The most common sin

"When I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is some sin against charity; I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed. And the excuse that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected; I was caught off my guard, I had not time to collect myself. Now that may be an extenuating circumstance as regards those particular acts: they would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate or premeditated. On the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken off ths guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in the cellar, you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddennes of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man i am. "

C.S. Lewis

Wow, he is spot on, huh? I know i've always come up with some excuse for why i acted some way. He's right in saying we all do. So my question is, HOW do you make yourself react better? more kind? How do you make it automatic?

He goes on in the chapter (Book: "Mere Chrisitianity") to say,

You can't. It's impossible. He says, "I can (and this means all of us) to some extent control my acts: [but] i have no direct control over my temperament.

"If what are are matters more than what we do---if, indeed, what we do matters chiefly as evidence of what we are---then it follows that the change which I most need to undergo is a change that my own direct, voluntary efforts cannot bring about. (this applies to my good actions too. How many of them were done for the right motive? How many for fear of public opinion or desire to show off?) I cannot, by direct moral effort, give myself new motives. After [beginning] the Christian life, we realize that everything which really needs to be done in our souls can only be done by God."

Translation: You've got to pray for charity. every. day. And slowly, very slowly, you'll start to see a difference in your life. It's as simple and as complicated as that. God changes you. I promise it works. I've tried it out personally. While i've got a LONG way to go when it comes to this, i've seen how it has changed me, a little at a time. And really, that's all God requires. Try to become a little better, each day. It's not as overwhelming as people think it is.

:)