This was a hard lesson for me to learn, and I'm still working my way back through some of the rubble I've made by being an angry dad, especially with my daughter.
I think one of the obstacles I ran against in recognizing my wrathful attitude as sin-- or one of the blinders I wore to excuse my unrepentance of it-- was the way the church seemed to treat anger itself as wickedness *per se,* when the Bible clearly teaches otherwise ("Be angry and sin not," et c) and held up as exemplars the emotionally castrated limp-wrists with whom it staffs youth ministries, deaconates, and too many pulpits. A man whose anger burns hot must-- it's a non-negotiable-- be disciplined enough to control it: to discern well what is and what's not a valid target for its use, and how rightly to deploy it when it is used. Like ambition, anger is a powerful natural passion and can be catastrophic when misused. But emotional lobotomy isn't the solution: I had to surrender my anger to the command and Lordship of Jesus.
This was a hard lesson for me to learn, and I'm still working my way back through some of the rubble I've made by being an angry dad, especially with my daughter.
I think one of the obstacles I ran against in recognizing my wrathful attitude as sin-- or one of the blinders I wore to excuse my unrepentance of it-- was the way the church seemed to treat anger itself as wickedness *per se,* when the Bible clearly teaches otherwise ("Be angry and sin not," et c) and held up as exemplars the emotionally castrated limp-wrists with whom it staffs youth ministries, deaconates, and too many pulpits. A man whose anger burns hot must-- it's a non-negotiable-- be disciplined enough to control it: to discern well what is and what's not a valid target for its use, and how rightly to deploy it when it is used. Like ambition, anger is a powerful natural passion and can be catastrophic when misused. But emotional lobotomy isn't the solution: I had to surrender my anger to the command and Lordship of Jesus.