The Love Dare, Day 6: Love Is Not Irritable
Day 5, y’all. Day 5. What I learned during Day 5: Love Is Not Rude, yesterday, is that I’m more rude than a little bit. After reading the lesson about rudeness including snark and sarcasm at another person’s expense, I was pretty much silenced. Even on busy days, I’m tweeting up a storm. I deleted SO many tweets as I was typing them, realizing that a grown woman wearing leggings as pants doesn’t really need my commentary and the world wouldn’t end if I didn’t share my Chris Brown snark. I made it through the day with a bitten tongue and it really wasn’t so bad. It made me realize that what I’ve been categorizing as hilarious and witty goes to the root of my real problem: I’m addicted to validation that I’m smart, and love to find that validation in snark that breaks down other people for behaving foolishly as opposed to just doing and saying smart things that enrich my life and others’. The latter, obviously, is a harder path to trod and I just love to grab that low-hanging fruit. But that’s not love. And now I know. And when you know better, you do better! On to Day6:
Day 6: Love Is Not Irritable
Today’s Scripture:”He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his psirit, than he who captures a city. — Proverbs 16:32
Today’s Lesson: The Love Dare authors breakdown two causes of irritability: stress and selfishness. When you’re stressed because of drama in your relationships or pressures at work, you are prone to be an irritable and unpleasant person to be around. But if you balance and prioritize your life, and let love guide you through your relationship decisions, you can avoid arguments, pray through conflicts, and organize your work commitments, thereby relieving stress as a cause of irritability.
If you are easily angered, the root of that is a heart problem: selfishness or insecurity. If you’re dissatisfied with what you have, whether at work or in your relationships with others, that can lead to lust, bitterness and greed. These things can never be satisfied and will lead you into a cycle of destruction. But if you act with love, you will be forgiving instead of bitter, thankful instead of greedy and satisfied with what you have instead of lusting after what you don’t.
Today’s Dare: When you are met with controversies, react with love instead of irritation. See where you can alleviate stress in your schedule with better planning and make a list of the bad motivations in your life.
Scriptures to Meditate on:
“I always do my best to havea clear conscience toward God and men.” Acts 24:16
“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” James 4:1-3
“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:31-32
Go Forth and Love!
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Day 5 was pretty good. I cringe when people post pictures of passers-by because of what they’re wearing, how fat/skinny they are, etc. And, I’ll admit, it’s a good laugh, but at the core of it is ugliness. Love isn’t only what we do to people’s faces. It’s who we are at the core. So, I love how you called yourself out and admitted that it was wrong. Self-evaluation goes a long way. And, when we know better we OUGHT to do better, but that doesn’t always happen. I enjoyed reading this. Thanks for your voice.
-Brandi
Thank you so much for sharing, Brandi! I am so glad you’re doing the Love Dare! It is contagious!