Shade Tree Wisdom 10/13/12

          These days of nearing the end of a political campaign the words of St. Paul to the Ephesians spring to mind.
              “Be ye angry and sin not,
                Let not the sun go down upon your wrath”. Ephesians 4, 16.

          I grew up in an all boy family, and we got into tussles and arguments. But mother and father had a strict rule, “don’t ever go to bed without getting things settled between you”.

          The short rule was this: “Never go to bed angry”.

          It was a good rule. Proverbs backed them up. Solomon had taught:
              “He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly,
               And a man of wicked devices is hated.” Prov. 14,17.
And he adds,
              “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
               And he that rules his spirit than he that takes a city.” Prov.16,31.

          Because our parents knew what happens when you stay angry. It festers, it troubles, your mind and tends to make the reason of your anger real, and the longer you harbor anger, the worse it gets, till often it becomes a mountain that will cause so much damage to both you and the world around you , that it will never be repaired.

          The solution, and it often comes hard, is this. Apologize. Try it, say, “I was wrong, please forgive me”. And settle the matter now “while you are in the way with him”, as Jesus teaches in Mathew 5,25..

          Anger. Easily aroused, hard to stop. But have a care, and life becomes more pleasant when we are not stirred to anger by every little slight or mishap. “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty”, and yes, our parents had the rule right, “Never go to bed angry”. God bless that life.

GPD 10/13/12