The Not-So Loving Language of ANGER

James 1:20 For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

I will continue to state that I can only be truly honest with myself and my audience during this venture. The next language I am going to talk about is a struggle for me more often than I would like and is something that requires prayer and patience in every situation.

Other than making us feel better or giving us control can anyone tell me the point of being angry? What does anger achieve that love cannot?

Anger is a choice and we have the choice as to if and when we are going to be angry. That’s my pet peeve, they make me so angry, I hate when someone does that. These are all statements we have probably used and they make it seem like our anger is a result of someone or something outside of ourselves. This is the trick anger plays on us all. Anger starts out as a choice. We choose to get angry at a situation because we have learned that is what is supposed to happen and we continue to choose anger until it becomes a habit and our mind automatically chooses anger every time that specific thing happens. We still have a choice but it is not easy to break the habit of anger just like any habit. It takes time and practice. We have to be patient when a situation arises and ask ourselves the questions above; “What can anger achieve that love cannot?”

There you are driving down the road and all of a sudden the car in the land beside you cuts you off and slams their breaks. What is your first reaction? I know what mine is and it usually isn’t nice. If I was to say that I had a “not-so” Love Language then Anger would be its name. Proverbs 15:18 says that “A hot-tempered man stirs up strife; but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.”

We get aggravated over the smallest of issues and we act out of anger at times. Then when we look back we realize that a little bit of patience and thought would have provided a better result or the situation would have worked itself out without us losing our witness.

I use driving as an example but let’s be honest, there are countless times that we let anger get the best of us and we speak in the language of anger. Imagine the waitress who you just got angry with was watching you pray before your meal. He or she may have been struggling for answers and looking for hope and thought they saw a glimmer when your family came in and was happy and smiling. Then you prayed before your meal and she thought “maybe that is where my answers are”. Then your order came out wrong and you let her have it. You know what she is thinking now “Just another hypocrite Christian; they are no different than the rest of us”.

Be careful to not react in anger to a situation or towards a person. Someone is always watching and your actions may be the only connection they see to Christ today.