Navigating Negative Emotionsናሙና

Making Me Angry

“It makes me so angry!”

“She made me so mad yesterday.”

We have all used this kind of language. These statements indicate that we have adopted a victim mentality. We have shifted the responsibility for our happiness onto others. We have surrendered the control of our happiness to others. Now, we cannot be completely happy until something external or someone else changes.

But, in reality, no one can make us angry. People and circumstances do things that trigger a reaction in us. We each have the choice of how to respond. God created us with the ability to choose, and we can put it into practice every moment of every day.

Thinking that circumstances and people make us angry is giving them the power to dictate our life and who we are. Circumstances and people don't make us angry. They do not have that control. They simply push us to unleash anger. The anger or frustration that arises is a signal of the decision I made, in that moment, that I would let emotions rule me. We must make decisions based on our purpose and values, not our emotions.

Negative emotions are an alarm that our internal values, and what matters to us, are threatened. When anger arises, we do not want to accept the circumstances or people’s actions or words because they threaten our purpose and values.

God placed emotions within us as part of His purpose to for us deal with our circumstances, both good and bad. We need a true perspective on our anger. We need to acknowledge our feelings and put them in their place. We must complement our actions with the recognition that it is God who truly says who I am and what I should do. If we keep this in mind, then we can make decisions based on our values, not our emotions. We can prevent our anger from leading us to sin.

Lord, forgive me if I have let anger or frustration led me to sin. Help me act according to Your will in moments when I feel things are against me.