Do not be quickly provoked.
—Ecclesiastes 7:9
- Traffic jams
- Long lines
- Stuck zippers
- Interruptions
- Dead batteries
- Loudmouth cell phone conversations in public places
- _______________
- _______________
The last two spaces are left blank for you to mentally fill with a couple of things that irritate you.
I saw this plaque on a secretary’s desk: “I’m planning to have a nervous breakdown. I’ve earned it. I deserve it. I’ve worked hard for it. And nobody’s going to keep me from having it!”
J.B. Philips paraphrased James 1:2–3 this way: “When all kinds of trials crowd into your lives, my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders but welcome them as friends! Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance.”
We control our reaction to irritations,
or irritations control our reactions.