Anger

Ephesians 4: 31 - 32

Anger affects us all, I'm sure. Maybe I shouldn't speak for you, but I know it's something I struggle with all the time. I can go back and look at my genetics and blame my temper on that and maybe that's part of my struggle.

Or I can just realize that it's something I need to fight. Okay. there I go again. Fight. An aggressive word. How about find a way to channel?

I'm not sure. I just know that when someone gets angry at me, I have a really, really hard time not returning anger. Harsh word for harsh word. I wish, when someone got angry with me I could simply work past the emotions they are expressing, the words they are throwing out and try to see the person behind the anger. Wonder what caused this. Try to see them as a Person. Not an aggressor.

Someone who Christ died for.

I feel like there is so much anger around us these days. People are so quick to jump to anger. To be aggressive. Ephesians 4 reminds us to be kind and compassionate to one another, but that's hard to do when someone comes at you in anger.

Hard to do when I see people being abused, hurt, unjustly treated. Hard to do when I see the anger in the abuser.

God requires of us to do justice for all. To care for everyone.

I'm still learning. I'm sure you are too.

I have to think of this quote from Frederich Buechner:

“Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back--in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.”

― Frederick Buechner