Conforming (phase 2), The Value System of Jesus Christ - A Summary (step 12), session 3

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.
- Prayer widely and erroneously attributed to St. Francis of Assisi

How appropriate that the Exercises would bring me this in my meditation to close this step on a day in which my apparently soon-to-be-former son-in-law completely and publicly bashed his wife on Facebook. It was a strange morning, in fact, as first I saw a text which she accidentally sent to me last night instead of him. She did a remarkably good job of being peaceable in the face of a truly hateful post, but then, perhaps she was really just replying to another text from him instead. At any rate, she had accused the person she had sent it to of being full of anger, and at first I thought that had been a response to my request that she put her oldest in bed rather than letting her sleep on the love seat all night. I replied that I had not been at all angry, then realized what had probably happened.

After that I saw his brief, profanity-punctuated rant, in which he publicly called out my daughter for an inappropriate relationship to which she has turned in the months of their estrangement, and the other guy as well.

I drafted and posted a comment, one that I remain convinced was appropriate and even, rooted in genuine concern and love for him. I then removed it at my wife's request. But I'm pleased that I could express the truth without animosity or judgment, but rather with a desire to be an instrument of peace for all concerned.

This will conclude the step 12 sessions. I'm a bit concerned that step 13 might have the potential to further foment an existing disharmony that my wife and I may have with regard to wealth and possessions.