuttle a good musical arrangement is to pay too much attention to the singers around you and thereby not enough attention to the music itself. One form of this latter error involves a fairly experienced choir member, who knows a thing or two about singing, attempting to make up for another choir member who apparently does not. But, come to find out, while leaning opposite ways in a boat may keep you afloat, leaning opposite ways on the scale does not a happy conductor make. There are lessons here for dealing with discord in the body of Christ.

As you seek to be of one accord, some of you must pay a bit more attention to those around you, ensuring that you are not off pitch. You’re a leader. But are people following you? You’re a mother. Are your unchecked emotions troubling the other members of your family? You’re a husband. Have you taken the time to understand what is going on with your wife? You’re a sibling. Are you always first to the mashed potatoes?

Watch out for the other ditch as well. We have all seen someone try (unsuccessfully) to smooth out slander by following it up with a compliment, or fix timidity in a child with brutishness. A daughter tries to remedy mom’s bitterness with gossip. A son looks to harmonize dad’s anger with a bit of his own. Then there is the age old maneuver of trying to settle an argument by pointing out that, though you were in the wrong this time, just last week your opponent was. These attempts don’t remove the discord, but sow more of it. 

Christ is our peace. We will stay in fellowship and harmony with one another as we look to Him in faith.