Are You Still Carrying Around Your Ten Year Anger?

 

  It doesn’t have to be ten years; maybe it’s been five minutes, three hours. Anger is still anger; and soon if you carry it around long enough you’ll start to smell like you’re angry. What I mean by that is you don’t want anger to become what your known has. It’s easy to stay angry because most of us are known to be angry or to get angry, it’s a comfort we learn as children, that sometimes screaming out loud gets us what we want. The thing you have to remember as adults or as teens, is that now that anger won’t go away after you’ve screamed, it’ll still be there.

So how do I get rid of my anger?

Well, that’s easy and it’s not easy.

The first step to overcoming anger is forgiveness. That’s a hard pill to swallow. I remember the first time I heard I had to forgive someone to move on to what god had in store for me. I fought against it because no one knew how I felt, what this person did to me. I won’t tell it here because why I was angry doesn’t matter. How I forgave does. I decided that I was no longer going to give any more time to being mad. Who benefits from it? Not me because I was isolating myself, I was depressed, I felt worthless (I’d been angry for a long time). Was the person I was mad at benefitting? No, that person could have cared less. They went on with their life as if I didn’t matter and I thought if I brood long enough that person will notice that I’m mad at them. Oh, so, brooding didn’t work? Maybe I’ll scream and see what happens. I screamed and I screamed and that person screamed and still I was angry and that person left and went on with their life.

Now I was left alone to be angry at someone who wasn’t even there anymore. Pride will tell us that we shouldn’t forgive that person or those people. But God says to forgive everyone. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 says, For god did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our lord Jesus Christ.  So don’t be angry at yourself for being angry. Anger is not a sin but when you let that anger fester inside of you, when you feed off of it, you start to make bad choices that leads to sin.

Sometimes God allows us to see what anger looks like or to feel it because he says sometimes I just want to know if you’re strong enough in me (by getting his word because faith cometh by hearing) and if you’re strong enough period not to give in to it. Let’s face it, some people in this world come just to ruffle your feather. Are you going to let them? Are you really going to let those people stop your blessings? Stop you from living your life or finding your purpose? Forgive someone today and that burden will be lifted out of and off of you. Simply ask god to help you forgive him or her or them and he will. It won’t come immediately because God also wants to know if in your heart you really want to forgive and move on. Matthew 11:30 “….. my burden is light.” If Jesus thought that his burdens were light, why on earth are we complaining about what someone has done to us? Let’s not anyone have that kind of control over our lives anymore. It’s a tough process and one that won’t feel right at the moment but nevertheless it’ll be worthwhile in the end.

“In your anger to not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” Ephesians 4:26-27

 

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