ANGER IS A KILLER (3RD IN SERIES)(How to handle it without letting I handle you)

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Slow down. It won’t be a miraculous cure for all your anger woes, but if you take more time to consider problems you will spend less time trying to solve new problems.

Almost forty years ago, my Tucky and I bicycled 550 miles across Europe with 55 young people.

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It was not as fast as a tour bus but oh how much more revealing and fun.

We really saw things - the landscape wasn’t a blur.

We went through villages slow enough to smile at the townspeople and be welcomed by their smiles in return; slow enough to smell the all the goodies being baked in the local pastry shop.

On this trip, we obviously weren’t a bunch of impatient Americans in such a rush to get to the next place that we didn’t properly enjoy where we were.

If you are of the mind that only the impatient get things done, consider these stories.

The great missionary William Carey had great goals when he went to India in 1834. Like all ministers in their younger years, he knew he had a truth and he believed they would flock to his preaching. In reality, he labored 7 years before his first convert.

But when he died, at age 73, it was written of him, “Taking his life as a whole, it is not too much to say that he was the greatest and most versatile Christian missionary sent out in modern times.”

He had, among many other things, been instrumental in opening India to missionaries, and had founded a college.

Patient and persistent, that was William Carey and that is how he is remembered. How will you be remembered? How will I be remembered?

The patience Abraham Lincoln exhibited during the Civil War, and toward those who insulted him, was monumental.

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, was a stubborn man. He was no less so as a child. Once, his mother figured she had had to tell him to do something 20 times before he finally did it. “I marvel at your patience,” John’s father commented.

“Ah,” she responded, “If I hadn’t been patient, look at the 19 times I would have wasted.”

I wish I could say that I am always a patient person, but unfortunately, I can’t.

Actually, with the help of the Lord I am still in the process of becoming a patient impatient man

However, I did pursue the publication of one of my books with persistent patience.

My wife would sometimes ask me, “When are you going to give up on it?” and I would reply, “The day I die. I will then have just run out of time.” Actually, it only took 20 years and 77 letters of rejections before it finally found an international publisher.

And of course, the most patient man who ever lived was Jesus …the Son of God.

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The Serialization of RUST ON MY SOUL is added to each TUESDAY Go back to April 13th and start the Series.

To view an abundance of unusual stories and comments by Neil Wyrick go to Neil’s other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

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