Manage Anger with Prayer
In February, 2011, my dear friend, Teresa Kamins, sent me a copy of Norman Vincent Peale’s Positive Thinking Every Day: An Inspiration For Each Day Of The Year. I look to it for inspiration to this day.
Instead of trying to destroy all your anger, snip away by prayer each annoyance that feeds your anger. In so doing you will weaken it to such a point, that presently you will have control over it. ~ Norman Vincent Peale Positive Thinking Every Day: An Inspiration For Each Day Of The Year
Every one of us experiences anger. It is how we manage anger that matters most.
Our ability to manage anger well and have control over it results in positive changes in our lives. However, when we are unable to manage anger and let it take over, we run the risk of making poor decisions which can create problems in our lives and negatively impact our relationships and even our health.
If we want to manage anger well, and create a positive change in our lives, then to properly do so, Dr. Peale encourages us to use prayer to chip away at each annoyance until our anger is weaken to a point where we can resume control. “Feed Your Good Dog” until the evil dog is no longer.
An example of a prayer . . . said with conviction . . . to lessen the annoyance to help manage anger may be:
May understanding, patience and love fill my heart. May understanding, patience and love for _________ flood my soul.
Make no mistake that this may not be easy, and it will require commitment on our part. It may take saying the prayer many many times over to reach a point where we are in control over our anger. What we need to keep in mind, however, is that to resume self-control by using prayer to, among other things, manage anger will take far less time than if we mismanaged our anger, and it will result in fewer negative consequences than if we did nothing.
And, remember . . . Feed Your Good Dog so your good dog always wins!