Echoes From the Campfire

Living is something that should be real.  We should take it as best we can, as deep and wide and full as we can.  We shouldn’t ever be small or ever be afraid.”
              –Ernest Haycox (The Border Legion)

    “Catch us the foxes, The little foxes that spoil the vines, For our vines have tender grapes.”
              –Song of Solomon 2:15(NKJV)
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Irritation!–those small, pesky things that drive you crazy.  Ever had a speck of dust in your eye, or an eyelash?  Something so small, but it irritates you until you get it removed.  Maybe you’ve had to wait in line at a fast-food restaurant just a little longer than you wanted–didn’t it irritate you, or someone in front of you at a light doesn’t take off as fast as you wanted them to–it just makes you irritated.  
    Annie and Kimberly took Julee on a walk through the woods.  They didn’t know it at the time, but there were pesky little critters out there waiting for them.  Both of them are now covered and itching “like crazy” with chigger bites.  Scratch, scratch, scratch–oh, the irritation!  Something invisible and yet it is causing you misery.  Then there are people; certain individuals who are not bad, but their personality just doesn’t mesh with yours.  The kind of people that when they hang around you it makes you irritated; they say something and you just have to roll your eyes.
    Life is full of irritations!  I guess we get irritated because things do not go the way we want them.  Hurry, hurry, get out of my way, you’re irritating me.  Scratch some more–these things itch.  Then we search for answers, how can I stop this itch?  How can I avoid these people?  How can I…?
    Somethings in life are going to irritate us–like those little critters.  Mosquitoes buzzing their high-pitched sound in your ear.  Chiggers biting, devouring a piece of flesh.  Even something as small as a pimple can bring a little pain, enough to irritate us, and it always is on the nose or middle of the forehead.  A cut shows from a nick from the razor while shaving–irritation.
    Then there are things we do in life when we stop and say–dummy!  We spill something; invariably when I get a new shirt right off the bat I’ll spill something on it–irritates me.  We knock a glass off the table, we rush and don’t take time and bump something causing it to break–dummy!
    For some, life itself is an irritation.  Everything, everyone, is an irritation to some people.  It shouldn’t be that way.  Some tend to go through life cynical and pessimistic.  They look for things that will irritate them.  That should not be.  We should be living the day to the fullest.  This is the day the Lord has made, we should be rejoicing not irritated that the alarm went off in the morning.
    Learn to live life to the fullest, and by that I don’t mean to party-hardy, but to live in obedience to God’s word and will.  Only then will not irritations not bother us so much.  Impatience is one of the chief causes of irritation, but why are we impatient?  What would a few more seconds matter, or why didn’t we plan better?  Learn to be patient.  Hmmm, aren’t you glad our heavenly Father is patient with us?  I sure don’t want to irritate the Lord.  As far as mosquito and chigger bites, well–keep on scratching.