Yesterday morning an SUV ran the stop sign in front of the elementary school and flipped off the crossing-guard. I came home to dirty socks on the family room floor—socks I told the kids at least a dozen times to pick up. After reading the front page of the newspaper, I needed the funny pages. Our dog chewed up the funny pages.Life throws us many reasons to get angry every day. And we do get angry. Anger is a natural emotion God gave us to fight injustice and wrong. What a relief to know God doesn't consider anger a sin.
But oh boy, can we sin in our anger! When anger comes from a prideful sense of entitlement or whenever we fail to control this powerful emotion, great harm can come. Psalm 4:4 tells us, "In your anger do not sin."
So, how do we do that? In all honesty, I'm still working on it myself. I'm a people-pleaser who doesn't like conflict - so I stuff anger, but then I explode at trivial things. Ick. When that heat rises, I'm trying to teach myself to take a moment and pray.
1) Why am I angry? Is this righteous anger or just selfish annoyance that I didn't get my way?
2) Is there an issue that needs to be addressed, or do I just need to let it go?
3) If an issue needs to be addressed, how can I do so while showing respect and mercy for the other person?
Then pray for wisdom and strength to do the right thing.
How do you handle anger in your life?
Sarah, I am the same way. I end up exploding over a little thing and then feel so guilty about it.
ReplyDeleteIn my prayers lately, I have been asking the Lord to help me to be more understanding and patient. It is good to see that even my kids sometimes take a quiet moment to pray to ask the Lord to help them. I am working on doing the same. :-)
I read a quote not too long ago that made me laugh. It also made me think-- that Jesus was indeed as human as we are in all things but sin and he did get angry. As you said, anger in itself is not a sin. The quote was: "When someone asks you 'think about what Jesus would do,' remember that a valid option is to freak out and turn over tables."--unknown
Thanks for the thought-provoking post. I know it is something that I definitely am working on. God bless!
Lisa - I love that quote!!! And I love that God put that story in the Bible. Anger itself isn't the sin - it's how we handle it.
ReplyDeleteNow to learn how to handle it...:)