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Family frustrations

Muriel Larson

No matter how wonderful our family members are, they sometimes drive us to the raw edge of our patience. We may then explode with anger toward them, or bury resentments inside so that eventually our doctor bills becomes oppressive. Both ideas are losers.

I cared for my beloved elderly mother for some years. Her tendency to treat me as a ten-year-old sometimes triggered my time bomb! I’d drive her to the doctor. “There’s a stop sign ahead!” she’d exclaim, jamming her feet on the car floor. “You’d better stop!”

“Mom,” I’d say tightly, “why do you always tell me how to drive, when you’ve never had a driver’s license and I’ve been driving practically all my life?”

“I just don’t want you to make a mistake,” she would answer blandly.

Then there’s the generation gap: where you’re the parent and the kids

drive you loony. Of the 289 ways they can do that, perhaps the most maddening are dawdling, squabbling or entering the house looking as if they’ve been on safari through Mud Jungle.

I’ve had the usual frustrations with various family members, and through it all I have learned this: The closer we draw to the Lord, the closer we draw to each other and the more patience we’ll have for each other. He fills us with His love.

This not only applies to familles related by flesh, but also to the family of God. We find all kinds of people in the church. Some are mature in faith and exhibit the fruit of the Spirit (love, peace, joy, patience and humility), but the majority may still be only babes in Christ or have grown only a little in patience and self-control. However, with our Lord’s help, we can deal with others in His way and strength. When we submit to Him, He conforms us to the image of Jesus Christ.

Muriel Larson lives in Geenville, SC.

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Last modified May 12, 2000.

© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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