Day 6, The love Dare: Love is not irritable

 "Love is not irritable"

He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city.  -Proverbs 16:32

 Love is hard to offend and quick to forgive.  

 To be irritable means “to be near the point of a knife.”  Not far from being poked.  People are irritated are locked, loaded, and ready to overact.

 When under pressure, love doesn’t turn sour.  Minor problems don’t yield major reactions.  The truth is, love does not get angry or hurt unless there is a legitimate and just reason in the sight of God.  

 If you are walking under the influence of love, you will be a joy, not a jerk. I always ask myself, “Am I a calming breeze, or a storm waiting to happen?”

Why do people become irritable?  There are at least two key reasons that contribute to it:

Being easily angered is an indicator that a hidden area of selfishness or insecurity is present where love is supposed to rule.  But selfishness also wears many other masks.

  

Love will always lead you to forgive instead of holding a grudge.  To be grateful instead of greedy.  To be content rather than rushing into more debt.  Love encourages you to be happy when someone else succeeds rather than lying wake at night in envy.  Love says “share the inheritance” rather than “fight with your relatives.”   In each decision, love ultimately lowers your stress and helps you release the venom that can build up inside.  It then sets up your heart to respond to those around you with patience and encouragement rather than anger and exasperation.

Love is not irritable; I, however, am irritable.  This could be bad.  I have good days, but then I have not-so-good days where the slightest little thing just sets me off.  Sometimes these days correlate to my monthly cycle; sometimes they do not.  Often they are just random days where the smallest little thing irritates the poop out of me for no clear reason.  I am quite sure that no one around me likes these days, but still they are AMAZINGLY patient with me regardless.

Reacting with love instead of irritation is hard.  And it was hard all day long.  I don’t think I did very well.  I was definitely irritable.

Wrong motivations I need to remove from my life:

I guess pride is definitely there.  I have found over and over again that I hate saying no to tasks/projects because I don’t want people to think that I can’t do them.  I need to remember that no is not a sign of weakness; great leaders have to know when to say no.

I have been thinking a lot lately about my motivation for doing whatever I do.  I want to be sure my heart is in the right place; I need to be sure that I am doing everything for His glory, not mine.  If it doesn't glorify Him in some way, I don’t really need to be wasting time on it.  That’s hard to remember sometimes.

I used to struggle with lust. Never thinking i had a good thing when I really did. Thinking I needed better, was always a problem for me. Greed wasn't always a problem. I'd ask for help with money but I'd never want more than I asked for. I used to be very prideful, however, how can one be prideful when their reputation went down the drain? I'm trying to be more of a peach, making sure the results are still sweet even though pressure is building.

     I suffer from being a lemon though. It's life, I try and make lemonade from the lemons thrown at me but it fails when I get pissed off. I want balance in my life, i don't want to continually run in circles. I don't want my escape to be a laptop. I'd rather be able to hang out with friends.

     It's time to sign off this for right now. I'm just wanting to talk to people instead of Blogging about it. Although, I will say it's easier to vent to a blog 99% of the time because it can't argue back. It can't tell me that I'm wrong. It has no argument, It's a website that was created to be vented on.