To be able to keep our emotions under control, to be able to stay within the confines of a calm demeanor, takes practice. We become habituated to that which we constantly do, and if we constantly, or regularly, lose our temper, it’s going to take a while before you can stop losing your temper because you become habituated to losing your temper.
If you’re constantly in a state of fear, if things frighten you on a regular basis, you become habituated to being fearful. And you become like a deer; the slightest rustle will make the entire herd run, and you’ll run.
We have to learn what it is that allows us to be free of these qualities; what is it that changes our nature, so that we become different. Think about dignity for a minute. Think about people who have dignity. What are the traits of dignified people? Well, you never see them out of control, you never see them overreact, you never see them become angry, you never see them lose their composure, you never see them out of sorts, you never see them be unkind, and you never see them exemplify characteristics that are unseemly.
What’s different about people like that? How do they maintain that sense of dignity? How do they maintain that composure? How do they maintain that overall calmness in their existence?
There were two people who were traveling, a man and a wife, and they had about fifteen miles to go, and in those days the way you went was you walked, and they had made this trip before, and there was a bridge that had to be crossed. And this bridge was old and was rickety, and all they talked about on the entire trip, on the way to the river, was about this bridge. The wife would say, “What if you put your foot through one of the planks, because it’s so old, and you break your leg, who’s going to take care of me?”
And the husband said, “And how about if that happens to you, who’s going to take care of me?” And then, “What if it happens to both of us, who’s going to take care of us? The burden we’ll put on our children, what’s going to happen?”
They kept discussing this the entire fifteen miles, until they got to the bridge worried out of their minds. They actually almost become ill with the worry of what was going to happen in trying to cross that bridge. And when they finally got to the bridge they saw that somebody had replaced the bridge and it was now a new bridge, and all of this that they had gone through the entire time up to getting to the bridge was of no purpose and of no value.
People with dignity don’t act like that; they don’t express their worry in a constant basis. They could be in the same situation where somebody is having intense reaction and they’ll stay calm. Why is it that they’re able to stay calm? What is it about them that’s different?
A preacher was talking about God’s love, and explaining how you could depend on it, and how you could rely on it, and on how God will take care of you in all circumstances. There was a woman in the audience, who stood up, and she was holding a baby, and she said…
