Has anyone here conquered anger, or at least found a way to lessen it when it rears its ugly head??
If you have any tips or stories about dealing with anger, please share them here..
and don't forget to vote..
During my separation and subsequent divorce I had extreme emotions. Anger being one of the more evident ones. I hated how I felt most of the time. I hated feeling angry, hurt, betrayed, abandoned, unloved. The way my then husband looked at me was less than loving. I saw seething hate in his eyes towards me. I was so angry for a long time. In addition, I still had to take care of our children, work a full-time job, attend church and by the end of the day I would collapse into a heaping pile of snot & tears (I cried THAT hard). Eventually, my situation continued to worsen because of things he kept doing or flaunting in my face. I got to a point where I gave up. But not in the way you would think.
I gave up having expectations that because I served God things had to fall into place. I realized that I would serve Him either way. Good or bad. I gave up expecting respect from a person who obviously had such disdain for me. I gave up waiting for a grand moment that my heart would be healed in one fell swoop. I gave up thinking that the other woman would have enough sense to give me space and time to process things. I gave up feeling like I couldn't support my kids or raise them on my own.
I gave up but not the way the world thinks that giving up means. I gave it all to God. It took time. Everyday. Deliberately. Conversations on the bathrom floor with unintelligible sobbing telling God I give up. Kneeled beside my bed 5 times a night because the pain and anger was so deep, I gave up. Screaming my prayers to God that I couldn't take the pain and pressure, I gave up. Sobbing and praying with my daughter while she sobbed too, trying to explain what was happening, I gave up. I chose to daily give up anger. And I would give it to God in small bits and pieces.
The process broke me. But sometimes broken is a good thing. Brokenness simply means that you are in need of repair and when our creator is invited into our anger, into our struggles, into our brokenness, He begins to repair and make new what was in such need of a caring and skilled hand. Through all of this I was changed. I still have daily struggles I deal with. I still have conflicts in my life that arise but now the circumstances don't dictate my feelings because I recognize I have a choice. Stay angry or take my anger to the one who can help transform it into fuel that will draw me closer to Him.
Is it easy? No. Never will be. The Christian walk was never meant to be easy. If anyone told you so, they lied. It's tough but so worth it.