When I was a young person in the church, I once heard my pastor ask, “If your neighbors child was hurt in an accident on your property, who would you rather speak to about it, the mother, or the father?” The pastor’s thought was, probably the father.
Why? The father’s approach would be more practical and business-like. Was he hurt? How badly? How was he hurt? What have you done about it? Whereas the mother’s approach would be more emotional. Is he alive? Oh, my baby, if you’ve hurt him I’m going to tear you to pieces! Why didn’t you do something to protect him? If you didn’t try to prevent it, I’m going to sue you for all you’re worth!
Now whether that is an accurate assessment of how mom and dad would respond or not, it does highlight one thing, moms and dads care about the welfare of their children and are protective of them. If you hurt them, they will become emotionally involved whether it is controlled or not. That child is precious to them and they will not tolerate any mistreatment of him/her.
One day I was thinking about that in terms of how we treat others – especially how we speak to someone with whom we are angry. Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t get angry. There are some situations in which we have a right to be angry. After all, Jesus got angry with the money-changers in the temple for taking advantage of people and being dishonest with them.
However, the scriptures do teach us “Don’t get so angry that you sin. Don’t go to bed angry.” (Ephesians 4:26 CEV). Let me paraphrase that. “Don’t be so angry that you sin by doing something inappropriate to the person who offended you. Get it settled in your heart so that you don’t eat yourself up with your anger, stewing over your hurt as you try to sleep.”
Now, let me return to the idea with which I started. We need to remember that God loves us – all of us, not just some favored ones. We are His creation; His children in that sense. It is not just those of us who attend church. It is not just those of us who claim to be saved. God so loved the world – that means all of us.
Just as the child injured in the accident is loved by his parents. He may be a real rascal. He may bring on many of his accidents by his bad behavior and wrong choices, but his parents still love and will defend him.
In like manner, God loves His children and if we abuse or mistreat them, how do you think God will respond to us? They are precious to Him and we won’t be very pleasing to Him if we wound them in word or in deed.
Therefore, we need to learn to be careful about what we say and do to others when we are angry. We need to learn how to forgive in our hearts so that we don’t sin in our anger. We need to learn how to put our anger to rest before we lay our heads down to rest. Otherwise, God may not be very happy with us.
– Just a Thought Dale Fillmore is lead pastor at New Day Church.
