Dealing
graciously when you are Angry
A hot-tempered man stirs up
conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel. - Proverbs 15:18
Many years
ago, a senior executive of the then Standard Oil Company made a wrong decision
that cost the company more than $2 million. Everyone at the company knew the
executive’s career was likely over. And most of the executives were finding
various ways of avoiding the company’s president, John D. Rockefeller, lest his
wrath descend on their heads.
There was
one exception, however. He was Edward T. Bedford, a partner in the company who
kept his appointment with Mr. Rockefeller. When he entered the office, he saw
Rockefeller at his desk busily writing with a pencil on a pad of paper.
Across the
top of the page was written “Points in favor of Mr. _______.” There followed a
long list of the guilty executive’s virtues, including a brief description of
how he had helped the company make the right decision on three separate
occasions that had earned many times the cost of his recent error.
It can
sometimes be easy to lose your temper. That’s because so often, reactions to
events tend to be just that—reactions—instead of responses. But if you take how
you want to react, think it through, and consider the perspectives of others,
you’ll be much more inclined to respond biblically than react angrily.
Prayer Challenge:
Ask God to
reveal to you in times of anger how you can respond rather than react. Pray
that He would help you see others with a biblical perspective and that you
would have a forgiving spirit when dealing with conflict.