True Confession! It’s really hard not to over react. To justify my response. To rationalize my hurtful silence. To excuse my clever but harsh comment. To simply distance myself from the other person. After all, didn’t they do something to provoke my mechanisms of self-defense? Did you happen to notice the word that is repeated in every one of those sentences? Satan knows all too well exactly where he can successfully draw me from a place of peace and joy and move me into a place of self-reliance. So, today, dear Lord, help me to recognize this temptation and then immediately let the Holy Spirit produce His fruit of gentleness, goodness, kindness, and love in me. Do you ever struggle with this kind of temptation?