The St. Francis Test - Testing our behavior

I just found out someone did something that seriously upset me.

A spouse or family member pissed me off. A co-worker rubbed me the wrong way. A friend stole my thunder or did something I perceived as out of line.

In any of these situations, do I allow my self-righteous need to correct and control led me to a place of gossip and thinly veiled character assassination?

Do I choose to let these situations stew and consume me until I am actually willing to compromise friendships and relationships over my own sick thinking?

If I truly want to live in the spirit of the Prayer of St. Francis, I can quickly check my behavior by using the St. Francis Test:

1) In this situation, am I:
a) An instrument of peace?
b) The source of the argument? 

2) Am I:
a) Fostering love among my fellows?
b) Stirring up controversy and dissention?

3) Am I:
a) Pardoning wrongs committed?
b) Trying to make someone else feel remorseful or guilty about their behavior, and thus adding insult to injury? 

4) Am I:
a) Keeping the faith that God makes all things just as He sees fit and that nothing is wasted in His economy, even if I feel like another person is controlling this particular situation or place in time?
b) In doubt and acting in an egotistical and aggressive way, and therefore, in my own will? 

5)  On this issue, am I:
a) Living in a place of hope and sunlight of the spirit?
b) Cloaking myself in darkness as I plot and scheme?

6) When I finish with my behavior, have I left those I just encountered with:
a) A feeling of joy for having me in their lives?
b) Sadness and pain, wishing they had never seen me on that particular day? 

7) Am I:
a) More concerned with who I can help and what goodness I can bring to this situation? 
b) Seeking that others handle me with kid gloves and console me?

8) Is it:
a) My course of action to just walk away from a conflict or try to understand another point of view, whether I agree or not?
b) Vitally important that everyone always understand and see my side of things?

9) Am I striving and reaching to:
a) Deliver God's love to others in this time? 
b) Have others constantly deliver love and approval to me?

10) Finally, am I seeking to:
a) Live in the One Thing - to deepen my relationship with God - by honoring Him with my actions?
b) Close myself off from Him by controlling and manipulating the situation?

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The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;  
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
not so much seek to be understood, as to understand;
not so much seek to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.  

Amen.