We’ve all done it! We’ve gotten angry. There are a lot of reasons to get angry. You may have not gotten a good grade on your math test and you’re angry at yourself for not studying more. You could be angry because you see someone at your school getting bullied, and you wish that people treated others with more respect. Or perhaps you’ve gotten angry because someone auditioned for the school play and got the part you knew you deserved. Anger can come to us from many different sources.
Anger in itself isn’t necessarily bad. Its your response to anger that can make or break you in life. For example, if you got angry that you didn’t get a good grade on your math test. And let’s say you used that anger to motivate you to study harder for the next test. That response to anger would be good. You channeled your anger into something productive, like studying harder for a test.
Sometimes though, your response to anger can be bad. If you allow your anger to consume you you can do things you regret. The story of Cain in Genesis four is a good example of this. Cain got angry with his brother Abel and that anger drove him to ultimately kill Abel.
Cain made a bad decision out of anger. He chose to kill his brother Abel. Now, we know that killing someone is wrong, and most of us aren’t tempted to kill someone, but what do you do when someone gets something you feel is unfair? Do you talk about them behind their back? Give them the silent treatment? Or maybe try to get even with them?
Doing these types of things will not help you in the long run. It might make you feel better in the moment, but trying to get even or not treating someone nice isn’t the right way to respond to anger. When you get angry, you have a choice to make. Will you sin when you get angry and do something you may later regret, or will you channel that anger into something positive in your life. Ephesians 4:26 says it like this:
“When you are angry, don’t let that anger make you sin,” and don’t stay angry all day. – Ephesians 4:26
When you get angry, choose to not get even or hurt someone else. Choose instead to channel your anger into something positive.
Julia H
September 25, 2014 at 2:51 pmThis is exactly what I needed to hear. One of my best friends from kindergarden is being bullied at school and even at church because she has a disorder. It makes me so mad and I want to hurt them like they hurt her.
Marlena
December 6, 2014 at 8:47 pmI have a friend that is named alexis. I want to hurt her bullies so bad. They stressed her out and now she is a cutter. she was abused. I want to help her but I don’t know how.
anon
November 15, 2018 at 1:21 pmDon’t hurt the bullies , just stick up for Alexis and be there for her , try and teach her about talking to god.