Managing anger

For many of us, when bad, unjust things happen to us, one of the responses we feel is anger.

Anger is a most difficult feeling to deal with.  It can be extremely destructive, not only damaging the people around us, but destroying our own peace and happy state of mind too.  Anger and happiness do not go together.  I have found the only real way to deal with it is to tell God you are angry and why.  He’s big enough;  he can bear it.  Give it to Him;  tell him you don’t want it any more. Of course, that involves making a choice;  deciding that you no longer want anger to be in your heart.  While ever you hold on to it (bear a grudge) then God cannot take it from you.
 

For me, I became so unhappy, so bogged down in negative thoughts that the anger and self pity became like a great stone I was carrying around inside.  I wanted it to go away.  I didn’t want anger to have it’s terrible hold over me.  I surrendered my “right” to be angry, to God, and eventually, as I continued to do this, he eventually began to dissolve the anger. I’m not saying it’s easy.  I battled on trying to overcome it, being on an emotional see saw for years, but finally, I got so sick of my selfishness making me so unhappy that in the end, surrender became easier.

I realized too, that caring people can be angry because of the very fact that they care.  When you or loved ones suffer abuse or injustice, part of the caring is .... anger.  Seems funny put that way.  It's hard to deal with anger because it's an emotion;  if it was just a intellectual thought, you could just put it off.  But you feel anger in your soul and your heart and God is really the best one to deal with that. 

Seek counselling too.  Talking about it to someone else, preferably neutral, is good. Dealing with anger which has resulted from someone else's treatment of you is difficult too, especially if there has been no repentence or resolution from that person.  But you still have to deal with it, and when you hang onto the anger, you are letting that person win over and over again. You are letting that person rule you and your happiness.

Let it go.  Make the choice to face the anger, decide to let it go.  Then walk that path, gradually dropping the stones out of your pocket.