I recently read, “Angry cynical people die young. Men who score high for hostility on standard tests are four times more likely to die prematurely than men whose scores are low.” If that’s true, and I suspect it is, we would be wise listen to what Coach Joe Gibbs wrote about anger management. He said….
“Whether at work or at home or in some other setting, you know what it’s like when someone gets mad, gets their feelings hurt, and accuses you of something you didn’t do. Instead of coming to find out what really happened or to talk it out calmly, they start right in with the accusations.
First reaction is what? “If they’ve got the nerve to come in here blaming me for things they don’t even know about, they’d better have the guts to hear what I think of it . . . and of them.”
Same thing happened to an Old Testament hero named Gideon, who famously took 300 men on a nighttime raid of a huge enemy encampment, armed with nothing more than trumpets, torches, and a bunch of empty jars. When God gave this tiny band an unlikely victory, some of the other fighting men of Israel swooped over to get into the action. But they were steamed that Gideon hadn’t seen them fit to be part of the initial attack. “They criticized him sharply,” the Bible says at the beginning of Judges 8. Still, instead of getting into a shouting match, he calmly told them he wasn’t half the fighting man they were. Cooler heads carried the day. “At this, their resentment against him subsided.”
Remember this: “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.” (Proverbs 15:1). Next time someone wants to start something, let your low-key response put an end to it.” Think about it—you might live longer!
