Love is Good Temper

Love is Good Temper.

“Love is not easily provoked. We are inclined to look at bad temper as a very harmless weakness. We speak of it as a mere infirmity of nature, a family failure, a matter of temperament, not a thing to take into very serious account in estimating a man’s character. And yet here, right in the heart of this analysis of love, it finds a place; and the Bible again and again returns to condemn it as one of the most destructive elements in human nature.” (Henry Drummond)

These words give new insight into the deadly ripple effects of a bad temper. Henry has described this characteristic so plainly and with such naked exposure, that it reveals in blatant form that “the wages of sin is death.” Bad temper will kill relationships, trust, peace, even the future for those around it. This is no light thing. A bad temper is destructive in every example of itself.

Drummond paints this description further: “You know men who are all but perfect, and women who would be entirely perfect, but for an easily ruffled, quick-tempered, or “touchy” disposition. No form of vice, not worldliness, not greed of gold, not drunkenness itself, does more to un-Christianize society than evil temper. For embittering life, for breaking up communities, for destroying the most sacred relationships, for devastating homes, for withering up men and women, for taking the bloom off childhood; in short, for sheer gratuitous misery-producing power, this influence stands alone.”

Take a moment – analyze yourself. Do you have a good temper – all the time? Even in the provoking moments, how do you control yourself? Practice your answer.

Tomorrow --- more on the effects of our Temper. This one characteristic can hinder or prevent those closest to you from coming into the Kingdom – or even coming home!