"A strong feeling of displeasure aroused by a wrong"
One of my favorite columnists wrote an article in our sunday paper about anger. Its something that has been on my mind for a while, I'll admit. So her timing, you might say, was spot on. Anger is one of those things that we all feel at one time or another. And it can be something that comes in many forms. For instance...
Anger at a person
Anger over a situation
Anger at oneself
Anger about the past
Anger that you can't change something (or the feeling thereof)
...and yes even
Anger at God
Anger is often looked at something that is bad or wrong. But thats not always the case. God even says in Ephesians 4:26, "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down on your wrath".
It can be confusing!
Thats not to say that being angry is something we should do all the time. But..we are human..and we are going to get angry at times. Its how we handle the anger that matters. Anger is something I struggle with alot (as I'm sure some of you do as well..at least I hope I'm not alone in this boat!). The columnist I mentioned before..she was talking about how she used to be the type of person that didn't get angry easily. That it took her alot to get angry..but then she went through some things in life (some really hard situations) and she got to the point where she angered alot easier than before. My guess is she didn't like the 'new' trait she had formed (nobody would). My husband is like this..it really takes alot to get him angry. In fact..to date (and we've been married 11+ years) I've only truely seen him 'angry' less than a handful of times.
I wish I were that way!
I have a tendency to get angry easily..but..its something I'm working on. Some things I've dealt with over the course of the past year have been extremely hard to say the least. And I've been angry in one form or another over several different situations. One that I've mentioned on here is Damon's unemployment. I have handled it better than I did the last time we went through the same situation. But I still find myself asking God why? at times.
The key is to not be angry..at a person..situation..yourself..the past..etc...but to pray about it. Whether its for someone..something..yourself..pray to let go of things that trouble you. Sometimes praying for the person who made you angry in the first place is harder than being angry itself! Sometimes praying for a situation (and having the faith that things will change) can be challenging. Praying for yourself (for me, anyways) has never been easy, because I tend to want to put everyone else's needs before my own.
Sometimes we need to put ourselves first.
If we're not in a good place..then how can we be helpful to anyone else. If you think about it..'some' anger probably stems from this alone. If we keep ourselves in check to begin with..becoming angry about 'some' things probably would never even happen.
I'll leave you with a quote my columnist mentioned in her column that stuck out to me the most..because if you sit and think about it..it speaks volumes.
Anger ventilated often hurries toward forgiveness, and concealed often hardens into revenge.
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