It’s a Choice

Do you ever notice how much energy people use getting upset? And how they drain the energy of everyone around them?

Like today when the woman in the parking lot spent five minutes yelling at me because she thought I parked too close to her car and I COULD have hit it.

But I didn’t hit it; she backed out just fine. Nothing actually happened to her. And she yelled for five minutes.

Or the man that was furious with his son because the little boy kept hitting him with the shopping cart. I mean furious.

But the man never just took the cart away. He kept expecting his rage to make the boy stop.

Or the guy behind me in line at the fabric store. He was berating the clerk because she was struggling with the cash register.

But she was trying really hard.

I had my own potential energy drain first thing this morning.

I had planned to leave really early so I could get all of my errands finished and be home before dinner. I got up early, made myself all pretty, gave out instructions for the day and then….my car wouldn’t start. DUH and number one son spent half an hour working on it while I stood there. My plans all laid to waste. No early errands. No home before dinner. I could have slept later! I could have had breakfast with the kids.

I guess we all have an idea of how life should be. It seems like we want it to be easy. We don’t want anyone else to inconvenience us.

This morning when I felt tempted to get upset I told myself, “Let God decide. Let your own plans go. He knows better.”

I choose not to waste my energy spreading anger.

It is a choice. I make it over and over and sometime I fail.

But one thing I know for sure, practice makes perfect.