Taming Anger

Book titles have always fascinated me, and this week, I came across a real gem. The book was called How to Pray After You’ve Kicked the Dog. This reminded me of a story I once read about Leonardo da Vinci. While da Vinci w a s working on the face of Jesus in his masterpiece “ The Last Super,” for some reason he lost his temper with a man. The artist cursed and threatened him, and then returned to his canvas.

A funny thing happened, however. Da Vinci couldn’t paint anymore. He found himself unable to continue his work until he put down his brushes, found the man, apologized, and asked forgiveness. The man accepted the apology. Da Vinci returned to his studio and completed the painting.

Never do anything that you wouldn’t be willing to explain on television.

–Arjay Miller

Anger, inappropriate be havi or , hurting another person—these can make it difficult for any of us to work or to function efficiently.

Sometimes the biggest barriers to our success aren’t those that someone has put out in front of us. They’re the barriers we create inside ourselves by bad actions and poor attitudes. Often the worst things we do to ourselves are those things we’ve done to other people.