circle of influence

I heard this saying about your circle of influence. Think of a bulls eye. The very center is the things you can control, the next outer circle is the things you can influence and finally everything outside of that is the things you can not control. This really made me think. You can put this thought to work with anything. Maybe when you want to control someone else. Maybe your angry about something and your going to take it out on someone. Or maybe its food. Your hungry and there is no where to eat but wendys. Do i just go get one of those double burgers with fries because "there was no where else to eat" or do i maybe get a salad w/light dressing or even a grilled chicken sandwhich w/no mayo. What in this is in my control? You can only control 2 things in this world what GOES IN your MOUTH and what comes OUT!!!! Think on that for a minute. YOU control what goes in your mouth. AND you control what comes out. I used thie circle of influence yesterday. As many people know i am loud and out spoken especially when angry. Well Oshea (my friend) was suppose to meet me at 4:15. Well i sat in my car in the cold waiting. I couldnt run my car because my gas light was on but i couldnt go get gas because i might miss her. Well i sat there and waited and waited and waited and at 5:15 i was getting so angry. But it popped into my head...what can i control? I cant control her being late, I could go wait in the doorway and be warm. I couldnt control that i was going to be late getting my husband but i even couldnt help really being a little mad when 5:3o rolled around and she pulled up but i could control the way i reacted to it. You see this whole time i was waiting she was stuck in traffic with 2 kids screaming, so as bad as i "had it" she had it a whole lot worse. So i just said a prayer for God to help me not to react to her being late. It worked i was still a little upset but i didnt react i just gave her the i am glad your here now look and we went about our buisness. And i am sure it was comforting to her that i didnt explode and lecture her about how she should have left earlier or shouldnt have let pat take the car or whatever but i controlled the situation and i am sure we are better friends because of it. Don't let thoughts hold you captive.