Don't Fuel The Fire!

Memorial Day is next week and I'm looking forward to going over to my parents' house and having one of my dad's world famous (to our family anyway) hamburgers that he makes on the grill. Can you cook on a grill without some sort of fuel? No! Without a supply of fuel, there won't be a fire. Think about a campfire. How can you keep one burning for hours at a time? You need to keep putting more wood on it because it will eventually go out once the wood is consumed.

Proverbs 26:20 says "Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down." Just a few days ago, I wrote about the trouble we've had with our neighbor. Well, God has a way of reminding us that sometimes there IS something more we can be doing. In some cases though, sometimes we need to be doing LESS! Do you know of someone who irritates you? How easy is it to complain about that person, and everything that person says or does? I know it is very easy for me to complain about something our neighbor does. What I didn't really realize until today though is that the irritation I feel whenever he does something else is being fueled by how much we complain about everything he does. It is easy to keep remembering all the bad stuff he has done so when he does something new, it irritates us immediately and just adds fuel to the fire so to speak. God challenged me today to quit complaining about him, and see if the irritation I feel towards him decreases. If I stop complaining, I cut off the supply of fuel that is needed to keep the fire of irritation and frustration going.

So I'm challenging you to do the same thing. If there is someone in your life that really irritates you, don't complain about all the things they have done. If you are reminded of something they have done, try to get your mind focused on something else. For me, singing a song is the easiest way for me to focus my thoughts on something positive. It is hard to be frustrated or mad if I'm singing a song of praise to the Lord! If possible, focus on positive things about that person specifically. Let's see if we can get rid of the feelings of irritation, anger, frustration (it could be any negative feeling you have) towards individuals in our lives by cutting off the fuel supply.