Anger 3

Anger...

I want to also focus on what we as parent's teach our children when we are angry with them. And by angry with them I don't mean frustrated with them after a bad behavior. Every Parent has that.

But I also have seen.. Go find a seat in a local mall.. And just watch the parents with their kids. 

I have never seen people so ANGRY at children.. and it isn't a one time thing... it is as if our anger is on a low boil looking for a time and a place to erupt.

Children learn what they live.. 

If your angry with them.. frequently

Then why would you assume they will have good relationships with others?

Ex..
Classmates

Teachers

Doctors

Sports team coaches

I mean if the person supposed to love them doesn't.. and is constantly angry with them.. over some imagined.. or worse yet REAL... Slight that has happened... 

How can they be happy with themselves?

How can they learn how to improve their own choices..?

I think the one thing that has been the most impressing thought on my mind recently is that many times I would tell my sons to do x,y or z...

Joshua do the dishes, I would at one point or another have stood there showing him how to put soap on the washcloth

I would have shown him how to draw the water.. Even how I expected the dishes to be done.. But did I show him how to check that it was properly cleaned... Nope.. I would come in check a few dishes and then slap all the dirty ones back into the sink and call him to re-wash them.  

And he'd be frustrated and I'd be frustrated.. 

But it wasn't till one day during a sermon at church that I realized there is a huge difference between telling someone to do something..and training them how to do it.. In that particular surmon the preacher had pointed out that JESUS had spent 3 years teaching the disciples how to be disciples.. and even then after 3 years with the savior... they hadn't "gotten the point" till they went out to practice what they had been taught after Pentecost..

I mean Jeez.. they had JESUS CHRIST as their teacher.. 

If he wasn't any more successful than that.. well I think I am asking too much for me to have my son taught in one day..

I think a big part of the Anger epidemic in america is we have UNREALISTIC expectations..

Anger 2

Anger...

11A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.

Proverbs 29:11

So what is God's words for us today going to tell us?

Well lets look at Proverbs 29:11 first..

A FOOL.... Yepper it said it.. If you say everything that comes to your mind.. Your a fool.

As my pastor will often tell us.. "People now a days are so quickly giving away pieces of their mind that they often don't realize when they no longer have any left..."

And I won't lie I have been very guilty of this. And as this proverb tells us in the second half of the verse we could often save ourselves from reproach and shame if we would just mull over what has been said and what has been done till "afterwards"

Let me give you all an example of a thing that I was guilty of..

This last year's VBS I was really frustrated with one of the women who were running the vbs. She had chosen the theme without ever asking or having a vote done about the upcoming themes.. Assumed so many of us would dedicate hours to getting it ready.. and apparently she had been right because we all did come do just that. 

But then she didn't even bring her kids to the vbs.. and for 4 of the 5 nights hadn't even showed up herself... I was HOT!

And had no reason been offered.. Until last weekend.. 

Last weekend me and everyone at our church learned the real reason she hadn't made it most of the time for the last 2 months.. 

She has cancer.. she had been going through chemo..

And she didn't want to bother us.. 

I had unfairly judged her. 

I had gossiped about how if she didn't want the job why had she bothered..

She had wanted the job.. she was however fighting for her life.. 

But I had failed.. I had failed to show my faith.. I had failed to go to her and find out..

Nope I had assumed evil of her.. and tried, tarred and feathered her and had I been allowed in my assumed righteous anger.. I would have stripped her of a much loved position..

I WAS WRONG!

I HAD NO RIGHT!

And I am deeply ashamed of myself. 

And what's more God had known all along.. 

Had I shut my mouth.. I would have kept myself from much shame.

Lord God.. Help us all to learn to not let Anger give us permission to say, think and do things to one another that is EVIL in your sight!

Anger 1

Anger..

What is the purpose of Anger?

19Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Romans 12:19

26Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

 27Neither give place to the devil. Ephesians 4:26-27

19Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

 20For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. James 1:19-20

So what does God say about Anger?

Avenge not yourselves.. Could it be that God knows we would.. 

Could it be that we are prone to wanting revenge? 

Just look around our society.. The answer is very blatantly obvious

Being angry seems to be the "pet sin" of Modern America

All I hear all the time is "I am so mad" or "Did you see what they did... Makes me mad enough to...."

We seem to be delighting in the mental imaginings of our minds about what ever injustices we think have been laden onto us..

I guess that makes me wonder.. What can a person who claims salvation have happen to them.. that is UNJUST??

If you are a person who claims that Jesus Christ Died for you..

1 You have at one time said you were so dirty and full of sin that JUSTIFIABLY God could have and should have sent you to HELL!

2 You have admitted by GOD'S GRACE.. You have been pardoned from the sure and just consequences of YOUR SIN.. and given you not only Jesus's righteousness.. but TOTAL FORGIVENESS..

3 So you already have been forgiven everything.. even those things which you really should be swimming in hell because you did such evil in the sight of God.. that you had to come and cling to the base of that blood soaked cross begging A Holy God not to give you what YOU REALLY DESERVED..

So what is it that a christian can honestly say they are angry about.. ?

Their own forgiveness? Well that surely has merit for others to be angry.. you sinned against God and hurt those others and your sins are now forgiven never going to be given retribution for those things done.. I'd says someone is probably pretty upset about that.. But you want to keep your forgiveness right? But you think someone else isn't entitled to your forgiveness??

We want justice for others.. but Forgiveness for ourselves??