Angry Bird

Yesterday was a fairly typical Saturday for our family.  We ran errands in the morning.  I went for a run and did some service for the ward.  In the early evening I went out with Max to get the car cleaned and stop by Old Navy to attempt to find a hat and maybe possibly a coat.  We went through the car wash, vacuumed it thoroughly and I admit I was a bit tired by the end of it.  I still headed to Old Navy cause it was 50% of clearance and I wanted to get a cheap hat.  Not surprisingly the store had been completely picked over.  No hats, at all.  I was a bit annoyed.  I swung by the kids section and Max found a cute outfit for Spike.  Due to the super clearance it was worth standing in line.  It wasn't that the line was long, it was that the cashiers were moving as slow as humanly possible.  Like there was a competition to see who could fold pants the slowest.  Anyway by the time I got called up to action, I was slightly annoyed.  Then the guy said my items weren't on extra clearances cause they were children's items.  Well I was super miffed now.  I have no idea why I was so mad, but I was.  It doesn't really matter.  What matters is what happened next.  As we were walking back to the car it was dark and Max spotted a star.  A new star to him.  He wanted to follow it just as the wise men had.  We had just read that story the day before.  Now I would like to say how I bent down and hugged my child and used this as an opportunity to feel the Spirit and teach my son a great Gospel principal.  That would have been nice huh.  Well not me I was too mad at the Stupid Old Navy to even hear what my kid was saying.  It wasn't til a good 8-9 minuets later that I had calmed down enough to string together what he had been babbling about.  Wow, I can't even tell you the immense shame I felt- still feel.  I joke a lot about my anger and almost brag about it at times.  I have always felt a bit of pride because I got angry instead of depressed.  Well now I realise how wrong I have been.  My unnecessary anger is not something to be proud of.  Looking back on yesterday I can see multiple times during the evening where the Spirit was guiding me to this great moment and I brushed it aside.  I failed myself and more importantly I failed Max.  Lately I have spent quite a bit of time analyzing my life as I am about to turn 30.  Things I like about myself, things I want to learn and things I want to change.  I can't help but think that while I missed out on this great learning experience yesterday, I did get a beautiful lesson from Heavenly Father about one thing I really do need to change.  My anger needs to go if I am going to progress.