Bereanista

So in the last few days since I declared 'No Anger Month' for myself, I've definitely had fewer (fewer, not zero) instances of getting riled up. Chalk it up to a conscious effort + actually letting the Still Small Voice get through.  Another observation is, even when I do get angry, I let it go soon after; not stewing in it and thinking about it and getting mad all over again like I... used to (???). I guess the key is this: "The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked". Proverbs 24:16 (NLT). I've got to keep at it. This sinful nature is stitched into my genes and has been over 27 years festering and spreading. It's going to take more than a month to change; and I'm ready. If peacefulness is character, I'm building it block by block If graciousness is habit, I'm growing it day by day If a temperate nature is virtue, God help me do the work And I'll take on Your ...

All my life, I've 'had a temper' and I've known it. In childhood, I discovered a raw power that came from people being afraid of my anger- of what I would do, and especially of what I would say. Fury was like a drug that would give me a recklessness to say things my normally timid self wouldn't- and by some rule somewhere, it was okay to say whatever- because I had been angered. When I was younger, my anger would get some results- especially out of my siblings and classmates; or at least people would pay attention to what I had to say when I was fuming and used cutting words and sarcasm. Now I'm much older, and the old magic doesn't work the same way; thank God. Thank God for giving me so many situations over the past month in which anger yielded no results at all. No matter how much I threatened and railed, the noisy church next door didn't turn down the sound; and no matter how much I fumed, the telco did not return to my modem the data that had m...