God on the Go: Gratitude When You’re Angry

Gratitude when you’re angry? That doesn’t seem possible but Julie Lyles Carr shares an example that will help you see that it’s possible.  It’s normal to feel angry when things don’t go as planned, but it’s important to manage this anger and not let it escalate. Find out how to deal with it and find positives in the midst of it!

What’s New!

Monday Story:

• Noah is upset because they moved his homeroom. The positive is that all of your favorite people are in your homeroom.

Tuesday Key Verse:

• Ephesians 4:26-27 says “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.”

Wednesday Prayer:

• God, thank you that I can feel all my feelings, including being mad. Help me learn to be angry but to not let it take over all my feelings. Help me be grateful, even when I’m frustrated about something. Thank you, God, for loving me and for always being there for me, however I’m feeling. In Jesus’s name, amen.

Thursday Question:

• What is something that has made you mad in the last few days? What about it made you angry? What are you doing to both feel the anger but to also not let the anger get into other parts of your life?

Friday Fun Fact:

• Q: Which emotion do scientists say we feel the most in our bodies?
• A: Anger! Our heart beats faster. We might feel a little sweaty or shaky. Our whole body feels it when we feel anger.

 Special thanks to George Fox University for sponsoring the God on the Go Podcast!

Show Notes:

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Transcription:

I’m so mad they’re making us change home rooms. I’m Julie Lyle’s Carr, and this is God on the Go where we help you make the minutes matter. My friend has a son named Noah. He’s in middle school now and he’s had to deal with a lot of changes this year. New school building, new teachers, a whole new level of homework to do in the evenings after school. So when he found out that his teachers were changing up the homeroom schedule, he was pretty frustrated. “It doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “Why do we have to move everything around again.” I was finally used to the schedule and now it’s all going to be a mess again. My friend listened to Noah’s feelings and thought about it. He had some good reasons as to why he was feeling angry, and it was going to be pretty frustrating to have to make changes this far into the school year.

Yep. All of that was legit. It was understandable. He’d be mad. In any given week, there are plenty of things to get mad about. Maybe your sibling borrowed your stuff after you told them not to. Maybe the test you thought you did well on came back with a low grade. Maybe something you were looking forward to got canceled. It’s all part of normal life and it’s normal to feel mad when things don’t go the way you hoped. So, just know that it’s okay to feel mad about stuff like that. It’s what you do next after you feel mad, that’s really important. My friend listened to her son, Noah, about the homeroom change, and she knew that she and Noah were going to have to make a decision about how to handle it. On the one hand, they could just stay mad. Eventually she figured Noah would get over it. But what if there was another way of looking at this that could help Noah feel better? What if there was a quicker way to work through this instead of just waiting for Noah’s anger to maybe die down? Ephesians 4:26-27 says,

Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil.

Here’s an interesting fact about anger. Scientists say that the feeling of anger is the one we feel the most in our bodies. Our hearts beat faster. We might feel a little sweaty or shaky. Our whole body feels it when we feel anger. We’re going to have times we feel angry, and rightfully so. What we want to make sure we don’t do is to let our anger go on and on. When that happens, we can get tripped up. We can let our anger get bigger and bigger. So it’s important to feel that feeling, but to also not let it get bigger and scarier by not dealing with it. So what’s one way to deal with anger? My friend was able to help her son Noah, do just that. After she listened to him and understood why he was so mad about the homeroom change, they talked about what Noah could be grateful for. Grateful? That might not sound like something you’d expect to hear. After all, it made sense that Noah was mad, but my friend is pretty wise, and she knew that she and Noah could come up with ideas about what could be good in this situation, right in the middle of the mad.

Here’s what they came up with. A lot of Noah’s friends were going to be in his new homeroom, including some of his favorite people. His new homeroom classroom was going to be closer to his first period class, which meant he’d be less rushed getting to his next class. His new homeroom group was going to be smaller, which meant less noise. When my friend and Noah looked at it that way, there were definitely some things to be grateful for. The next time you find yourself feeling angry or mad, give yourself some time to feel that feeling. Just like our Bible verse today shows us it’s not wrong to be angry. You can be mad and that’s not a sin. But once you feel that feeling, it’s time to make sure it’s not the only thing on your mind. Look for what you can be grateful for right in the middle of the mad. Your sibling taking your stuff? Be grateful you have family, even family you get mad at for taking your stuff. Be grateful you have stuff to take. Look, you don’t have to act like everything’s fine when it isn’t, but when you mix a swirl of gratitude into what’s making you angry, it can keep you from feeling like you’re mad at everything and everybody.

God on the Go is sponsored by George Fox University, where each student will be known personally, academically, and spiritually. I’ll see you next week.