Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Wisdom from Proverbs”
Our Bible verse for today: “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man holds it in check… An angry man stirs up conflict, and a hot-tempered man increases rebellion.” Proverbs 29:11; 22 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Anger takes many forms.”
Are you an angry person? Don’t be too quick to answer that question. Typically when we think of an angry person we think of someone who has trouble controlling his or her temper and is therefore prone to angry outbursts. Those outbursts could result in words that should not be spoken, or it could take the form of shouting and irrational behavior, and sometimes he could result in violent actions. That certainly is a description of an angry person.
But anger takes other forms as well. One of the angriest people I have ever known almost never displays it with outbursts of anger. Although I have known him for close to thirty years, I can count on the fingers of one hand how many times I’ve seen him display anger in the form described above. Instead, his is a quiet simmering anger. It percolates below the surface coloring his thoughts, causing him to be bitter and resentful and very critical of others. This man’s anger almost never seems to go away – so much so that it’s an integral part of who he is. He is just an angry man, but you would never know it if your only definition for “angry” involved observable outbursts of anger.
In their excellent book “The Anger Workbook: An interactive guide to anger management”, Doctors Les Carter and Frank Minirth offer a thirteen step process for effectively managing anger. Step one is to learn to recognize the many faces of anger. That’s the starting place. Before we can effectively deal with anger in any meaningful way we must first know what it is and we must understand how it manifests itself.
In the workbook they explain that anger is an emotion that is common to every person. The difference is in what we do with it. They then go on to help us understand that in addition to the most commonly recognized form of anger – angry outbursts – anger also commonly manifests itself in more subtle ways such as irritability, impatience, critical thoughts, withdrawal, bitterness and resentment, sarcasm, depression, a victim mentality, ambivalence, and more.
As Solomon teaches in Proverbs 29, it’s a foolish person who does not recognize and effectively control their anger. That person causes problems for themselves and for others. I encourage you to consider getting a copy of “The Anger Workbook.” It will help you to understand and effectively deal with anger, in all of its many manifestations.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 