Anger

I still get tickled when I think about the overwhelming amount of energy anger expends.  You see this very clearly when you take a fighting young buck teenager by the arms and literally remove him from a crowd of on-lookers and into a classroom behind closed doors.  Suddenly the audience, the threat and the drama is removed.  Many times I have seen a young man who seconds before was in a fight now collapse on the floor in tears and exhaustion.  Anger eats up a lot of energy. It leaves us confused and shaky.

Ephesians 4:26 warns us to be cautious with this emotion.  We are commanded to practice it only in a certain way—righteously.  We are to control our fleshly use of anger that is not founded in justice and uprightness.  Paul also instructs us to not let a day end with any leftover anger. 

Dr. Sam Peeples said, “The circumstances of life, the events of life and the people around me in life, do not make me the way I am, but reveal the way I am.”  That is an eye-opener! It is what is inside a man that produces either righteousness or wickedness. Solomon warned, “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.”  

When I look back at some of the most tumultuous times of parenting, I regret that oftentimes, I lost control.   There can be  harm done when we lose control.  Today, we can see the wise counsel above that we need to seek wisdom.  Some need to realize that if anger is a default emotion, it is not the environment that needs to change, but a clear sign that renewal is needed in the inner self.  We need Truth to live in us.  We need our minds renewed by the Spirit.  We need to strip off layer by layer the old way of responding to our world. We need to put on the new self—established in faith in Christ Jesus.

Coach/PJ