James 1:19 says "Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry". When I read this I kinda laughed out loud at myself because I am so not any of these things. Lets start with quick to listen. Several times this week I have ignored someone and got mad at someone because I misunderstood them. That's the opposite of quick to listen and that is really unChristlike behavior. So lets move on to slow to speak. Well I fail at this one constantly. I just like to talk and a lot of the time I say hurtful and rude things just because I simply do not take the time to think about things before I say them and sometimes I just like to be sassy. Now I think I have failed miserably at those first two but, when I get to slow to become angry well, lets just say I really need improvement in this area. I get called mean a lot these days just because I have a short fuse and when I get annoyed I go off and well that's just really unChristlike. Also when my feelings are hurt I become angry and I can stay that way for a while. Clearly I still have a long way to go in this striving to become more Christlike. I think about the changes I'm going to have to make and none of it actually seems unreasonable. Yes I will have to shut my mouth and just listen and next time my family is annoying me I will have to take a deep breath and push my anger away but, those are things I should be doing anyway. Not just because I want to be Christlike but, because I simply want to be a good friend, daughter and sister.