Take Out

I'm not an easy person to live with.

Not all the time.  (I hope)   Sometimes I am perfectly delightful.  (at least I think so)  But!  When I get stressed.  When I am upset about something.  When I am over tired.  When I am hormonal. When I feel sick.  Or just feel out of sorts. Well, that's a different story. 

Just ask The Man of the House.  He takes the weight of my moods most of the time.  Even though most of the time he is not the cause of the grumpy state I am in at the moment.

I get snippy.  I pout.  I snap out at him over any little thing.  I give him the cold shoulder.

Yes, I know what you are thinking... what a lucky, lucky guy! (Not!)

Why do I do that?  If anyone else treated him that way it would make me very angry.  What makes me feel that it's OK to treat him as if he is the cause of whatever is bothering me?  

I'm not proud of this.  I want to change.

He deserves my love and respect.  Honor and encouragement.  Not to be punished for my bad temper toward someone else, or because I didn't get enough rest or the whims of my monthly cycle.  He's not my personal emotional punching bag.

1 Corinthians 13:5 says of love: "It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful" (ESV)

That is going to be my focus verse as I start trying to break this pattern.

This week I am going to start trying to be aware when I am feeling one of the ways that causes me to act this way toward him.  And to recognize the behaviour when I start doing it and to stop it right then.  To pray about it.

(And honey - if you are reading this: you have my full permission to gently remind me if I do start behaving this way!)