Years ago I was teaching alongside Connie in a VBS class of kids who were just learning to color and draw.  The lesson had been on a verse in James 4 about sowing peace. As we passed around the crayons with the encouraging “you get what you get and you don’t get upset” line, everyone was wrestling for the green crayons. Green! Everybody wanted green.  

I looked at Connie, she looked back knowingly. She smiled. “Peas. They all want green so they draw peas. I expect to see lots of sewing needles as well.” We laughed. There are so many times we fail to communicate because we don’t say things in a way that others can actually hear. Their frame of reference is too different, their social location too far removed from our own. So what am I saying today that others are not hearing because as I seek to sow peace they are thinking green peas?