When David was little, maybe 3 or 4 years old, he liked to watch cartoons. One of his favorites was a Disney video of Donald Duck and Chip & Dale, the chipmunks. He would watch it over and over, at least 5-6 times a day.
It got so that every one of us knew every line by heart.
In one of the cartoons, Donald Duck was an apple farmer, and the chipmunks lived in a hollow tree on the farm. They were stealing Donald's apples and putting them in their tree for the winter.
Donald tried everything to capture the chipmunks, but nothing worked, as is usual in a cartoon. Every time he would get close to capturing them one of them would eat an apple and throw the core at him. The chipmunk holding the core would say "Apple core", Donald would reply, "Baltimore" then the chipmunk would say "Who's your friend?" and the other chipmunk would holler "HIM!" and point at Donald, whereupon the chipmunk holding the apple core would hit Donald between the eyes with it! Of course, that would make Donald furious, and he would get flustered in true Donald Duck fashion and the chipmunks would get away.
I don't know about anybody else, but like a commercial's jingle or anything else you hear or see over and over, you pick it up and start saying it yourself, at least our family does this.
One day we were sitting around watching TV, Bob was sitting in an easy chair, I was laying on the couch, Lynn and Alicia were sitting, and David was walking around between us, eating an apple.
When he got down to nothing but apple core, he looked at Bob and said "Apple core", Bob said "Baltimore", David said "who's your friend?" and Bob said "HER!" and pointed at me. David was standing right in front of me. I was not paying too much attention until I got hit right between the eyes with that apple core!
Just like the cartoon, I reacted in typical Donald Duck fashion. I jumped up, spluttering about getting hit with an apple core, and while Bob was laughing hysterically I grabbed David and spanked him without even thinking about it.
Now I have to say, I am ashamed of the way I reacted. I hadn't even been paying attention until I got hit with the apple core, and then I punished David for what he thought was a good joke. He'd had the full cooperation of his father and he thought it was funny and so did Bob and the girls, which is probably the reason I got so angry and punished David even more than I usually would have. That was wrong, but that's what I did. You can ask Bob, nothing ever makes me as mad as when he laughs at me!
Now these many years later, I can look back at that episode and see how everyone else thought it was so funny, and I can even smile about it myself, a little. Yes, I can see where it was funny, else I would not have written about it.
My point is this, how many times do we get angry with other people for some little thing they said or did that we didn't like, or we thought was wrong, and sometimes they might not have even known they were doing or saying anything hurtful? How many times have we been offended over something we've "heard" that somebody else has supposedly said about us? How often do we overreact and say something hurtful back to someone, or tell somebody else something about that person we shouldn't?
I myself have been guilty of doing that, not only with my family, but with friends also.
The Bible speaks about this in the book of James, chapter 3. It talks about how man can never tame the tongue, and what a poison it is, and an unruly evil.
Sometimes I let my temper get out of control and I say or do something that I regret. One of the problems is that once you say something to or about somebody, you can never take it back. You can say you are sorry, and be forgiven from that person and from God, but whatever you say is out there floating around, maybe getting repeated, maybe getting added to in the re-telling, or even if it's not re-told it might still be hurting the person you said it to.
How much better if we could control our thoughts and tempers and tongues. How much better to just simply forget it when you hear something that irritates you? To just let it go? But I think it is really hard for most people to handle this on their own. I know it is for me. Just when I think I will let something go, I get that Donald Duck feeling going, and then I know if I don't start praying, I'm going to say something I'm going to be sorry about later.
I know that when I pray, that is one of the things I pray about, is help for my temper, or you might say, my personality, and for help with my self-control. I know that God will help me when I can't handle it all myself. He had many times, and He has helped me to forgive others when I thought there was no way I could. He will help you too, with any problem you might have. All you have to do is ask.
If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior, all you have to do is admit you are a sinner, and ask Him to forgive your sins, and come into your heart. He is waiting to come into your heart and make you a new person.
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