“Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
The other morning I was thinking how easy 
it is to take things for granted. I forget that God has given me such wonderful blessings such as a house, church, safety, friends, and a wonderful family. Especially family. If you are like me, I often forget how special that is. There are those that have no one, but that is not my family. We have each other to share our laughter and our burdens, and that is a wonderful thing. The above verse from the love chapter in Corinthians explains how important it to love one another.
Someone once said we should write the good that others do on a rock and the bad they do on the sand to be washed away. I think that good advice. If we are not forgiving of others (and especially our family) for their inadequacies (of which we all have many) the good they do will be overlooked (and there is much good they do) and the negative 
will be accentuated (and will cloud our feelings). Because we expect more out of those closest to us, we are sometimes much more forgiving of non-family than family; often in the same way that we are more forgiving of non-Christians than Christians (another type of family).
The closer people are to each other, the more they can become irritating. Porcupines find that out! Our pokiness will be most apparent to those who get closest to us. As you can sometimes tell, I don’t always shave and my half beard gets in the yucky pokey state. (I try to stay shaved because people keep dropping money in my coffee cup when I am in the scruffy state). The last time I was with the grandkids I was telling Gracie good bye and my beard poked her cheek and she reacted with an “ouch.” Not one other person that weekend was bothered by my beard (well, maybe the looks, but not the feel) because I did not get that close to anyone else. When we get close to people like we do in a family, pokiness is the chance we take, but that is why it is doubly important to remember that “love is patient.”
Paul tells us in Galatians 5 that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, being jealous of one another.” Notice the key here. Living by the Spirit. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to do all the above things in our own strength. The problem with us is that we so often try to do that- We know what the Christian walk is all about and we try to walk it on our own. As Barney Fife used to say, “Not goin’ to happen.”
We have all been in the situation where the people that we love most anger us the most. It hurts much more later because we know that “A joyful heart makes the face cheerful, but by a painful heart the spirit is broken” (Proverbs 15:13) and we hate breaking the spirit of those close to us. God calls us to be more Christ-like and what did Christ look like when He was sent by God? He was everything Galatians 5 calls us to be.
We should be patient with others because God is patient with us. Exodus 34:6 tells us He ”isn’t easily angered.“ Instead of giving us what we deserve, He sent Christ to die for us. He made a sacrifice; He gave his only Son on our behalf (John 3:16). That is the kind of love we need to strive for through the spirit; 
sacrificing love that puts others needs before our own. Love that looks beyond the negative and looks at others through the eyes of God. We need to put others before ourselves even if they’ve hurt us or angered us,. We need to be patient with them because love is patient and we are called to patiently love.
We have so much less drama than almost any family I know, and I should be thankful (ever watch Jerry Springer, Dr. Phil, or Judge Judy? Wow!). Members of families need to be there for each other. Sometimes we marry into the better or worse covenant, but families have the same covenant, only they are born into it. Thank you to my family for being so easy love (and I will try to be easier to love, but until then be patient!). Thank you, God, for giving us family.