Now that several days have passed I am feeling much calmer about my little BART incident. I am still annoyed by the foolishness of the agent but the Lord has helped me to use this for good in the end, as He does all things.
One thing the Lord gave me is the idea that I stop when I am getting angry and ask myself if this is going to matter in the future, some arbitrary period the actual time doesn’t matter much. Ten years was mentioned by the source of this but that seems too long term for one of my temperament. I was thinking of asking myself if it will matter in a week! Most of the ranting that I do is over things that will not matter then next day let alone the next week or in ten years.
A second idea that the Lord provided as I pondered this incident and my own rather overblown reaction to it was this, recognizing the validity of the other person's point of view. This is another way of saying that I must learn to at least make a decent attempt at following the 8th commandment:
The Eighth Commandment.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
What does this mean?--Answer.
We should fear and love God that we may not deceitfully belie, betray, slander, or defame our neighbor, but defend him, [think and] speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything.
The last thing that the Lord provided to me for contemplation is this, will my anger over this accomplish anything? Will my words cause the situation to improve in any way at all? Will those I speak to be edified by my words? Will they change what they are doing? Will I be edified by my words?
In almost every case where I lose my temper that last one would be answered by a series of resounding no's.
So there you have it, my set of three things to think about when I am starting to get angry. I pray that I will be able to remain calm long enough to think about them the next time I am thwarted in my desires, that is after all the main thing that brings out my rage, being thwarted in what I want to do.
I suppose that last goes right back to the First commandment doesn't it?
