Tuesday, July 05, 2011

The Dance of Anger

This title is also a book title.  To a book I happen to own and have read one time to completion, other times just hitting the highlights.  I have decided this needs to be a subject that I set some finite goals about.  Like my food issues, this is a vice that has been with me pretty much my whole life.  Like the food issues, it started off as inherited.  While I would love to pull a victim card here and blame it on my childhood, I believe that once I became a grown-up I get to own my own baggage.

So, as I have begun what I affectionately refer to as my 'mid-life crisis', I am interested in working through my baggage.  Unpacking it and getting rid of some stuff I don't need.  I really don't need to pass food and anger issues on to the next generation.  Perhaps I already have...but solutions to issues can be passed to the next generation too.  ( :

My truths for this week:

  • Sugars and starches are poison to me.  My body responds to them the same as an drug addict's body does their drug of choice.  Once I start, it is no longer a choice...more of a battle.
  • I can make healthy choices of what goes into my body without feeling deprived and different.  It is a choice to feel like a victim, not a fact.
  • Anger itself is not a sin.  How I choose to express my anger very often is.  Anger is not an emotion that builds up to overflowing...unless I allow it.  I am in control.  The Bible says, "Do not sin in your anger."  That proves the sin involved with anger is a choice.  I need to "Take every thought captive to God".
  • Kindness and anger are opposites.  I cannot embrace kindness with a "head full of hate". 
  • I need to teach these lessons to my children by example, not lecture.
Let it begin with me.  No guilt, no shame, just a metamorphosis through Christ who strengthens me.

Me right now...you can't see the changes but they are happening.

The whole process.


1 comment:

Sara said...

Funny you should use that illustration. We just released our butterflies today. It was pretty amazing to watch their transformation from caterpillar to butterfly, even for me and I don't like animals. I thought a lot about what God does in our spiritual lives. Guess we're on the same page, you and I.