Pick Your Battles Wisely

In my opinion, the hardest part about growing up is battling with the hormones raging throughout my body, causing me to have random outbursts of craziness. Sometimes it's good crazy: I have a random urge to clean or to help other people and be an angel, but others? Other times I can be quite a...not very nice word. This happens more often than I would like it to, but lets face it; I'm 18, it's going to happen.

Although I blame it on the hormones, I have to take responsibility of my actions. As graduation is quickly approaching, I've started realizing how much I pick fights with people; my family in particular. I don't like yelling or being angry. I'm really a mostly happy and optimistic person, but sometimes the little devil on my shoulder sways me to act with haste and immediately, where if I would just analyze the situation for a minute and take a breather, I wouldn't lash out so much. 

The person I lash out on most is my little sister. Almost immediately after every outburst I have with her, I feel terrible and wish I could take it all back, but I know I can't. I know sometimes sisters fight, but I honestly have no excuse for the way I treat her sometimes. I don't like being mean. I need to be her role model, friend, and someone she can talk to when she's having trouble. I would do anything to protect her, and I love her dearly. Sometimes, my actions don't particularly show how much I care about her, but I'm definitely going to try and be more aware of what I say and how I say it.

Another person I lash out on a lot is my mom. She does SO MUCH for me and again, no excuse. It's entirely my fault and I do it just because it happens sometimes and I act immediately. Just tonight, my mom told me that my grades were looking pretty bad and that I needed to reevaluate my priorities. I went to look at my grades and saw what she was referring to: a 79 in precal. Immediately I got angry, but before I said anything, I took a deep breath and actually thought about the situation.

 I looked further into the grade and realized that my teacher hadn't put in any recent grades after she had been out for a week. I realized that my grade would come up. I realized that instead of defending myself by saying something rude about my teacher not putting the grades in, I would just let it be and told her that I would bring them up. Simple as that, I dodged a potential argument when there was really nothing to argue about. All my mom said was that I needed to bring my grades up; all I had to do was tell them that they will and prove it. 

Just a little food for thought for anyone struggling with lashing out and acting upon impulse: Take a deep breath and a step back, evaluate the situation, and talk to someone how you would want to be spoken to.

"But avoid irrelevant babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness" 2 Timothy 2:16