Keeping Your Anger in Check

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

Anger is a God-ordained emotion, but it’s meant to be your servant instead of your master. So keep your temper on a lead. Any time you’re tempted to give in to anger, stop and ask yourself two questions: 1) Is this really worth my anger? Much of the time you’re working only with partial information. Furthermore, when you view someone in the context of their best qualities rather than their worst ones, you usually respond differently. 2) Is this the best way, place, and time to express my anger? It’s hard to ask yourself this in the heat of the moment, but your emotions can be tamed and your temper can be trained. The Bible says one of the fruits of the Spirit is ‘self-control’ (Galatians 5:23). When someone wrongs you, the question isn’t are you big enough to do something about it; the question is are you big enough not to? The story’s told of two brothers who got into an awful fight and their mother ran upstairs to break it up. When she asked how the fight got started, the older brother said, ‘It all started when he hit me back!’ If you’ve an anger management problem, write this Scripture down, carry it with you and try to read it before you lose your temper: ‘Sensible people control their temper; they earn respect by overlooking wrongs’ (Proverbs 19:11). You say, ‘That’s hard to do!’ Yes, and you’ll never do it perfectly. But if you do it more often God will be glorified, and you’ll feel better too.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, help me keep my anger in check and look for the best in others. In Jesus’ Name, Amen