NorthStar Community Daily Devotional

Day 298 – Anger management

Having a Heart in a Sometimes Heartless World

Scripture focus: A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control. Proverbs 29:11 NIV

What are we to do with our anger?

1. We can try to repress the emotion.

“Repressed anger is similar to the ‘call waiting’ feature on the telephone. You can go on with your life as if it weren’t there – but it is there. It won’t go away. It will find ways to ‘leak out,’ in the form of depression, bitterness, mistrust, self-pity, anxiety, criticalness, and so on.” Forgiving Our Parents, Forgiving Ourselves, p. 236.

2. We can vent.

“Authenticity may be well and good in its place. But running around yelling, cursing, and being destructive is no solution to anger. These ways of venting our anger may make us feel better, at least for the moment. But they ruin relationships, and in time they undermine our own emotional health.” Forgiving Our Parents, Forgiving Ourselves, p. 238.

3. We can feel angry, but not express it immediately.

“This means that we let ourselves experience our anger – we don’t repress it – but we also choose to handle it in productive and healthy ways. In other words, we decide to respond rather than react.” Forgiving Our Parents, Forgiving Ourselves, p. 238.

4. We can learn to confess our anger to someone we trust.

“First of all, let’s get clear about the word ‘confess.’ At its root, it simply means ‘to say the same as,’ or ‘to give accurate verbal expression to what is real.’ In this sense, it doesn’t carry the connotation of ‘admitting guilt.’ It simply means we are being candid and honesty about what is going on. Forgiving Our Parents, Forgiving Ourselves, p. 239.

These four principles are written about in the book cited above – these aren’t my ideas!

Take a look at them, and see if there are any you can particularly relate to – and see if there is something you need to get honest about in your own personal inventory!

Recommended reading: Jeremiah 48 and 49 in the morning; 2 Timothy 4 and Proverbs 26 in the evening

Copyright 2008 NorthStar Community