I've been young and now I'm old and I've never seen any effortless relationship or any un-complicated person! All relationships eventually clash, in little ways or in big, on the hill of unfulfilled expectations from both sides. All human beings find that they begin life and traverse life misunderstood and emotionally needy. Anger toward others, for not fulfilling us, is really only a process of waking up. When we move beyond this disillusionment, we beautifully mature. God alone satisfies the soul. Instead of seeking more self from others, we find that people are our charge to learn to love.
Sweet concord under one roof is only possible when all the inhabitants are living FOR the same thing—God's glory. That is the only true grounds of lasting relational unity. Sentimentalism alone cannot and will not hold a relationship together. Get the stresses of life up high enough and sentimentalism will fizzle. But when all in a household can see the earnestness of each soul struggling to live for God, even though encumbered with ineptitude, relationships thrive. Such a home is full of tendernesses.
We all begin life as victims of total myopia. Ultimately for each of us, as serious believers, life becomes one long journey from self-absorption to self-denial. A supple will, at the end of life, is the gold God was mining. Relational fires can be good things. Sit tight; they only burn off the dross, to our own improvement.
