Division destroys

No family, company, organization or nation can grow and be strong when it is filled with conflict. Conflict creates division and division destroys. It destroys relationships, unity, progress and peace. When we allow our pride to rule and allow conflict to cause division in our relationships and organizations, no one wins, because we all lose something in the process.

Unity with diversity leads to peace and harmony

We live in a world filled with conflict, and conflict is inevitable. When we respond properly to conflict, it can be used in our lives to teach and mold us, and lead us to deeper maturity.  When we do not respond properly to conflict, we allow contention and strife to develop in our relationships and organizations and destroy our unity and progress. The prevailing atmosphere in growing families and organizations is unity with diversity, and this leads to greater peace and harmony. Conflict destroys this peace and harmony, and therefore, we should do everything possible to prevent and resolve conflict before it divides us and damages what we desire to create and build.

Strife separates

We often find ourselves in situations where we try to persuade people to change their beliefs, their values, their principles, their ideas, their plans, or their behavior. When people refuse to listen or change, we may become more intense in our communication with them. What may have begun as a noble desire may turn to anger, and anger does not accomplish anything good. When the volume of our voices increases, and we talk sharply with harsh intonation, this indicates that there is strife, contention and pride, which separates relationships and organizations. When we choose instead to humbly and gently share with people what we need to say, the results will be more positive.

Pride hinders peace and productivity

When people reject what we have to say, we may feel that they reject us as well. Pride may then cause us to become bitter towards them. As a result, we may begin to share negative opinions and comments about them with other people. This may cause other people to also think negatively as well, and these seeds of dissention can cause great disunity. When members of organizations do not agree with leaders and other members, or like the way that they lead or act, they may begin to talk with others about the way that they feel. Soon after, these negative seeds germinate in the lives of others, causing disunity and discord. We should be very careful not to be a part of promoting negativism and disunity. We should reject pride when we see it in our own lives, and we should desire greater humility in our lives. Instead of sowing seeds of discord, we should work to promote unity which leads to peace and productivity.