Tail wagging the dog?

This morning I was fuming mad about an e-mail I got, and as I was mulling the situation over and over again in my mind, my wife asked me to pick out some outdoor furniture for the backyard of our new home. I stalked over to where she was sitting and angrily grabbed the book and began furiously flipping through the pages. As you might imagine, everything I saw was not what I wanted.

I looked at her and told her that I was too upset to be rational and didn’t want to select furniture at the moment. She didn’t object and suddenly decided that there was something in the other room that needed to be done and left me alone to my foul mood

I irritably slumped down into my easy chair and just then happened to notice my little dog Cooper lying lazily on his back looking at me and wagging his tail. I looked at him and scowled, “What are you smiling about?” He ignored my foul mood and came over and licked my hand and playfully wagged his tail all the more.

Hmmm. I still wanted to be angry and vent, but had to smile, rub his ears, and start talking baby talk to him. (Is this a case of the tail wagging the dog?)

Life is too short to stay mad. Stuff happens and we must deal with it. Anger only exasperates the situation and a bad situation becomes worse. Nothing “good” comes from anger; in fact just the opposite. (I suppose too we would do well to remember that the opposite of good is evil).

So don’t let the annoying things in life black out the light from the good.

(I’m preaching to myself here and it is not sinking in for now; I might need to write the verse below 100 times today, because I’m still having a hard time with that *#$% e-mail)

Psalm 37:8
Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret-it leads only to evil