My Great Enemy

When I was putting the girls to sleep last night, we said a a short metta prayer. "Metta" means loving kindness. We had begun by first wishing for ourselves by saying - "May I be well and happy. May I be free from troubles. May I be healthy and peaceful". Then we said - "May my relatives(wife, sisters, grandparents and uncles/aunties) be well and happy...." . I was leading and had just begun to end the prayer by saying, 'May our enemies.." when it struck me as odd that I was using the word 'enemy' as it implied that we harboured ill will towards some other. Before I could correct myself, Kay asked if I had enemies. While I like to think that I had none, I said yes. She asked who that was. I said she knows who it was. As a hint to her, I said that each of us has a great enemy. She quickly answered - 'I know - Your emotions'. Precisely.
And sure enough the great enemy surface today. I had just picked the girls up from their regular Saturday kids yoga class. Nai hit Kay when Kay said something in the car. I asked Nai to get down from the car. She refused and I physically tried to dislodge her. She was strong and had put up a struggle. I succeeded but she cried saying that I had hurt her leg. I was upset in the process of removing her and could see that it was pure emotions which driving all my actions at that point in time. The voice of the rational higher mind was no where to be heard. The result certainly had been unfavourable. I should have just drove home straight and left the kids in the porch by themselves to figure out for themselves where they went wrong. Instead, I had fought emotions with emotions. Fire with fire. Like the saying, 'When you throw fire, you will be the first to be burnt". My future wise action is that I should do nothing if I was getting upset, to not touch the kids and remove myself from such a situation.