When my dad was a little boy
he was given a wagon for one birthday.
He took it outside and immediately the neighbor kids took the wagon away
from him and he watched them play with it.
The next morning he told his mom what had happened and he said, “I
relents that!” He resented the kids had
taken the wagon away from him but didn’t realize it until the next day. Was he slow to anger or just slow?
I also have that problem with
slowness. Recently I found a letter
written to my mom by my aunt when I thirteen years old and spending the summer
with her and my cousins at my grandparents farm. As a very young looking 13 year old, (see the
picture below), I had traveled from Alexandria, Virginia to Eau Claire,
Wisconsin, by bus, so that I could ride the rest of the way to Spokane, WA with
my aunt and uncle and cousins. In the
letter my aunt said that I was very self-controlled and that it was —“Not
normal for a teenager!” What?! Teens can’t be self-controlled? I think we all have different personalities
and for some of us we just aren’t built to get angry. Take Rachel—the gal from the You Tube who
stayed very calm and didn’t get angry with the patron who was trying to goad
her at Chick Fil A. In an interview she
said that it was her training and her personality.
Do some of us have it easier
than others as far as anger control? I
think it is. Each of us has something
that God wants to help us work on. As
for me I have to force myself to analyze the situation and decide if it was
something that I would be angry about later and then decide what to do. Is this something that I should let go? Is it something that would anger Jesus? Am I
enabling someone to have bad behavior?
What are my interests as well as the interests of others? It all amounts to the question of what would be
the most loving thing to do?
I'm first on the left holding hands with my cousin who is a month younger than me.
I appreciated reading your post on anger. Too often people let anger use them when they respond to life's many disturbances. I realize also that we can occasionally use anger as a tool to communicate something profound or respond to an injustice. The worst thing we can do is let anger use us and become a chronic response to every little thing that annoys us. In that case, anger can cause illness and stress within our own selves and rarely reaches the object of our anger. It is best to find ways to diffuse anger so it doesn't become a problem for you or the object of your frustration. Keep anger in your pocket and only use it when absolutely necessary. Thanks! Dudley (http://www.soundings.com)
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