Article November 9, 1974 Issue

Raising the Boiling Point

KATHRYN PAULSON GROUNDS

"We boil at different degrees," Emerson once commented.^{Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Eloquence";} What is our individual boiling point, if any? Does it take a great deal of provocation to anger us, or does it take very little? Whether our boiling point is apparently high or low, we need to pray to realize and demonstrate our God-bestowed stability. This will keep us from responding badly to challenging circumstances.

Even trifles, sometimes, may make us seethe with anger and boil over on our surroundings. And what is accomplished? Eventually, just a big cleanup! One has to mop up the mess, wipe off innocent bystanders who may have been splattered in the overflow, and then clean oneself up, removing the spots caused by volatility of disposition. The time and energy required for all this could have been more gainfully employed in the initial exercise of control over tongue and temper.

From the standpoint of moral maturity a biblical writer stated, "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city."^{Prov. 16:32;} The governing of resentment and hot temper is an evidence of moral and spiritual progress. Christian Science stresses the importance of the discipline of love and wisdom over thought and speech. In a "Message to the Annual Meeting of The Mother Church," Mrs. Eddy says: "Who hath not learned that when alone he has his own thoughts to guard, and when struggling with mankind his temper, and in society his tongue? We also have gained higher heights; have learned that trials lift us to that dignity of Soul which sustains us, and finally conquers them; and that the ordeal refines while it chastens."^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 126;}

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