The frustration is boiling. For two days now it has been simmering, just below the surface, erupting at the slightest bump or jostle. A careless word, a sideways glance, an angry sigh, and it quickly boils over into a flaming mess of wrong behavior. What is the flame that causes the tension to steam? I can't put my finger on it. Are we over-tired? Not any more than normal. Are there outside stresses weighing down on us? Not that I am aware of. So why we are so quick to respond with a sharp word, to take offense at the slightest misdeed? For my part, I can only conclude that I have allowed my carnal flesh to consume me. I have sunk low into the depths of self, and allowed myself to wallow there. Where is the redemption that my Savior has sacrificed all to provide? How have I allowed myself to forget the grace that the Perfect One has extended to me? I shudder to think how I have behaved, how it must pain Him to see me respond, react. The gentle Savior is quietly calling me back. Calling me to calm, to love. "Love is not easily angered..." the Scriptures say. After years of intimate living, day by day, side by side, how is it that I do not love better? Perhaps the greater question, is how after many more years of knowing the Giver of All Good Things, am I so much the same as before I knew Him. He longs to change me, to transform my selfish flesh to reflect His own perfection. Jesus, help me to lay aside myself today, to love as you love me.