It's not that I'm embarrassed to mention in publicly. I usually just refrain from getting too personal in my posts. My situation is with anger. I know God says to love our neighbors and treat them as Jesus would treat others. But every time a certain person gets me angry and does things that upset me, I can't help but act out.. Like I swear or say something bad and it's just hard to contain my anger. I feel God deserves more than that from me. Thanks for your reply by the way!
What the Lord has taught me concerning my anger.
i use to get angry quite a bit, whenever i felt hurt, jousted, belittled, made fun of, bullied, and the such. The Lord taught me four things to do to overcome my anger toward another.
1) Remember we are commanded to love one another, even our enemies. Even if they do not deserve it.
2) Jesus loves them and died for them. i try to remember that my Lord and Savior loves that person and gave His life for that person, and i should not be angry with a person that Jesus Loves and died for.
3) i feel sorry or pity for them, i realize that i should not take it personally, what they said or did, because they have some issues in their life that they are dealing with and just taking it out on me (whether true or not, is irrelevant)
4) if i do not forgive them, then my Father in Heaven will NOT forgive me of my sins.
its not easy, but with the help of Jesus Christ it can be done. At first it was difficult to try to remember those four things, but after a while, as soon as i am offended, these four things would pop up in my head, and remember them automatically now. Praise God, for He deserves all the Credit, i no longer get angry about anything at all.
Someone will make up a lie about me, and i get fired from my job. i don't get angry. i remember the four things above. i trust God He knows what He is doing and a better job awaits me (and there was). Seriously though, if you remember those four things above, and think on them when you feel anger creeping in, you will be able through the help of Jesus overcome anger issues.
Here is another great tip that has helped me much.
A person will be riding my car bumper, i can tell he is in a great hurry, when he has a chance he passes real fast, probably flipping me off or something. in my anger days i would think to myself, i hope a cop pulls him over and gives him a ticket, what an idiot. Now i think to myself, That guy might have just got a call from the hospital and his wife and child have been in an accident, and he is in a great hurry. So then i would say a prayer for that driver that i hope he makes it to where he is going without hurting himself or anyone else.
The Truth may be he is a jerk, but i choose to respond in a positive manner, i choose to believe the hospital theory, and therefore experience no anger at all.
Anyone who gets angry, chooses to do so. You can through Jesus Christ, choose to respond differently to the situation that usually will cause you to get angry.
The part above about the pity i would like to explain. it is better to feel pity for a person then to feel anger towards a person. Say a person is mean to me, i will think to myself, that person probably had a very unpleasant childhood, parent mean and angry to that person their whole life, and maybe think that person is going through something very bad right now and lashing out at people even me, i start to feel pity for that person, and have a desire to help that person, i will pray for that persons situation, and sometimes even ask them, what the real problem is? Sometimes i will even let people lash out at me, because i know it is healthy to vent and not hold in stuff, so i will just sit there and take it because i think it is helping them, and i believe it does, because usually after they are done, they apologize to me, and i will merely said i am glad that i was able to help. Realize everything is not about YOU. People who get angry easily (myself back then) takes things so personally, and 9 times out of ten, people are dealing with their own problems and are just lashing out, if you can remember that, you will not get angry near as much.
Whenever you feel anger coming on, analyze why you are getting angry, 9 times out of ten it will because YOU feel like YOU were mistreated or the such. Try taking YOU out of the equation, and you might be able to help the very person who is lashing out at you.
Also another bit of knowledge that is good to have, is many people who are going through a difficult situation will start up something with another who they know will get angry and fight with them. misery loves company. Since i do not get angry any more, i have found that friends that i have had in the past who are generally angry, do not like hanging around me any more, i just don't get angry like they do, and i think they don't like it.
i know if you remember those four things above whenever you get angry, you will get angry less and less, until one day, it is very hard for you to get angry at all, and they will say things like "i have never seen him/her anger ever" or you will hear things like " You can't make ______________ angry"
Just try to remember those four things, and see if it does not work for you as well.
^i^ Responding to Post #63