Mastering Yourself

My father loved golfing. Every Saturday he would be up with the birds and hoping to shoot a few birdies.
When I was born my parents named me “Robert” or “Bobby” as in Bobby Jones, one of world’s greatest golfers. My dad bought me a set of Bobby Jones Jr golf clubs but they sat in the garage most of my life.
Bobby was only five years old when he first swung a golf club. By the age of twelve, he was winning club tournaments. During this time, he was known for his hot temper, and he soon had the nickname “Club Thrower.”
Jones became friends with a man named Grandpa Bart, who worked part-time in the club pro shop. Bart had been an excellent golfer but had retired when arthritis gripped his hands. After Bobby lost the National Amateur Tournament at the age of fourteen, he said, “Bobby, you are good enough to win that tournament, but you’ll never win until you can control your temper. You miss a shot – you get upset – then you lose.”
Bobby knew Grandpa Bart was right, and he became determined to improve – not his golf swings – his mood swings. When Bobby won a major tournament at age twenty one, Grandpa Bart said, “Bobby was fourteen when he mastered to game of golf, but he was twenty one when he mastered himself.”
Mastering yourself. We could all be champions in that endeavour.
“Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” James 1:19-20(NIV)