Wednesday, December 06, 2006

dance of anger?

In a recent essay, the older teen wrote about some different ways families express negative emotions. And express them we must; as one of my friends told me a few years ago, "anger won't be denied" -- it's like trying to hold several fully-inflated beach balls underwater. Today's reading from the Proverbs includes this remark:
A fool gives full vent to his anger,
but a wise man keeps himself under control.
Proverbs 29.11
So what does that mean, to keep under control? I'm sure I don't have this all figured out, and I tend to err in the direction of suppressing emotions. But I do express them - in prayer, in my journals, in (never-sent) emails.

Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be better to vent a little more. But then I remember the exhortation not to take our own revenge but to "leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." (Romans 12.19)

A good thing for me to remember.

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