Immediately, I ordered both children to their rooms. Emily was seven at the time, and Daniel was six. I checked on Emily first. “Daniel punched me in the face,” she exclaimed. I then slithered into Daniel’s room. He was sitting on his bed, sucking his thumb. The look on his face was so tranquil—certainly not the look of a child about to be punished. But he knew the penalty for hitting was a spanking. I wondered why he seemed so relaxed. I asked if he had hit his sister, and he nodded affirmatively—apparently believing a punch was worth whatever punishment was on the horizon. “Why did you hit her,” I asked. Slowly, he removed his thumb from his mouth, looked straight in my eyes and said, “Daddy, she got on my last nerve.”
And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry (Ephesians 4:26 NLT).
Anger is often viewed as a negative emotion, but even God gets angry. Jesus did too. So why should we think we won’t as well? Sometimes anger is necessary because it moves us to action. Failing church health should anger us. Many churches stumble not because of what people did, but because of what they didn’t do. Irresponsible believers can kill a church’s testimony, and when churches die their influence on society weakens.
And what about society? Or your community. Immorality is saturating our world. I think it’s about time some of us got angry enough to take a stand for Jesus—no matter what kind of whipping we might get from this world (John15:20).
Prayer: Father above, may our anger over sin prompt us to soothing actions.
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