Herrickreport

Herrickreport.com

Department of Attitude

Another Mel Ingram Page...

Return to the Herrickreport.com

My sister, Dolores, recently asked me for any information I have that might be of benefit to one of my nephews who has a problem with anger. Well, as it so happens, over the years I have accumulated a small assortment of articles concerning attitude -- anger in particular. Among those articles I found a lesson outline that I once delivered to my men's Sunday School class, the "Sojourners" at Balboa Baptist in Hot Springs Village, AR. I'll be mailing that package to her tomorrow!

In reviewing that outline, I became acutely aware of my own lapse in a proper attitude. It happens to all of us. We tend to slip -- to slide -- to procrastinate when it comes to paying continuous attention to the state of our attitude. I could have recognized it and attended to it much sooner if I had paid attention to the warning signs....

You know what I mean -- that little pity party you had the other day when you were peeved at your spouse. That "little" flare-up at your good friend. The slip of tongue and red face you got when that driver cut you off on the freeway. The sarcastic way you answer an adult son or daughter. The pent-up animosity and resentment shown your spouse all too often in both overt and covert ways. The lack of compassion for the hurting world about us. The gloss-over we all to often pay over opportunities for service passed.

We're all guilty -- especially me! Just ask my wife -- she could really fill you in on my lousy attitude! We'll be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary this Friday, July 29, 2005. It was hardly 50 years ago that we met, and she's had far too few days of peace without my abysmal attitude repeatedly rearing it's ugly head all these years. It all began when I cleverly insisted on getting married on her birthday -- July 29, 1933. (Now I've really gone and done it -- sharing her age with half the world is not too wise!) Truly, I hope she'll once again find it in her heart to forgive my fits of anger, my forgetfulness, my orneriness and my cantankerous attitude.

I hope you'll join me in reassessingour own attitude. Are we being positive about the way we conduct our lives? Is our anger under control? Do we treat others as we would like for them to treat us? I hope you'll absorb and reassess your attitude after reading the attached outline that I revised today after reviewing my own imprudent behavior in the Department of Attitude.

Mel Ingram
mel-ing@sbcglobal.net

Return to the Herrickreport.com

HERRICKREPORT.COM