He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is quick-tempered exalts folly.
I giggled as I uploaded this picture to the blog, but then I thought for a minute.
How often do we look like this? If we had a camera trained on us, would there be times that our foolish anger would completely embarrass us.
Yes, I am afraid so.
As I often do, I am going to tell you a story about something that happened in my life. If I have told this before, please forgive me. It is a life long lesson to me that literally comes to mind every time I think about the destruction that anger can bring.
As all of you know, I was only 8 when my mother passed away. I was certainly old enough to remember more about her than I do, but tragic circumstances from her death and the years following caused my young brain to block any memories before the age of 9. I do have a couple of things that stand out in my memory though. These few things are the things that must have made the biggest impression on my young mind.
Before I tell my story, you need to know that I have been told that my mother was a wonderful mother and that I was her life. According to others, everything she lived and did was for me. It is so sad that I don't remember ANY of that! What I do remember was a time when my mom got angry...
We are at a local amusement park and disco music was very popular at the time. I was probably around 7 years old. I have always battled ear trouble; therefore I am very sensitive to loud noise. We were at the amusement park with our cousins...and I was the 'baby'...several years younger than all the rest of them. They all wanted to go into the disco building and dance. I don't remember too much more than crying that it hurt my ears and begging my mother to let me leave. I guess she thought I was being selfish because she very angrily grabbed my ear and yelled into it very very loudly. I still can remember how badly it hurt.
One moment of loss of temper brushed away every good memory that I have of my mother.
Let it be a lesson to you.
Yesterday we talked about working hard to spread the message of Christ, and how whether at home or in the workplace, we have to work towards that.
One little moment and loss of temper can ruin everything you've tried to achieve.
I liked what Matthew Henry had to say about the first part of this verse:
ReplyDelete"Meekness is wisdom...."
"Knowing how to excuse the fault of others as well as his own..."
Now I know there are situations where excusing actions is not what needs to be done. But on an everyday basis, I think this makes sense. My nature is not to become angry immediately. I am usually so surprised at someone's wrong actions, that I'm taken off guard at first. The anger comes later for me. But, even so, there is a part of me that always tries to excuse the wrong actions. Even defending that person at times. My husband is not this way at all. He is quick to anger but slowly lets it boil until it threatens to explode.
When my children were growing up, I'm sure there were times when I was immediately angry at them and I probably said things I shouldn't have. I hope they have forgotten those times and forgiven me if not.
The second part of this verse is pretty clear. If you are quick to say something in anger, as you said, you can do a lot of damage. Sometimes we even say things we don't really mean in anger. But the words can't be unsaid.
"the words can't be unsaid."
ReplyDeleteBoy, howdy, that is the truth! I'm fairly slow to anger, and it surprises me, too, when someone is mean, or dishonest, or rude to me. It takes a while for me to start to simmer, and start thinking of "what I wish I'd said" to that person. I guess in reality, God uses that to save me from myself -- if I really said some of those things, whew! What a mess I would make of my life! And what a horrible witness I would be! I guess sometimes I really get ticked by people who are quick as a firecracker to lose their tempers -- a lot of times they find out they got mad before they found out everything they needed to know...and that once they knew the whole situation, it wasn't worth getting upset over!