ANGER — — — IS IT WORTH IT? — — — — — Many of us grew up hearing repeated statements such as “Don’t ever make me mad! When I get mad, watch out! Don’t make me lose my patience! You don’t want to make me Angry!” Actually, the correct term for the emotion is “Anger.” We often say “Mad” instead. Mad moreso is referring to someone crazy, like a mad man. — — — — — I would like to refer to a Bible verse in Proverb 17 which read, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but grievous words stir up strife.” — — — — — — — — — — When I was young, how well I can remember boasting about my bad temper. It was something many people seemed to be proud of. Often the excuse for it would be something like, “I have French, Irish, or German blood.” Or something of that nature. Is a bad temper, becoming furious something to be proud of? I don’t think so. Let’s think of what anger can lead to. As we all know, a heated argument can lead to a physical fight. That then could easily lead to someone being injured and hospitalized. It could even lead to someone dying. I, for one, do not believe that there is a genuine winner of an argument. My least favorite verbal exercise in Speech was Debate. Debating is a form of arguing. The best thing that can come out of it may be some humor and settling a dispute with disagreeing in a mature, peaceful way. In other words, disagreeing agreeably. — — — I think of how Peter, one of Jesus’ followers got riled up and took a sword. His anger led him to him chopping off a soldier’s ear. Jesus corrected him for doing so and undid what Peter had done, healing the soldier. The soldier had his ear put back in place. How was that for miraculous surgery? He didn’t need to go into the hospital or apply medical insurance or go through recovery?! — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — God gave us emotions, but we can misuse them. Extreme anger can be harmful. I had an uncle named Rene (I have written other articles about him.) Uncle Rene and his brother had a dispute and wound up pretty much forsaking each other. Due to that dispute, they hardly ever spoke to each other again. I believe that is terrible. To live in the same town as your brother and hardly have anything to do with him! How sad. — — — — — — — — — — — — — One of my most favorite TV shows ever was STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION. What I liked about it was how they always practiced Conflict Resolution. I studied that in college. It is a way of setting aside differences and working together peacefully to be productive. You can be different and still work toward reaching common goals. Everyone comes out as a winner. Harmony exists in music. It can exist in working together and living together also. With God all things are possible!
