Do you or someone you know often react in anger? There is a valid reason for this and a very simple solution. God has healing for our soul, which is the cause of our angry responses. Why do people react in anger?
The root cause may be fear,
insecurity, accumulated frustrations, unfulfillment, nervousness, sadness,
misunderstandings due to assumptions rather than gathering all the facts, feeling
misunderstood or neglected or abused or demeaned, other negative emotions, etc.
Rather than returning another
person's anger with our own angry response, we can react to our angry mate,
friend, child, boss, co-worker, etc. with compassion, nurturing, understanding,
and mercy. We can look deeper to see what recent event(s) may have caused their
angry response.
Journaling how we feel, what
thoughts are screaming in our head, and what is making us fearful and insecure
can help us to discover the root of our angry reactions.
Once we discover the real cause
of anger, we can pray about it, dispense with it, and replace our negative
focus and emotions with positive ones.
Dealing with our emotional pain,
and gracefully confronting and forgiving the one who hurt us, will take the
fuel away from anger's fire. We learn to respond with love, rather than taking
the person's reaction personally and feeling the need to defend our self.
Prayer:
Father God, You gave us anger as
one of our emotions for a purpose. However, we get in the habit of using it too
often in an attempt to communicate our sincere and intense feelings about
issues in our life. We use it to ward off further hurt and to control others
who are dismissing our needs as inconsequential, ignoring our feelings, or not
paying attention to us when we attempt to communicate with them.
You provided anger as a warning
device to help us to identify the root causes of that anger, which are the real
issues in our life. Anger also gives us the adrenaline to deal with stressful or
harmful incidences. Help us to reserve anger as a safety measure in extreme
circumstances, rather than to react in anger over everything that bothers us.
Thought for the Day:
Dwelling on the positive aspects
of our relationships, curbing our expectations and trusting God to meet our
needs rather than relying on people, will make it easier to dismiss our
immediate angry feelings and respond to others with mercy and grace instead.
