One day a wife asked her husband, “Why don’t you play golf with George anymore?” The husband answered, “Would you play golf with a man who moves the ball and puts down the wrong score while you’re not looking?” The wife said, “Certainly not.” The husband replied, “Neither would George.”

Sinful behavior — it does affect our lives, doesn’t it? My youngest son, Royce, once struck out by foolishly swinging at a pitch that was in the dirt. On his way back to the dugout, he threw down his helmet in a fit of anger. And what was my wife Tonya’s knee-jerk reaction to that? She smiled and said, “I wonder who he gets that from?” (No, she wasn’t talking about herself.)

Okay, I’ll admit it, when I get really mad my first reaction is to throw something, kick something, or slam something. For example, several years ago Tonya stood in the kitchen and watched me get aggravated at a troublesome weed eater and launch it into space. That incident reminds me of the story about the little boy who was watching a preacher try to start an old pull-cord mower. When the boy commented, “That mower is enough to make a fellow cuss,” the preached said, “Son, I used to cuss, but I stopped that filthy habit when I accepted Jesus, and it’s been so long since I cussed, I’m not sure I could even remember how.” To that the boy replied, “You keep pulling on that cord and it will all come back to you.”

The truth is that each of us struggles with some specific sin or pattern of bad behavior, and no matter how long we go without tripping over that old log, we’ll eventually find ourselves again face first on the ground. One of mine (and there are others) is my temper. That’s my personal admission for the day. But how about you? What’s your problem area? Is it worry? Doubt? Greed? Impatience? Lust? Jealousy? Ego? Vanity? Pride? Some type of addiction? Something else?

Getting back to my story about Royce and baseball, I had the conversation with him that day about not slamming down his batting helmet. Unfortunately, the underlying cause of that little fit of rage is something that he will have to contend with for the rest of his life. I speak from personal experience on this because I am still contending with my own case of it. For me as a Christian, one of the best things about heaven is the fact that I will be eternally rescued from this mortal flesh, a flesh that is polluted and tainted by sin. Until then, though, I will always deal with the temptation to slam down helmets, throw weed eaters, cuss, kick garbage cans, punch walls, etc., etc., etc.

The only real help I’ve ever found to combat my faulty inner wiring is Jesus Christ. When I placed my belief in Him as Savior, God the Holy Spirit came to take up residence inside me, and His presence allows me a fighting chance to keep my pet sins and bad behavior at bay. Even with the Spirit living inside me, I still show my temper every now and then, but those occasions aren’t nearly as numerous as they used to be. This, you see, is my anger management plan, and the plan will work as long as I work the plan by letting the Holy Spirit control me from the inside.