Take A Breath!

[07/31/2010 "teEn-MAIL"]

TAKE A BREATH!

Many years ago there was a new bride who moved into the small home on her husband's ranch. As she began to settle into her new home and new life she placed a shoe box on a shelf in her closet and asked her husband never to touch it. For the next fifty years he left that box alone; until she was old and dying. One day as he was putting their affairs in order, he found the box again and thought it might contain something important. Opening the box, he found two doilies and 82,500 dollars in cash. Taking the box to his wife the man asked about its contents. She responded, "My mother gave me that shoe box the day we married. She told me to make a doily to help ease my frustrations every time I got mad at you." Her husband was quite touched that in fifty years she'd only been mad at him twice. He then asked about the money in the box. "Oh, that's the money I made selling the rest of the doilies."

This woman was one who learned to do SOMETHING CONSTRUCTIVE rather than destructive with her anger. Some people don't DEAL WITH ANGER very well. Today there seems to be far too many who are quick to pull out a gun and even shoot randomly when they get mad over a situation. Lives have been lost over trivial matters which for some reason were allowed to escalate! There was a recent situation in a city a couple hours from us where an innocent neighbor was killed by a random shot fired from a car leaving the scene.

David wrote. . .
"(4) BE ANGRY, AND DO NOT SIN; PONDER in your own hearts on your beds, and BE SILENT." ( Psalm 4:4 ESV)

Paul cited this psalm in his letter to the church at Ephesus. ( Ephesians 4:26) Often times raging in anger just fuels more raging in anger rather than calming oneself in order to be clear minded in either thinking or working through the situation. That is why it is frequently recommended that one take a deep breath and count to ten before responding when angry. Even taking in the extra oxygen has a physiological effect on the body that lends toward a calmer response. When we TAKE A MOMENT to give the situation some thought rather than exploding into action, we don't have to later deal with the regret of having allowed unbridled speech and actions to erupt.

Like the woman in the story above, doing something else of a CONSTRUCTIVE nature can take the mind off of what made us angry. In the process it is even possible to either recognize our part in contributing to the situation or realize it wasn't really worth making an issue over anyway. We might not make 82,500 dollars from doilies, but we can save plenty of face and time that would otherwise be wasted fuming and fussing while solving nothing. When we are tempted to breathe out in anger, may we slow down (i.e. James 1:19) and take a deep breath, taking time to ponder so as to calmly and rationally respond when dealing with the varying issues of life.

Have a great day HOLDING THE REINS ON ANGER!
Carl

See other teEn-MAIL on Anger