Anger

This week in Grace group our lesson was on anger. So it has been on my mind a lot. Friday I was at Sam's picking up some photos and I saw a man who looked familiar. I hate this because sometimes it takes days to remember who this person is. However this time, I felt this funny feeling about this guy. I knew I did not like meeting this man but still I was drawing a blank. A few minutes later, it hit me who he was and this is where the anger comes into the story

Earlier this summer, the boys were playing frisbee in the pool. I was asleep. They were not throwing a real frisbee. They were throwing the skimmer lid. This is a very hard plastic disc that looks like a frisbee but isn't quite as forgiving. Luke stuck his head under water and stood up just in time to catch the "frisbee" on the chin.' Immediately, three kids were screaming for me because blood was everywhere. I remember feeling very calm. I knew he needed stitches. About 20 years ago, the first time one of the kids needed stitches I ran in circles in the backyard like an idiot, completely freaked out. Sorry. I got lost in my story.

Luke and I went to an emergency clinic and immediately got in to see the doctor. It was the guy from Sams. He was gruff and snarled his lip when he talked. He is my dad as a doctor. He looks like him and has the same amount of mercy - zero. He even had on boots and the same hideous gabardine pants that my dad wears.He tells me that yes he needs to do stitches. Luke of course is scared. He has never had stitches. The deadening shot hurts too. The anger comes in when he starts ridiculing boys who cry "like a girl" and admiring Luke for not being a sissy. I am fuming. As soon as he left, I corrected his statements to Luke. I told him that there was nothing wrong about admitting that you are scared or hurting. Also that crying is not exclusive to girls and is ok for guys too.

This week as we talked about anger and how it can be a good thing, I thought about this day again. I think my anger was a positive for my son that day and was not sinful. I was not rude to that doctor in any way. But I was fighting for my son. Another incident happened this summer when my anger led me to fight for them. They were hurt in an incident during VBS. I was fighting mad. But I fought for them. Several weeks later, I was driving through the church parking lot and saw the woman who started this mess and I considered running over her which obviously was sinful. I did manage to resist. So I am still struggling with what anger should look like but it was good to see some progress.