I'm not going to lie. There are moments in my life when I wish I had an arsenal of angry birds, especially the ones that turn into bombs and blow up and destroy everything in the vicinity, to take out the little green pigs in my life. For those of you who have no clue to what I am referring and consequently think that I have officially lost my ever-loving mind, please just google "angry birds" and get with the times, people!!!
I experienced one of the above-mentioned moments this morning when, at 5:27am, my three-year-old son decided that it was time to wake up for the day. After being told to get back in his bed, the 30-minute-plus tantrum began, and, to put it mildly, let's just say that our day did not begin well.
I felt like steam was going to explode from my ears at any second, and my frustration level was approaching its max. I wanted to hurl a little red bird at this "pig" of a situation and take it out. Or at least have the option to have a do-over!
But life isn't like that, is it? There's not always the chance to do something over. There's not always a way to knock out a problem with one fatal blow. The problem wasn't my son; the problem was his sinful response to me and the foothold that the enemy was offered as a result.
And, if I am being completely honest, the problem was me.
Sutton waking up at 5:30am was not on my agenda for the day, and I felt inconvenienced. When he responded to me out of his three-year-old frustration, I responded to him out of my 30-year-old frustration. Mature, right?
It's not the being angry that is the problem; God gave us emotions for a reason! It's my response to that anger that can bring me to sin, when I choose to act out of anger instead of acting out of submission and reliance upon the Lord.
I responded harshly to my son, instead of with the patient, consistent, unwavering love of Christ. He required discipline, for sure - that is not in question here. His attitude toward me was sinful and broken. However, I had the choice to discipline him out of my love for him and my love for my heavenly father, or out of my anger. At the start, I chose to act out of anger. I threatened. I raised my voice. I was harsh. I was sinful.
God quickly reminded me as I sat down to have some time with him that He expects better of me. I know better. My son does not possess much self-control; however, as a Christ follower, I should look more like Christ and have more control over my anger.
No matter the situation, whether it be in parenting, in relationships, in a work environment, etc., we are called to submit our spirits to the Lord and to choose righteousness, no matter what we feel. We might need to choose to wait before responding to what has triggered our anger. We might need to remove ourselves from a situation while we gather our wits and our Spirit-given self control. We need to talk to our Heavenly Father, asking Him to do what we cannot, giving us a supernatural dose of patience, love, and understanding.
Because if we love Him, we will look more and more like His Son, and people will see Jesus when we respond in holiness. My son would have seen Jesus this morning if I had chosen to respond in His love and grace. Instead, he saw his sinful mommy. Which is okay - it's bound to happen, and God's grace covers a multitude of my sins. And by the end of the situation, I made a conscious decision to choose discipline in love. However, wouldn't I have made a greater impact on his little heart if I had chosen to start by counting to ten and begging God's patience before I responded to him? Wouldn't I have made a relationship with the Lord more appealing to him, even at three, if I had looked a little more like Jesus?
I am choosing to meditate on the following verses this morning, and I encourage you to do the same. It's not easy to reprogram our ways of thinking and responding, but God can and will change our response to anger-inducing situations if we will allow Him to!
"Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end." Proverbs 29:11
"Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools." Ecclesiastes 7:9
"A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel." Proverbs 15:18
"In your anger do not sin..." Ephesians 4:26a
"An angry person stirs up conflict, and a hot-tempered person commits many sins." Proverbs 29:22
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